Thanks MD.

Good reading your posts, SuperSteve.

I do recall that I had a 318 in about 1992, and there was a scheduled 1200 mile oil change. I took it back in (or should I say, they picked the car up), and when I picked it up I asked the service manager. He told me that it was a program on that particular model. In fact, they used the oil change as a way to get the vehicles in to the shop. What they really wanted to do was retorque the exhaust manifold studs/bolts, which they found stretched and resulted in expensive exhaust leaks. The early-hour retorque took only minutes, and solved the problem. The oil change was the bait to get owners to come in. Seemed like a reasonable bargain. I asked about another model, and they replied that there was no free early oil change on that one, as the exhaust manifold studs were fine there.

Just a tid bit about a service risk mitigation strategy.

dkl, any idea what size Hex (Allan) key you used and what torque did you use to tighten the plug?

I'm changing mine (2 Diff's & XFer Case) at 50K .....all except for the transmission fluid which I am leaving alone. I just had the pan dropped last week to fix a faulty valve body wiring harness and per the TSB they actually save and re-fill the transmission with the same fluid.