Oof, sorry to hear about that. I hope you caught it in time and didn't let the engine run low on oil.

It's not a very common problem... under normal circumstances, the oil pan only needs to be dropped if the oil pan gasket is leaking. They don't leak very often.

 

Well for anyone interested I got this done a couple nights ago. Wasn't a big issue except their are two studs to help align the pan along with all the bolts. One stud was located right above the car frame and proved difficult to get the pan out with it in the way. I ended up prying the pan out around the stud. Was going to move the stud to a different hole that was easier to get to but it bottomed out on the frame so I gave the stud a trim to get the new pan to fit in nicely. Other then that it was a fairly easy task but two bolts are quite difficult to get to. I'm willing to bet someone put this stud in the wrong location during assembly so perhaps others wouldn't have this problem.

Chris

 

The location of the second guide stud is standard, it's a really challenging place to get the bolt off, the pan out and back in and then get the bolt back on. You can push up on the engine just enough to get your bolt off, pan out and back in, but getting the bolt started is proving to be a real challenge.