crack in 725 drain pan

[jay costas]

i have a couple oil change places. have been in business 15 years. i'm having a problem with the drain pan on a 91 725i with 240 thousand miles.

it was leaking after it's last oil change. customer came back, i pulled the plug and saw a small crack emanating from the drain plug hole. i was able to fix with jb weld, but i realize it might not last. customer is suing me in small claims for a new pan. i have never ever seen a crack like this. we might have a dozen plug problems a year but it's always threads and i have always been able to fix with a tap. the customers pan showed evidence of bottoming out.

my question is this. can a pan crack like that (from the hole) from overtorqueing? on another board a bmw mechanic said it was impossible to crack a pan like that from overtorqueing, that you would ruin the threads. i'll pay for the guys fix if i think there's a reasonable possibility we did it. any help?