Dropped the pan on my new to me 06.

[900Aero]

110K, no service history. Thought I'd drop the pan and get the oil pressure switch changed out while I was at it.
My first time, it was not hard, just time consuming. I followed Wulf's instructions. The exhaust drop was much easier that I thought. I did not have to raise the engine to get the pan to drop. I had to drop down the transmission side and then slide out from the front of the engine. The only thing that was a PITA were the 3 bolts on the front of the engine. Hard to get a wrench on them.

Attached are pics of the pan and the screen after being dropped. Actually looks pretty good. There is a shot of the engine with the pan off. And finally the pan before I put it back.

[RDISaab]

When you took those pics had you already cleaned the pickup oil screen or was that how it came off the car? It looks fairly clean with few carbon particles.

[900Aero]

Top pic is what it looked like coming off the car, bottom after being cleaned up.

[RDISaab]

Top pic is what it looked like coming off the car, bottom after being cleaned up.

I'm debating the need to drop the oil pan on my new to me 2008 with 96,000 miles. From your top pic I would say dropping the pan wasn't necessary but of course you don't really know until you look.

My car has a leaking valve cover gasket so I will learn a lot when I see what's under the valve cover.

[900Aero]

When I got this car, the valve cover leaked, the oil pressure sender leaked, the bottom of the oil trap leaked. I got everything buttoned up and it's fine. I dropped mine just because I wanted to know. I had no service Hx on it and did not know what kind of oil was run in it before. It was more for peace of mind for me.

The car has been great for me. I think it is an improvement over my 03 Aero. My only point of contention is the fuel level sender. Really?? How many decades have cars been made with perfectly reliable fuel level senders?? How come this one won't work??

EDIT: One thing that made it worth it to drop the pan was the 2 O-ringson either end of the pipe to the filter and the bigger screen O-ring were kind of hard and brittle. So replacing them was a good thing.