[quote=alanwrench;3580194]A company named Cobalt marketed a spin on adapter, but there wasn't much of a market for it, and it was discontinued years ago.

 

The original post is from many moons ago. The author has since moved to the middle east, and his site is no longer hosted.

 

I'm not sure if anyone has brought this up concerning the use of cartridge style oil filters on many European cars as opposed to the spin on type. I believe there is a requirement in Europe that oil filters be able to be crushed so you can squeeze out the old oil before it gets thrown out. This is for environmental reasons (keeping oil out of landfills etc.). In the 60s, BMW had cartridge style filters, then switched to spin-on types (like my '72 2002tii) and then had to switch back to cartridge type again. Then again, BMW bikes seem to use spin-on filters (?).
Just did my first MINI oil change yesterday. I've changed the oil in various cars many times, but I'm glad I read the hints on this site. I didn't realize the drain plug was supposed to be replaced or that the drain plug is really 1/2" not 13mm (really?). Unless you squash the filter into the can, then into the cap, the new filter gives the impression that it is taller than the old filter and the cap won't screw on. Also, the oil capacity is listed as 4.8qts, but 5qts looks to give a full reading on the dipstick.
I wouldn't let a quicky oil change place touch this car any more than I would let them do the oil on a 1976 BMW 530i (cartridge style filter and yes it was a disaster!).

 

Hopefully people are still reading this thread, even though the original pictures have disappeared. Anyway, as promised elsewhere, here are some pictures of how the canister with the spring thing should look like. These are pictures of an '02 R50, the spring thing might have been done away with at some point. If you have one of these and accidentally throw it away with the filter, you will get low oil pressure at idle.


This is the canister without the spring and basket. DO NOT PUT YOUR FILTER IN THIS AND THEN PUT IT ON THE CAR!


Here's what comes out when you pull out the filter. The basket goes on top of the spring and then the spring press fits into the canister.


Here is what it should look like before you put your new filter on.


The end of the filter you are looking at goes on the basket. I take just the filter and press the other end of it on to the car a couple of times first to make it easier to push on when it is in the canister.


Here's the new filter in the canister ready to go on the car.

I sure hope this helps. If anybody does a new oil change post for the R50/52/53 models, feel free to use these pictures.

Val

 

^ That's the early-style R50/53 filter housing. Later versions did away with the insert and the spring.

Unfortunately, while I think I know far too much about our little cars, I don't know the changeover date....

 

It seems that when I mentioned earlier using a 1/2" breaker bar it was not clear that the drive size is 1/2" but the socket size is per application (in this case 13mm). Hope that clears things up.

 

I've always used a 13mm, but many report that a 1/2" socket/box wrench fits better.
In the end, not a big deal either way. MINI says replace it at each change (?), but it's cheap enough and easy enough that if it gets wrecked, you replace it, and if it gets stuck, you muscle it off with a pipe wrench and replace it.

 

the books say 13mm

do the math ... 1/2 inch is a wee bit smaller then 13mm and guess what? Fits PERFECTLY so you get a better grip on the bugger



I've not torn up a 'stuck' one since I discovered this . . . mangled a couple b4 then tho (12 point wrench for illustration purposes only ... but with a 1/2 you'll get away with more often then you will with a 13mm!)



with that very 12 pt 1/2 inch wrench I've been able to use a leg to apply force to a stuck one successfully getting it loose with no damage to plug or pan!

 

I've got the early basket/spring combination shown above, as I posted those pictures. I usually use Mahale filters but Atlantic British sent along Mann filters this time. As you can see, there is a basket inside- can I use these? Does my basket fit in here or do I set it aside? I need some answers before I drain the oil and get a filter dirty that I may not be able to use.





Thanks-

Val

 

I just bought a filter with the plastic cage inside (like they all come nowadays apparently). It's the Mann filter and Minimania said it would work with my 03. If I just take off the canister to see if it has the new style or old style, will the oil leak out bad? Not sure if the previous owners did the swap or not, but I'm hoping they did to make things a little easier for me. My only other option is to drain the oil, check the filter, and put it back if i need to get the OEM style or the updated canister. Then put new oil in and just run it with the old filter still in there. I used to change the filter every other change in my jeep, and my dad has been doing that with all the cars for years, so It should be fine till I can get what I need. I might as well just get the new canister because mine has a chunk missing from the bolt part, but that's $40 i don't have at the moment.

 

Actually, I pretty much have the same question as the post above me. Can I use that filter anyway if I need to? Will the cage fit inside the filter still?

 

Well, the above post kinda answered my question. I guess I'll just go for it and find out. If I can use the caged filter with the old an new style, I shouldn't have a problem right? I didn't read through all the posts because there are so many, so I apologize if I'm making anyone repeat anything.

 

Just adding my .02...

Purchased the car with about 68k on it. Drove it till about 71k before I decided to do an oil change myself, just to be safe. (I like to do what I can myself so I can be 100% they're done right.) The drain plug was harder to loosen than the filter canister. Fast forward, after all was said and done, I torqued the drain plug and filter canister to BMW spec.

Today I STARTED my next oil change at a little over 75k. The drain plug was fairly easy to remove this time around. Minimal effort with a regular 3/8 drive socket wrench. However, the canister (which for the remainder of the day will be called the old style filter system from hell) was incredibly difficult to break loose. When I say incredibly difficult, I mean, I'm a healthy young guy that has worked in a shop for the past 5 years, and I managed to break the gears in 2 craftsman 3/8 drive socket wrenches, 2 heads off of 3/8 drive 18" breaker bars, and the head off a 1/2 - 3/8 conversion piece. This was all after applying ample heat from a heat gun.

It wasnt until I went out an purchased a 24" 1/2 drive breaker bar and 1/2 36mm socket that i was able to finally break the seal. This leads me to believe that I had the BMW torque spec of ~25nm incorrect, or maybe, the canister just doesnt need to be that tight. So, tomorrow when I put the new oil and filter in, I will torque the drain plug to spec, hand tighten the canister, and apply maybe half of the suggested spec torque.

Again, perhaps I did something wrong the first time as far as lubing the new o-ring and/or the top of the filter, but after 3 trips back and forth to the hardware store to replace broken tools and wasting an entire day, I will not make that mistake again.

 

I just hand tightened each, the old fashioned way. Only things I torque are suspension, motor parts, and anything else under a good amount of stress. The drain plug I snugged, the filter canister I did the same. Never had a problem with it leaking or losing pressure, now 3k after the oil change.

 

Here is an incentive to acquire and use this information...

http://totalcarmagazine.com/tech/201...in_your_engine

Cheers,

Charlie

 

My mistake for not posting when I had finally done the oil change- The filters with the internal basket DO fit over the OEM cage thing in the filter canister in the early cars. So go ahead and do that oil change.

Val

 

Here's a picture of the cylinder head in the above article:

http://[IMG]http://kep.index.hu/1/0/....jpg[/IMG]

Compare that to the cylinder head from my wife's car, which we just pulled due to a burnt valve. I'll replace this with a better closeup once I can go out and take a better closeup of the head:



The oil change interval for the first car (an R56) is 18k; for my wife's R50 it's 15,500k. That's not a huge difference and I've pretty much stuck to the 15k interval, although I can't speak to the maintenance that the car received from the previous owner. You can see that there is absolutely no sludge buildup in her 103k mile engine.

My point is, extended oil change intervals, when using long life oil, do work for some engine designs. It would be interesting to know the maintenance history of the engine in the totalcarmagazine.com article. Did they use cheap oil? Did they go many thousands of miles longer than the interval? I'd like to know that and see internal pictures of other R56 engines.

Val

 

I feel your reading too far into it. I see the above engine like that a lot and they all have different miles one them, but have been "serviced by the dealer as the service times". No mater what 15K is too long.