It's been ages since I've been on the board, and it's been reorganized so I'm not sure if this is the right sub-forum...

What's the trick to not destroying the O-ring when installing a new oil filter in the 2004 S? I bought the car used last fall, and changed the oil at that time. For the life of me I couldn't get the oil filter back in place with the new O-ring. Lubed it, no go. Soaked it in new oil overnight, still no go. I wound up re-using the old O-ring.

Tonight I went to replace the filter, and the O-ring got destroyed on the way out. From what I can see of the housing on the block with an inspection mirror, it's clean and smooth inside. There were no leaks, I got 4.5 liters of oil out. Lubed the new O-ring and the inside of the cylinder in the block heavily, and installed the new filter. Filled with new oil... massive leak, looks like the O-ring is trashed (I'm waiting for the MityVac to suck the oil out while I type this).

What are you guys doing to prevent the O-ring from sticking and tearing? I'm about to resort to vaseline or any matter of other things. I've only got two oil filters w/ rings left to try, and I need to drive the car in the morning.

Is it just me, or should someone be shot for the oil filter setup on these cars?

 

whoa whoa whoa, wait a minute am I an idiot or something , My dealer specifically told me that no matter what I cannot change the oil on my own becuase the oil filter is a dealer item only. Oh well not like I pay for it anyway , but since you change your oil where do you get the filter?

 

This is what I did:
Made sure that the ring is inside the recessed area of the housing, applied oil to the ring, pushed the filter snugly (oiled the filter hole opening too), slowly replaced and hand tight it. I had to re-pushed the filter deeper just to get the thread bite.
I did not use my torque wrench as I cannot fit inside but gave a light force to tighten it. My filter is made by Mann (Austria) Evotop HU816/1x from Minspeed.

 

If you believed your dealer...

I don't remember where I bought them, probably one of the supporting vendors here. I bought 4 oil filters and 4 air filters when I first bought the car.

 

Your dealer told you the oil filter was a dealer only item? Hmm...I don't know if you mean it isn't sold to anyone but used only inside the dealer, but either way, just walk to the parts desk and ask for a MINI oil filter, tell them the information of your car and it should be under $10. I guess if your dealer won't sell you a filter they must not like business.

 

FWIW, I haven't had an issue with the o-ring yet.

What I would do:
- Lube up o-ring with fresh oil - no need to soak, in fact that could be counter-productive
- Install the filter canister WITHOUT the oil filter, just to get a feel for it
- Pre-install filter in canister, remove
- Pre-install filter in on tube in engine block - this will make it easier to install by widening the base

- NOW, re-oil o-ring, install filter in canister, install on block (hand tight)
- snug down with wrench

Good luck!

 

I had done all of that, per another thread here.

The really bad thing about the design is the notch cut in the top of the housing. With the canister out, if you reach in and feel the edges of it with your finger (can't see it from above), it's pretty sharp. Sharp enough to make mincemeat of an O-ring. Which explains why it mangled my O-ring removing the oil filter. Maybe they don't all have the notch? That would explain why some have had no trouble.

If it wasn't 3AM, I'd be stuffing the housing full of shop towel and polishing off the edges of that notch with the Dremel wand tool. You can see it reasonably enough from below (I always change the filter from below because I can at least see what I'm doing). Next oil change, it's on the list.

Oil being pumped back in with the MityVac now. Hope it doesn't leak, the MINI dealer is 75 minutes away and I'm down to one O-ring and running out of steam.

 

strange.....i just finished doin an oil change, it took me 15min...


did you put the filter in the canister correctly?

u shouldnt be soakin anything either..

 

Condolences, dwm!:impatient
Maybe you did get a bad casting. I don't recall any type of notch or sharp edge on the block side when doing my changes.

 

It's clearly a machined notch, not from the casting. Of course I've no idea why it's there. Perhaps to shred O-rings and discourage owners from changing their oil filter. What it does when inserting the canister... it stops the O-ring from spinning in the housing, so it can only spin on the canister. Not a good thing.

Next oil change, I'll post some pics of it before I take the sharp edges off of it, if I can manage to get a shot of it.

 

Of course. This isn't the first time I've changed the oil in this car, and I've probably done... I dunno, maybe 50 oil filter changes in the last 25 years. This car has the worst oil filter setup I've seen in a long time; makes me nostalgic about burning my arm on headers trying to get an oil filter wrench in an awkward spot.

This car also has a horrible air filter setup. It shouldn't take 10 minutes just to get to it. Thank goodness my other car is an order of magnitude easier on both fronts. It's too bad BMW didn't bring their maintenance-friendly stuff to the table for the MINI (oil filter top/front/center, toolless air filter replacement).

 

Clearly a dealer tech plot. The time they lose in swapping out the OEM casting is made up for over time.

Definitely not a good thing. It will be a while until my next change, but now you have me curious. If the front of the car is 12o'clock, at what orientation is your notch?

As this thread didn't end in profanities, can we assume that you're up and running?

 

Try this.

Get some synthetic grease, or vaseline, or just plain old wheel bearing grease.

You must pre-install the filter into the housing and push it all the way down stretching the opening on the bottom end of the filter.

Pull the filter out and place it into the metal cap.

Smear slimey grease all over the new O-ring that is the groove on the cap, and grease up the inside of the housing.

Now the cap and filter will easily fit into the housing down to where the threads catch. You should be able to hand turn the cap a turn or two, then snug it with a socket. The O-ring is what makes the seal, not the threads or a lot of tightening.

Once you do this and get the feel, it will be simple from now on.

YD

 

I guess I didn't find it was so bad, and I also didn't have the notch issue. That's too bad it's giving you so much worries! I just reached in from the top to get the filter in and out. The MINI's relatively easy compared to my wife's Alero!

Now you're going to have us all looking for a notch on our next oil changes! See what you started!