Going on a large road trip here in the next coming week and believe my 2018 F56 S, with 143k miles, has its original oil filter housing. No leaks or anything, but worried this may go somewhere in the middle of nowhere - or is this concern rather unfounded?

 

I would just check it and make sure no leaks before you go if you are in a time crunch. If you have the time I would change it. https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...periences.html

 

You know, in general I’m torn about preemptive replacement. But I picked up a 2011 R56S with 141K miles on it some time ago and learned very quickly, the hard way, that BMW plastic in the coolant system categorically sucks. A coolant tee literally tore itself in two under insignificant pressure from the backside of my hand while doing an oil change.

So for my 2017 F56S, I have a major maintenance item that says “replace all plastic and rubber coolant components” and the only question is whether I will do it at 130K or push the envelope to 140K. To be clear, the big enemy of plastic is heat, so at 143K… on principle I hate to say just do it, but on my ride, I’d be like “time to change that baby out, Batman.”

To be clear, this is just my opinion. The fact that the housing fails in the same way in the same physical location for pretty much everyone, and fails on non-MINI BMWs as well, says a lot — but throw in the history and color me spooked.

Mine failed at 100K miles, and I’m the author of what became a monster thread about the assembly. Who knew? D’oh.