I need a new gas cap for my 2005 R53 and all the ones I'm seeing online have a short tether (about 5") that comes out from the side. It's too short to reach the attachment point and yet still be able to place the cap in the holster while refueling.

My old cap has a tether that comes out of the center of the top (not the side edge) and is about 8.5" long.

Are these available new anywhere?

 

ah,
this brings back memories --- when i first got my R53 i didn't like how scruffy the green portion looked on my filler cap & bought a new one (the commonly found variant with blue o-ring) but had not considered tether length difference on the newer side mount version --- i did not like it at all & then decided to live with my scruffy green & just kept the new one to use the o-ring if/when my original got the dryrot

separate o-rings are available now,
so that is one option:




:

another option is to get an original from the junkyard,
or an online seller of used parts



:

another option is to get a brand new one, but just from eyeballing online it looks like the tether may be shorter than original?

the newer design looks slightly different as the tether end at the cap is flush mounted instead of terminating on the inner side,
but i have no first hand experience so cannot concretely verify,
regardless,
that part number is:

16117193382

 

I had replaced my original cracked gas cap with a new one from Mini of Alexandria(Not recommended!), couple of years ago. They sent me a cheap Chineseium knock off(same as ebay which ebay was fraction of cost). The tether was also shorter than stock/the original.
I can't exactly recall how I managed to do it but - I somehow was able to pop the tether ring off the original cap and vise-versa swapped the rings from old to (crappy) new one.
I should've taken photos.
Sorry.
Edit: I may be mistaken. I had replaced my gas cap twice with aftermarket so the aforementioned hack may not have been from my original factory one.
My apologies.

 

OK, I ordered one of those eBay gaskets. Hopefully it'll fit!

The tether on the original one doesn't come out of the side so I don't think there's a ring to pop off and transfer over.

I'm surprised this issue hasn't come up more often for owners.

 

cool beans.

hopefully it fits!

please update the thread to confirm if yes/no

cheers!

 

Yes - You are correct. I was just now looking through a box for my original cap. I found the first aftermarket replacement cap in which had the ring with the longer tether I'd removed. Haven't found my original factory one yet.

 

it is so confusing to try and find the actual part number for the original design

i punched in alotta the numbers but supersede supersede muddled mess

so don't know really the timeline of the changeover

& why was that design totally abandoned?




it is really surprising that this issue hasn't come up much

while punching in various number came across separate tethers too

 

Ya, that's the stuff I was seeing on RealOEM too. Crazy how BMW/MINI thinks that the new part# that superseded all the old ones which has a shorter tether coming out the side that isn't long enough to stretch the cap to the cover's holder while refueling is OK?????

 

I had purchased one of those replacement seals off Amazon. Fit and worked perfectly.

notwithstanding;
Although, my cracked original gas cap never leaked; I'd Epoxied it back together. After finishing and painting - one would never know it had been repaired. Except for the kid performing my smog test.
The only reason I replaced the original gas cap was because some punk kid doing my smog test threatened to not pass me next time since he noticed that the gas cap was painted to match my Mini (Dark silver metallic)/(hence my repair) and not black.

 

lots & lots of these seals have been sold

just bouncing around and found this UK seller

they offer a cap that i thought was brand new,
but they describe as refurbished . . .

 

That eBay seller doesn't ship to US? And it's a diesel cap, so I'm not sure if it's the same fit?

 

nope, they don't ship to USA, but in the past i have contacted sellers and was able to make arrangements if they are willing to ship international --- sometimes ebay defaults to that setting and if i find something i'd really like to get then i contact & inquire

lotsa stuff that doesn't pop up on dot com ebay might be found on specific country domains like .fr .it .de
so i like to give a good thorough search if i'm after something elusive

and you're right that the diesel version might not fit,
BMW has a regular gas version too & found it to be part# 16117193372





but i was wondering where Viton-Tech got the proper tether which seems to be exclusive to Mini ?

and i did find an original Mini version part# 16117193370 and it is also sold tetherless LoL

i really hate how BMW does their piecemeal approach to parts, like rarely offering a convenient kit with everything needed for an install instead you have to compile all the necessary bits yourself

and if they sold caps like this with no tether does that mean that our particular tether also has its own separate part# ??? haha

 

forgot to post the pic of the bag for 16117193370

DISCONTINUED

 

i bought a rein CPF0031 fuel cap, and it has a short tether. however, i don't hang the cap on the when fueling, so the shorter tether isn't an issue. the quality of the cap is fine, otherwise

 

The correct OEM cap has that uniquely shaped end on the tether than attaches to the car. Hard to tell how long those BMW ones are. I measured the original at about 8.5" in length.

 

R50 action

was bouncing around again this morning on gascap topic
& came across this . . .


. . . most folk probably just toss their original cap in the rubbish bin like dude in the viddie,
so likely most those caps have perished the doomdeath garbage-heap of history


now i have added original filler caps to my junkyard hounddog list as i much prefer that design to the "updated" variant

would be good to have one or two on hand & is easy enough refurb it seems

altho often missing,
gonna remember to give a quickglance checkout anyway

 

Well I don't think the eBay seal is going to fit my original cap. Looks totally different???

 

That is the same exact seal I bought off Amazon (2022).
Fits and seals perfectly.
When you pull your old seal off you should see they are a perfect match.

Sticking my neck out banking on the fact that I'm right - please don't hate me if I'm wrong

 

@MiniManAdam
said it fit & worked for him too as he posted the same Amazon link for the RKX brand. . .

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...cap-light.html

:

. . . bounced around a little more & found an old post of mine linking to another NAM'r who had discovered that a Dash 326 o-ring was a perfect fit -

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ml#post4579029

- wish i had remembered that & posted here earlier

the RKX brand seems to be the new style but still seems to work to perform same function,
some sellers list the simple o-ring

 

Optimistic message from the eBay seller "Thanks. I am about 90% sure that this is the correct seal. I believe that your old seal has just permanently compressed as if it were installed which gives the rounded over appearance. I think we have one of these gas caps in our development department. I can try and see if I can locate it tomorrow to know for sure."

I didn't consider that and not sure if it did or it's just hard to tell by looking at it while installed.

If he says it should fit, then I'll risk removing the old one to try the new one out.

 

i have never had the seal off for inspection so i am not intimately familiar with them & was thinking that the original design was just a simple o-ring, but watching this viddie it seems that the original has a groove channel as well, albeit much smaller . . .



. . . that is if MINI used the same design which i'm not sure of.

i did a brief search regards to the purpose of a scalloped o-ring, seeking to find the reason for a channel groove, but didn't find anything informative regarding engineering purpose, perhaps it has to do with compression? i have no idea

i did find examples of BMW owners using Viton o-rings . . .

 

That's a great video! Looks like on the R50, the shorter tether isn't an issue. It's the R53 where the tether attaches pretty far back is where it's too short.

The eBay seller has been great to work with. Unfortunately he couldn't locate the gas cap...

"I am sorry I looked everywhere and could not find this gas cap in our inventory. If you need to return the item let me know and I will get you taken care of!"

I asked about the groove on the O.D.

"Do you know what the purpose is of the outside diameter groove that goes around your seal? Is that supposed to fit into a groove on the cap, or just give it some sort of compression? If it's just the latter, maybe this might work."

His response

"no it does not fit in any groove on the car side it is just a copy of the OEM seal. This same seal is actually used by like 5 different manufactures we just sell them advertised to each individual car brand to simplify things. This seal that you got is by far the most common one out there used by basically every European car brand from about early 2000's up to today. Where your car is 2005 it should fit, but some models used older style gas cap seals that we less standardized up untill the mid 2000's as they were original designed in the late 90's"

So, I think this could definitely work. I'll try it tonight. The -326 o-ring probably works too, but I can see on this eBay seal and the original it's got the same non-circular cross section, so this will hopefully do the trick.

 

good
deal !

let us know how it goes

 

Well, what do you know! It seems to be the correct seal for my R53.

I want to say seller RKXtech has been super responsive and helpful - highly recommended. And Oldboy Speedwell, I don't think I've ever seen anyone so adept at researching archaic information/videos/posts on a forum ever before. Thanks for all that help!

I finally bit the bullet and yanked the old gasket off the gas cap. Much to my surprise, and contrary to how it looked installed in person and in photos, it has a outer diameter groove like the new replacement eBay one does. It was just crushed together and looked solid.

I tried cleaning the inside and outside with some MAF sensor cleaner.

A -326 o-ring would probably work too but those gas cap engineers must know something I don't and added that groove for a purpose.

Anyways, it's on the car now. Hopefully no more error codes.





















This is just one of the steps in my "refresh" of my MINI in another thread I recently revived showing the ongoing long term evolution of this car that has so much sentimental value to me. https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ml#post4708343