When I went in to pick up R56 oil filters today from BMW they tried to give me R53 filters instead. They said that the old .012 P/N has been superseded and that the R56 now gets the .446 P/N filter from the R53.

Obviously I questioned this and they said that is what MINI told them to sell and it's been like that for several years. This too was odd since I have bought a lot of the normal R56 filters in the last year with no problems.

Any one else have this issue yet?

 

the filters are not even the same size!

GEN1 on the left, GEN2 on the right, these are both OEM





put the larger filter in the GEN2? What about the drain seal that comes in the "kit". The o-ring doesn't look to be the same size (but probably close enuf....

Sounds fishy to me

6mm wider in diameter and more than 10mm taller . . .

I just recently picked up some 11 42 7 557 012

 

Yeah you don't need to convince me. I knew something was off just by seeing the boxes they come in. The 2 filters are no where near the same.

I have no intention in trying to make the filter fit. I just wanted to see if any one else had heard this BS before.

I had 2 dealers tell me the P/N was changed. One tried to give me the R53 filter and would not listen when i said it was wrong. The other said the number had changed and was referenced for the R55, 56, 57, and 60 which makes sense, but could give me a description of it.

I actually called MINI USA too, but they said I would have to ask the dealer since they didn't know.

 

Glad you were smart enough to question the parts and not try to install them.
This is a perfect example of a dealership that does not care for it's customers.

 

Yeah I didn't even consider it. MINIs are all I work on so I know what a R53 and R56 filter look like. I found a dealer that has the right ones, they confirmed the number has changed too but had the 012 in stock and knew what I was talking about. Only sucks because that dealer is 30 miles from the shop and the normal one I use that messed up is like 10 miles away.

 

Ok i found out what happened.

The new R56 filter P/N is 11 42 7 622 446

The R53 P/N is 11 42 7 512 446

The first dealer I went to wasn't paying attention and just looked at the last 3 numbers. Something to watch out for if you use OE filters.

 

Actually your not the only one that this happened too. We got a whole case of them that were mislabeled before they changed the part number.

 

Yeah I got mine in today and was pleased to see small boxes.

 

So, I'm a little confused here. Which is the proper filter for an R56? The bigger one or the smaller? I just picked up a filter today and it was the smaller one. It's for my '07 MCS.

 

All GEN2 use the smaller - newer style - filter

an 07 MCS hardtop is a GEN2