Hi Guys,

I am trying to do an oil change on the mini for the first time.

Everything went OK....drain plug too tight and housing too tight...but I managed to get it off...

however I am having a hell of a time trying to get the FILTER to come OUT from the housing canister...it feels like there is a spring inside holding it...I tried pulling REALLY hard - no use.


Any tips? Thanks much.



PS. Can I put in new oil now and leave the filter unchanged....then later just change the filter? Would I have to drain the oil again or can I just unscrew the filter housing out without it spilling over?

 

Nothing should be holding the filter in place. Try turning it as you pull (either direction). If you warm up the car and then loosen the oil filter cap (shut off the engine!) a few turns then let it sit for a few minutes, there should be little or no oil coming out of the housing when you remove the cap. I guess clean oil and a dirty filter is better than dirty oil and a dirty filter until you can get it taken care of.

-skip-

 

The filter can be turned to loosen the seal the filter has to the housing...takes a lot of effort turning. After you rotate the filter a few times the filter can be pulled off while turning pretty easily.
WARM is the answer doing the oil change for my MINI. If you let the engine cool off overnight I have had problems getting that canister back on. After taking the old filter element out I always lube the two areas the filter seals and trial fit the filter without the canister to the engine base. Then pull off the filter..place in canister and give it a go for alignment after install of the O-ring.
TIP...Alignment was a HUGE pain until I marked the canister and the heat shield area to have a reference mark for starting the insert. I used a paint marker to have a reference point of alignment. Then a full three rotations and good to go. Hope this helps.

 

hey guys, its not the housing canister I have trouble removing...I've already removed the canister from the engine...and yes it was a PITA as well...but
I'm talking about the FILTER ELEMENT...its like stuck in the housing canister...


I can't get this

out from this

 

Holy crap. When did BMW add a little perforated tube and spring to the canister? I guess it was after 2002.

 

Actually, I think only older MC get the spring loaded canister if I am not mistaken...the MCS does not...

I think they have now all moved to MCS design so MC and MCS share the same canister design....

I'll have to take another look at the canister and give it another try...I think I'll try to remove the spring center first before anything and see if that works...I was yanking on the filter element to get it out before.

 

Nope, got the tube in my early '02.
I think if you re-read lou's and my post you'll see we were talking about the element. Twist the element (brown pleated papery thing) a bunch whilst pulling on same. Mine has always been a snug fit and requires two dirty words and one grunt. It should come right off. That said, whatever can go wrong will go wrong. Rule #1 of the universe. I live by it.
-skip-

 

Thanks Skip. I've tried turning it counter-clockwise to see if it will come out and I've tried pulling it out with pliers holding the filter too...still didn't budge...worse comes to worst I'll just rip apart the paper element and have a look at the spring assembly inside.

 

I ended up cutting the filter element open and removed it that way....never was able to take the spring center apart...cleaned it off as much as I could and then 'popped' the new filter in. I didnt have a hard time screwing the housing back to the engine...was able to hand turn for 4 turns or so...made sure it was even with my finger....then wrenched it the rest of the way down...

 

Yay! Another problem bites the dust.
Hope the next oil change goes easily.
-skip-

 

Got a quick question now...when the engine is cold and I measure with dipstick..it is slightly over the MAX line...i'd say by maybe 1/3 of an inch or 1/4 of an inch....then when I run the engine a little and turn it off....measure it then....the dipstick reads right at the MAX line....I'm guessing it is because some oil went to the filter and if I wait a bit longer the oil in the filter will trickle down to the pan causing it to go over the MAX line....do u think this is a problem? Did I over fill?....If so, what's the cleanest way to drain some oil out? I swear the line was perfect at the max line yesterday...wonder if it made a difference having the car jacked up...

 

The car should be level when you add oil, but this shouldn't change the reading by much I think. I'm sure it is not a big cause for concern.

Note: I always fill the oil level to the midway point between min and max to be safe, then add oil as needed.

 

Yah, 1/2 quart or so of oil in the upper engine and filter that will drain back after a few minutes. If the car isn't level, it will make a noticable difference on the dipstick.
Follow nabeshin's advice, and fill on the lite side, then add. It's easier to put in than to take out, and being down a half quart or so when you fire it up to fill the filter won't hurt anything.
-skip-

 

Thanks Skip and nabeshin...With the car on a ramp, I slowly unthreaded the drain plug till it started leaking....let it drip a little....then plugged it back..checked the level and it was half way...then went under and torqued to 18 ft-lb on the drain plug...leveled the car....checked again and it was just right....looked at the amount of oil i drained and it wasnt much...I was pretty amazed how big a difference it made on the reading from the dipstick!

It was surprisingly not very messy...I thought it was gonna be hell trying to drain just a little oil out...wasn't that bad.

Thank you once again and I do hope the next oil change will be smoother...I still have doubts about the filter canister though...will have to cut it again next time!