Hello Everyone, I have the same problem as described in the following thread

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...er-beware.html

The 2 springs have come out of the oil bypass valve, and the little plastic things that hold the springs in is in pieces. So I have to get a new one. I do all of my work myself to my cars and understand that I can get one of these assemblies from a junk yard, or one online and replace the entire unit or just the bypass valve.

My question to you guys is this. How reasonable would it be to remove the housing assembly, block this off with a custom block off plate, reroute the oil hoses to a more convenient location and running a "racing" oil filter setup. The only problem I can think of with this is the ecu now not knowing what the oil pressure is because the sending unit would not be in its place anymore. Can anyone come up with the easiest solution to this? it would make oil changes much easier and alleviate a very weak point in the lubrication system. Its just an idea, so please don't bash me, i'm just looking for some constructive critisizm here

Thanks in advance!

 

Ok, just to follow up in case anyone finds this thread with the same problem. I ordered a replacement housing from a retailer on NAM and it turned out to be the one without the oil cooler (my fault). So I removed the plastic oil bypass valve and inserted it into the old housing, bolted everything back up and its been running great so far for about 5,000 miles.

I have determined that since I perform my own oil changes and was buying non OEM filters with a rubber mating surface instead of the hard plastic surface that is present on the OEM filters, that this is what caused the plastic oil bypass valve to break inside the housing. When you screw in the top part of the housing after installing a new filter, the filter actually pushes against the oil bypass valve, that pressure combined with the twist of the housing causes the oil bypass valve to break this is why i am assuming that MINI OEM filters have a hard plastic ring on them instead of a rubber one. This is just a theory, but is most likely what happened. Anyways, word to the wise, use OEM FILTERS! and make sure to check up in there if you change your own oil for pieces of the oil bypass valve. Be gentle when feeling around or you may break it. The plastic is extremely brittle from the constant hot/cold it goes through in the oil filter housing.

Here are some photos of what the oil bypass valve should look like, and what mine looked like.

Broken Pieces found in Oil Filter Housing


New and Old Oil Filter Housings (the new one was for a regular Cooper, not a Cooper S, So we just used the Oil Bypass Valve out of the new one since you can't just order an Oil Bypass Valve)


New Oil Bypass Valve


Hope this thread helps somebody out

 

I hope you find this post soon. I am having a similar problem to yours. However my spring popped out intact and I am having trouble getting it back in to stay. My housing is still in the car. How did you install the new spring/button assembly to stay in your old housing? This is a new car to me (2003 MCS JCW) and what a horrible ending to what was other wise a smooth first oil change. Thanks for any help you can offer!

Best Regards,

Jim

 

PM Sent Jim, hope it helps.

 

Can you elaborate for the rest of us? Thanks!

 

Here's what I had sent to Racer007 a few years ago... Also to add to this, the piece that I swapped out has been going good ever since... Are you having a similar issue?

Sorry to hear you are having a similar problem to what i did. Unfortunately if your spring is out that means that the little mechanism that holds it in is probably broken. From what i can tell the spring can't just come out of its plastic housing, there is a cap that holds the 2 springs into the housing. What i did was buy a new oil filter housing from Aaron at outmotoring.com. I actually ordered the wrong one, which is the one without the oil cooler built in, so instead of replacing the whole housing with the new one, i just took out the new part that i needed from the new housing and popped it into the old one, and bolted it back up. The oil bypass valve is just held in by a C clip from the backside in the housing. It should pop out the entire housing fairly easy. Also the housing is hard to take out but with a little will power and some extra help you can get it off without removing too many things from under the car. I found taking off the passenger side front tire helped. It's not fun, but if you are mechanically inclined, its not too bad of a job, just takes some patience fitting in the tight areas to work.