Hey everyone,

While completing my oil change last night i found this plastic piece with a spring attached after removing the filter can. I have attached some pictures of the piece and what I'm asking is where the part goes? We stuck a mirror down to look into the area where the filter goes and I just couldn't figure it out. The low oil pressure light is on but on at idle and when rpms reach about 2100 or above the oil pressure light goes off but then returns after rpms drop. I believe the part is called the oil filter bypass? I just don't where the part needs to be put back. I have searched high and low in the Bentley manual for this part but I have come up short. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks!

 

What year and model is your car. I suspect it is an R50 (cooper non S).

 

2002 s

 

Put something in your picture to help us gauge the size of that piece. A penny maybe. Looks like it could be the bypass valve from the piece the filter cap screws into. Although this is a guess.

 

Found this picture....

I think that piece is the little black one toward the bottom.

 

I think Crashton is on the right track.
I tried to find a picture on realoem but this was all I could find.
It is hard to tell from the blurry photos but maybe it is items 6-10 in the diagram. Item 6 is called the Control Valve. Items 2-4 are the oil pump.
If you set your camera to the macro setting, you might be able to get a better photo.
If that is the part, the big question is why did it come out and what is broken to allow it to come out.

 

Oil bypass valve; from a thread years back by Khuevo, the piece in question cannot be replace independently, it is replaced as a unit with this part (#1): 11427562250

http://realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?...95&hg=11&fg=30

 

Yeah, that's the little bastard. I just changed the oil on my '04 JCW (last change was Jan '10) and that piece fell out again. I remember having trouble with it last year. OP light would come an below about 800 RPM (idle). I noted in my log that I repositioned it, but did not mention orientation, so of course I don't know how it goes in. I assume there is some sort of fastener that is missing; I would just about pay money to hold a new housing to see what went wrong.
So for today and the next few days I am going to live with it. I was just about to buy a Bentley manual just to see how it works, but after reading the above posts, sounds like it won't help much. I wish there was a good site with a micro fiche.
I suspect that this is a more common problem than we know. It looks like there is a space in the housing that is big enough for this bit to fall in and get lodged in and if you don't run your finger around around in it you could miss it.
What is the downside to just leaving the thing out?

 

To me it looks like the oil bypass valve. My guess is & again this is only a guess: Your oil is bypassing the filter. Since the oil light is coming on it may also be effecting oil pressure.

I'd recommend that you call one of the MINI vendors like Chad at Detroit Tuned & ask him what his thoughts on this are. He see's more MINI's in a week than I am likely to in my lifetime.

Good luck Philip & let us know what you find out.