I started my fuel pump replacement yesterday and was hoping to finish the job within 2 hours. To my surprise it was still not finished after 4 hours. Below is what I have experienced.

The removal was easy, only four connections to undo. Taking the pump out of the tank was also easy and there was minimal gasoline spill (my tank was 1/4 full). Removal took 10 minutes at most. Installing the new pump was also easy. The hardest part is to put the retaining ring back on. As it was documented, one needs to compress the fuel pump while tightening the retaining ring. The actual issue is not with compressing the pump, but compressing the gasket on the pump. Without the gasket, the retaining ring would go on easily. When the gasket is in place, it takes a lot of force to compress it enough to let the retaining ring start engaging the first thread. The worst part is the final 1/4 turn of the ring. For some reason my retaining ring would cross thread when I had the last 1/4 turn to go. Since there is only one turn of thread on the ring, cross threading means the ring pop out and I had to start over.

Using my foot to press down the pump while turning the ring wouldn't help. After many many trial and error, I ended up using my foot to press down on the part of the ring where it likes to cross thread. I was able to get to only 1/8 of a turn left. At that point my leg was sore and I thought it shouldn't cross thread with 315 degrees of thread engagement. So I lifted my foot and gave it a few more bangs to turn the ring a little more. Three bangs and the ring pop out again. After a few words of choice, I called it a day.

I saw the official BMW tool for this job but that tool does not have any means to compress the pump gasket. So that wouldn't help in my case. I have seen people claiming it is a 1 hour job. I wonder how did they do it. If any of you have any ideas, please share. Thanks.

 

Our tech article here says it should be about a 2 hour job. Take a look at it and see if it may be helpful to you.

 

I read that tech article before I started. It would have been a 1 hour job if the retaining ring didn't give me trouble.

 

Really good DIY here from the forums:

And did you use the Genuine MINI kit, its should have went on , the gasket takes some compression but some aftermarket filter kits the upper gasket is almost too tight and you cant get the ring on ?

Fuel Filter Kit. Part number 16146757196


http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/SiteSearch/16146757196/





The ring can be removed with constantly tapping it out. Flat head screw driver works pretty good.

Here is your DIY thread for the fuel filter for Gen 1 MINIs.

Click here for a great how to thread.

 

yes I am using genuine MINI parts.

I am now thinking of swapping the ring with the fuel filter side to see if the ring on the pump side is causing the issue. I hope the problem is not the collar on the tank.

 

Problem solved. The issue is with the installation of the gasket. When I removed the fuel pump, the gasket came off with the pump. So I assumed that the entire gasket goes between the pump and the collar on the tank. That was my mistake. In fact, the gasket is more like a grommet, i.e. the bottom half of the gasket goes below the collar on the tank. After I figured that out, the retaining ring went on easily. I then continued with the fuel filter replacement and confirmed that the gasket is indeed installed like I described above.

I hope by documenting my stupid mistake here would prevent someone else from doing the same thing.

 

Thanks for the update and glad you got it figured out. Well noted.