My SO's car has a fair amount of oil related issues:

• oil pump solenoid harness (dealer wants to repair rather than replace) $625
• oil filter housing gasket $1210
• crankcase front main seal $1000

Dealer wants $3000 to fix all of that which I have 0 interest in paying. Having said that if I were to put the car into service mode would all of these be pretty much accessible for me? IE I could knock them all out at once? I figure a lot of this is rather straight forward because the last time the dealer wanted to charge her $650 to replace the timing chain tensioner ($50 part) and roughly 30 minutes of work. Anyways let me know if anyone has knocked all of these out at the same time and how involved they are.

I figure I would need a new oil pump solenoid (VANOS?) $150
Oil filter housing gaskets $30
Front main seal tool + seal $200

Does that sound right?

 

Changing the front seal involves re-setting timing too --- timing tool set in addition to the seal tool, and possibly a new set of cam / crank bolts, which are TTY single use bolts. Take a look at these instructions (same set used by dealer techs) for a better idea of what's involved --- https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/ --- just need the last seven characters of your VIN.

 

Front crankshaft front main seal requires me to re-time it? Going off this article which doesn't mention anything about timing..that is unless I was to remove the center bolt on the pulley which I won't do https://www.pelicanparts.com/techart...eplacement.htm

Here as well: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...irst-post.html

No mention of timing.

 

You're probably right. I posted that from memory, which is pretty well shot. That's why I referenced the newtis procedures, they should give you a good idea of what to expect. Sorry if I got you excited for nothing ---

 

Well had the dealer replace the oil solenoid harness and will do the rest. Also the dealer said the harmonic balancer/crank pulley needed to be replaced to the tune of $500 (part) because oil had leaked on it and damaged the rubber on it. Not sure how oil damages rubber but I digress. But it does explain why the front main seal was quoted so high. Also oil filter housing gasket include all new bolts/gaskets/etc...which jacked the price up as well.

Will report back with any issues I may or may not run into.

 

Do you have a turbo? Your title says “base,” and your signature says “99.9% JCW.” I have a non-turbo r56 and just needed to remove the three e10 bolts on the crank pulley to replace it and the seal.

 

Its a non-s cooper (wifes car) I no longer have a mini but did have a 2007 JCW way back when. I just replaced the seal and the belt but not the pulley, if you replaced it on yours what brand did you use?

 

I used a Fel-pro from Amazon for like $12. It fit perfectly and has not leaked a drop since. If i had it to do over I would probably go to with a better manufacturer. After doing the job, can you believe the dealer quoted you $500. I find their prices are now truly ridiculous.

 

$500 was for just the pulley, I think the total quote for the seal, pulley and belt was $9xx. In the end it cost me roughly $30 (fel-pro seal + gates belt) and a couple hours of my time to replace it. Next is the oil filter gaskets but I will probably wait until the weather warms up to mess with that.

FWIW the total quote from the dealer was $4400 for the 3 things I listed plus pads and rotors. They were trying to replace every part they touched, manifold bolts, heat shields (really?) and every single bolt. It was crazy because their quote just listed the service and no mention of any parts involved in it. In the end I did pads and rotors on all 4 corners myself for $150, I did the main seal and belt and the dealer did the oil solenoid harness + oil change for $550 so I am right around $700 for all of it.