Well, I found out by example as I never thought to search here for such problems. Changing my own oil, I purchased a Puralator filter. I wanted to warn all not to do the same as the filter collapsed. I figured I'd do a search before I posted this to see if I was the only one, I wasn't, as I see the problem has been brought up before.

I figured I'd warn you once again that this is not the filter to buy! Make sure who ever is doing an oil change for you does NOT use it. I have found that the Wicks filters have the needed plastic inner cage. Get that from NAPA.



Now I know why the guy was selling a case of these on eBay for cheep!


NOTE: This filter has only about 500 miles on it!







The Wicks on the left and Puralator on the right. Note the cage.

 

That Sux. Is your MCS OK?

 

Wow, lucky me I did not buy that from Ebay, I almost considered that last night. Luckily I chose to purchase the OEM ones instead. Thanks for the post.

 

The real MINI filter is only $5-6 from the dealer, why even bother with a 3rd party filter?

 

Wow! thanks for alerting us to these substandard filters.

Have you contacted purolator?

They should know that their product is garbage if they do not already know it!

 

Really $5-6? I bought mine last time, which is the very first time, for $15 from a local Mini dealer.

 

There is nothing wrong with the Purolator filter (that does not have its own plastic cage built in to it), as long as the aluminum oil filter canister has ITS plastic cage. I have used the Purolator filters with no problem.

BUT...

On my '04 MC there is a plastic cage that is spring-loaded and snaps into place in the aluminum canister. When I did my first oil/filter change I pulled (with some effort) the oil filter out of the aluminum canister, and the palstic cage came out with it. I almost tossed the plastic cage out along with the old filter (the original one from engine assembly line) , but saw that it looked like it could be pulled out of the filter, and I wondered what that speing was doing at the bottom of the canister. Sure enough, the plastic cage pulled right out of the filter, and I saw that it snaps back into place, over the spring, into the aluminum canister. The factory MINI oil filters (and evidently the WIX brand also) have a plastic cage built in to, I guess, act as a supplemental support to the plastic cage that is part of the oil canister assembly. Anyway, the original oil filter in my car looked exactly like the Purolator filter (same number of pleats, and no integral plastic support cage.

Here's what I've wondered, having read through many MINI oil filter threads - how many people on the occassion of their first oil change inadvertently tossed out the plastic cage that is meant to be a part of the oil canister assembly, irrespective of whether or not the oil filter has the built-in plastic cage? Like I said, I almost did that very thing. Anybody else notice this?

 

Buy from Classic MINI (bmwparts@classicautocampus.com)
Yeah, you've got to pay shipping, but it's still way less than at the local dealer.

 

Wow...that SUX I bought two MANN filter (Austria) from Ebay and there's a plastic cage inside. Looks identical to OEM.

 

I just changed my oil/filter and I'd like to report on what I found. First, this is an '05 MCS.

1. The '05 OEM filter does have a plastic cage but does not have any kind of spring.
2. You have to tear the OEM filter in half to get the cage out.
3. The OEM plastic cage will not fit in the Puralator filter and Puralator does not come with one.

I installed the Puralator, drove 50 miles, then removed it to see if there was any compression on the sides. It looked fine. I will put a OEM filter and O-ring in as soon as I can get one and check the Puralator every couple of days until then.

Lesson: Just buy OEM or WIX. I don't think there will be any problem with the Puralator, but thinking about it, at all, sucks. I just read this a day late.

Anyone buying a new MINI should buy an oil filter or two when they pick up thier car. That initial oil change comes up quickly.

On the good side, the RedLine Oil I changed to is like butter. The car accellerates smoother, if not harder, especially down low. The top end also feels smoother, but from 2500-4000 it is a noticable change for the better.

Next G stock mods will be a K&N and some NGK Iridium plugs, then a one ball convertion or maybe a single side cat-back.

 

Right, the factory MINI filter has a plastic cage built into it that you can't get out unless you cut it out of the filter. The plastic cage that, for whatever reason, my '04 MC came with has an outside diameter that is slightly smaller than the inside diameter of the plastic cage that is built into the factory filter - so, it slides right into the plastic cage built into the factory filter. I have used both the Purolator filter and the factory filter with no problem.

I remember there being a lengthy thread on this subject on the MINI2 forum about a year or two ago. It all got very confusing. Some cars came with a plastic cage as part of the aluminum oil filter canister (like my car) and some did not. The Purolator filters were said by one person to be the type that come from the engine assembly line, except for those cars that do not have a plastic cage as part of the canister. I don't know if this issue was every satisfactorily resolved or not. Some people said the MCS was different from the MC, some people said the difference was from early build cars to later build cars...whew, it seemed that everybody had heard or seen something different!

MINI certainly has not made things simple with regard to something so simple as an oil filter! In any case, the safe bet is to pick up a sack of factory filters when you pick up your car. My dealer charges about $7 for a filter.

 

I think I bought my OEM oil filter at MOSS and it was $8.00 plus shipping. Since I was already buying some stuff it didn't add anything to the shipping cost.

 

Thanks for that bit of info. It's 8 miles for me to drive there.... Although when I do get my car, they'll be doing the service for the first few years anyways...

 

I found if you buy a case of filters, say 10, the price comes down significantly for most brands of cars.

 

I am not sure you want to wait until it reaches 10k miles to get your first oil change. That's why I bought my filter and changed the oil at 5k.

 

The filter I bought from the dealer was $13.50. You can bet I won't do that again!

 

I just dug out my invoice --

I bought the filter element & o-ring kit (P/N 11-42-7-512-446) from MINI of Sterling via phone 888-954-8222-- they reflect the List price as $7.50 and gave me a 15% discount to make it $6.38 each. I bought 3.

I'm sure you can do as well or better if you shop around. MINI of Sterling is a sponsor over on the Roadfly MINI board, and they have a nice forum where you can ask for part numbers and get pricing. Also free shipping if the order totals $100 or more.

I sent Classic a note asking for pricing (I was buying nearly $300 in parts) but received no response. I don't know if they're still doing this or not. After 3 days with no answer, I called Sterling and they shipped same day.

 

Wondering if anyone has ever reported this problem to Purolator. I would be interested if they were aware of the problem and did nothing about a recall.

 

First, glad your car is OK.

How did you know something was wrong to even check after you put the cheepie in? Did the oil light come on?

Thanks for sharing the info too. Saving a couple of bucks isn't worth an engine rebuild. For info, I pay 5 a filter from the Mini dealer in Chicago or Milwaukee. If I happen to be by the dealer I just pick a few of them up.

Things you should never go too cheap on:

1) Tires
2) Brakes
3) Oil / filters
4) Parachutes
5) Condoms

 

Hey man,what MINI is yours? I live in chardon and i'm in Painsville and Mentor almost every day! We gotta motor in Kirtland thru some of those twisties sometime!

 

I'm curious about the model year for all of your cars. It looks to me like everyone that has posted so far has an '04 or '05. I've got an '03, and my filter canister has a metal tube that protrudes from the bottom that would prevent any of thus type of crushing. And I have never noticed any plastic cages in the OEM filters that I have bought. Of course, I bought several filters last time, and that might have been before the '04s came out. Do the newer cars not have the metal tube that runs up the center of the filter?

 

I did'nt. Unfortunatly I had just replaced this filter, and oil, to run a BMWCCA track day. It was the day after that I changed the oil again and found this problem.
Everything seems OK. No lights ever cam on and the motor never ran hot. My fingers are crossed here ...

 

Mine is an '03 and there is no tube in the canister, though there is a smaller one protruding from the block.



I sent a link to this thread to Purolator and let them know how unhappy I am.

If they have heard of this before, which I'm sure they have, then I think it's rather irresponsible of them not to have recalled it.

 

There is nothing "wrong" with the Purolator filter, nor is there anything "cheapie" about the Purolator filter. In fact, if anything, and if it really matters, it has more pleats meaning a greater surface area of filtration than the factory filter has. Please review my previous posts in this thread, as well as similar threads on MIN2. It would be nice to find out more about this issue from others, but everyone needs to be as precise as possible about what they are describing.

My '04 MC (February, 2004 build) has a plastic cage, distinct from the plastic cage that is an integral part of the factory filter, that is spring-loaded and snaps into place in the aluminum filter canister. And, this plastic cage in the canister is distinct from the metal tube that is integral to the engine block where the aluminum filter canister screws into. This plastic cage slides snugly into either the Purolator filter (that has no integral plastic cage) or the factory filter (that has an integral plastic cage).

Let's hear from people who have done their own oil filter changes from the very beginning to see what's what with their cars.

 

I think you have heard from many that there was no removable cage, screen, or springs in there oil filters. There was nothing like that in mine for sure.
How can you defend a filter that colapses like this. I might say you have some kind of point if the WIX did not come with this cage built in.
To all who have replaced with OEM; what did you find in that filter? Did it have a cage or did you have a reusable insert of some type?