It's been about 3,500 miles since my free MINI oil change and I thought I'd change the oil and filter in my '04 S. Well, it seems the geniuses at Sterling MINI over torqued everything big time. (I note that the factory didn't do this since I was able to change my oil & filter during it's 1st year).

I see that others have had this problem (thread back in '04). However, the sad solution was to waste time at their MINI dealer and have them change the oil. So here are a few questions for those who've gone through this situation:

1) Are there any clever do-it-yourself alternatives?
2) Did MINI acknowledge their tech's error and pay for the work?

Frankly, I feel I'm going to have to bring 36mm and 13mm sockets with me and test MINI's work in their parking lot if I end up having them fix the problem they caused. Any advice would be great.

 

Cancel problem.

The fastest way home is brute force.

It was all so over torqued. So I found an old very long handle socket wrench I'd forgotten I had for that extra leverage. (In high school we would have used a steel pipe over the socket handle.)

Everything is properly torqued now.

But threading my filter correctly is still a pain. It takes several tries.

 

Does any one know why these things have such a strange little oil filter assembly to begin with?

I mean, why would a modern car NOT just use a good quality spin on filter?

And does anyone know of an external oil filter adapter designed for just mounting a spin on filter assembly to the firewall and plumbing it up?

 

Here's a tip - change the filter with the engine hot/warm, wearing a glove to avoid getting burns while you do it.

The can re-threads way easier onto the block when it's hot/warm.

Doing it cold, you could be there for half an hour cussing!

Plus your oil drains faster when hot, so you can turn the whole thing around in a few minutes.

Chris.