Hey guys-

I'm changing my oil and everything has gone fine until now. I unscrewed the oil filter housing without any issues, but now the filter won't come out of the housing. It springs in and out, as I imagine it should, but I can't get it out of the housing. I've tried to pull pretty hard, but I'm afraid of breaking something. Any ideas?? I know I have the re-threading of the housing to look forward to as well... ; )

I saw that the filter housings are different post July 04. Does anyone know if the filters themselves changed after this date? Is it possible the dealership put a post 04 filter on a pre-04 housing? Just thinking as I type....

Any help is greatly appreciated-

Thanks in advance!

 

Just pull harder. It will come out.

 

Thanks.

So, I tried that and the cardboard top of the filter started to tear apart a little. Being the giant sissy that I am, I decided to leave it in, put the housing back on and fill it up so I can get to work in the morning. I've read a couple stories of people breaking something inside the metal housing (a black piece with a spring?) and it turning out being rather expensive.

Any other ideas? I'm only finding one filter available online, so I'm guessing the idea of it being a filter/housing mismatch doesn't hold up.

Also, is it possible to change the filter without doing a complete oil change (and without making a mess)?


At the end of day 1:
MINI: 1 John: 0 (unless burning the fingerprints off my right hand digits counts for something...)

 

Hi,

The same thing happened to me, just pull the filter out, piece by piece if you have too. You can't break anything, actually, the spring thingy came apart from my canister but it goes back in. Don't worry, just pull harder, it's better to replace the filter than leave in the ripped one.

retroom

 

Twist. Yank. Repeat.

 

Sounds good. I'll put my bigboy pants on tomorrow and get medieval on it. Any word on changing just the filter (without draining the oil)? Or is there a way to re-use the oil since it's brand new (or is that a terrible idea)?

Thanks for the help

 

It'll get messy. It's suggested that you loosen the filter and let it sit while you drain to oil to create less of a mess. But since you have it filled with oil, it's going to be messy. I suggest laying down a towel on top of your engine compartment so you don't drip all over the place. Make sure you top of your oil as well. You could loose 1/4 to 1/3 of a quart like that.

 

You can try just changing the filter without draining your new oil, you will just lose oil to the level of the filter which should not be all the oil. I would not reuse the oil drained into a pan and I would replace the oil lost when the filter is removed. I am not sure how much oil you will lose by removing the filter, maybe someone else can tell us.

Since your current filter is ripped and might not be filtering very well, I would just replace all the oil but that is just my **** way, probably no real concern with keeping the oil.

A hint when installing the new filter.
1. Before putting the new filter in the canister, push it onto the engine to pre-expand the hole in the filter. Then remove the new filter from the engine.
2. Push the new filter into the canister and make sure it pushes all the down into the canister.
3. Now install the canister/filter onto the engine. The filter should fit easier since the hole has been pre-expanded.
This will help get the canister/filter pushed all the way on and will make it easier to get the canister threads started (can be a real pain when canister/filter not pushed in completely).

 

jdonald,

Sorry for the oil filter problems, but thanks for making me laugh at your "giant sissy" and "bigboy pants" comments ...

Greg

 

On my sister's R50 the oil filter always gets stuck in the cover, but that is because of some ridiculous mesh plastic pipe that snaps into the oil filter cover, complete with a spring - the filter then jams over this. My R53 has a more sensible set up without any of that, only a metal tube inside the cover that the filter easily slides onto.

I was looking at realoem.com and it seems that my car cannot have this set up. The oil filter cover I have should not have come with an oil filter housing that had a heat exchanger, but it did. It does talk about vehicles with an auto or manual transmission, but in 2002, the S was only a manual.

 

[QUOTE=nabeshin;2711348]On my sister's R50 the oil filter always gets stuck in the cover, but that is because of some ridiculous mesh plastic pipe that snaps into the oil filter cover, complete with a spring - the filter then jams over this. My R53 has a more sensible set up without any of that, only a metal tube inside the cover that the filter easily slides onto.


How do you go about getting the filter off of your sister's R50? I think I might have a similar setup from what I can see inside the filter.

Thanks-

 

I squat on the ground, hold the oil filter cover down with my shoes, and yank the filter with a huge pair of water pump pliers. I, uh, am rather flexible...



The plastic tube always snaps off and has yet to be broken. Take care not to crush the plastic tube when you grip it with the pliers.

 

So did you get the oil filter replaced?

 

I changed my Cooper oil today and it was way difficult than I thought. I use MityVac and pumping it was harder than I thought. Oil filter canister was too tight and I had a hard time to unscrew it. I tried to be very careful but I spilled some oil inside of the filter. Oil filter was stuck in the oil filter canister cap. I also had a hard time to pull it out, well... actually tear it out. I read this thread before oil change and knew that there's nothing I can break. But.... it looks like there IS something I can break if I tilt or twist the filter too hard - plastic core especially the part where it goes to the canister cap. Anyways, plastic core and spring were still in the canister cap. And then reassembling the filter wasn't that bad but screw it into its place was a bit difficult because of spring tension, I guess. Anyways I made a bit of mess on the floor and finally made it.
I don't think I made any mistakes in this process including oil filter assembly. I drove some after oil change and found no leak around the oil filter and checked the oil level and it was OK.

Now the question is...... some of you guys would know that my Cooper has a problem in "Low oil pressure lamp". It doesn't come on. Never, ever. So, if I made a mistake in the oil filter, is there any other way of knowing that problem? Can I *feel* something different?

Thanks.

 

If you are really concerned about it, check the oil level daily for awhile.

 

Well... I *think* that the missing spring in the oil filter problem(or assembled in a wrong way) would only cause low oil pressure meaning not much oil goes around the engine to lubricate it which means there will be no problem in oil level. One thing I can guess is high engine temperature while running.

Will there be some different engine running sound or something in this case?

I guess... there's no one having the low oil pressure problem with the oil filter assembled with plastic core and spring correctly.

Another problem is that I couldn't find any diagram of "how to assemble".
The order I did is
Canister cap, spring, plastic core(snapped onto the cap with spring in it), oil filter(it was a bit hard to push in though). Is this right?

Thanks again!!

 

'04 mini,s first time I changed oil myself the drain plug rounded off it started out as 13mm. but I ended up driving a 11mm. easy out on the plug and removed it , no problems with the filter. Consider installing an oil pan drain plug with a pet-drain, lots easier & no gasket changing!!

 

Hiya- Hoping to get to mine this weekend. It's looking like I'll change most of the oil in the process. I'll let you know how it turns out- Thanks for the help

 

In the words of Borat - "Great Success!"

Had to piece the filter apart and get toughguy on it, but it's done now and all is well. Thanks for the help y'all-

Easy,

J

 

Yes, this thread is old, but no one has mentioned clamping the oil filter cap in a vice, which has worked well for me. If you have a bench vice handy, clamp the cap in the vice on the 36mm "nut,". It still takes of lot of force to remove the filter, but at least the vice can get a good grip, which is hard to do with your hands, especially when oil gets on the cap. I use gloves and put a rag over the cap. Once the filter lets go, oil tends to go flying.