My name is Bill. I bought a 2005 Mini S from Mini of the Mian Line in Philly back 2005. The car has been great until now.

Sorry , got ahead of myself. I have owned many foreign and domestic cars over the past 43 years. My first was 1956 MGA that I still own. I'm married with the kids all grown and five dogs are now our main hobby. They do not ride in the Mini.

Back to the Mini. I changed the oil and filter and ran into a problem. There is a little spring thing that fell out of the base of the unit that holds the filter. It is broken and I can not find any place that has it. I tried to do a search on this forum but could not figure out how to do that. So, I need help with both the search thing and more importantly the thing that is probably an oil pressure relieve valve. Where can get one?

Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

Bill

 

I am sure you will get an answer but if you do not get one quickly, post in the section further down that pertains to your year of Mini. Some folks do not read all the 1st. Gear posts but check their Mini's year forum daily.... Good luck.

 

Thanks Chuck. I'll give it a day and then try again.

 

I am not familiar with the 1st gen, but since you are a Pennsylvania guy I feel I want to help. I checked on Real OEM at this location:

http://realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?...62&hg=11&fg=30

It looks to me like that is a complete assembly and must be bought as a whole.

 

Well, I just confirmed by talking to several others that the only way to fix this broken part that is worth about 85 cents is to buy the entire unit. That is just plain stupid. German engineering at it's best.

I will replace the unit, clean up the car and probably sell it come spring. I live three hours from the nearest Mini dealer and no longer trust the car.

Thanks to everyone for your help.

 

Wow. Didn't take much to wipe out six years of "has been great" goodwill.

 

You may be okay. If it is a spring that came out of the oil filter housing you may be okay. The spring and the black plastic piece in the oil filter cap can be removed. I have a 2004 MCS and I removed mines. Watch this youtube video.


http://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-Cha...nger-208498299

 

I gave mine a toss a long time ago.

 

That was my thought as well. One problem and ready to get rid of the car. Yikes.

 

The part that broke is not what is shown in the video. I have (I hope) attached picture of it. It is loscated in the base of the filter unit, not in the lid.

As for "one problem", well I guess I lied. Not intentionally. While on warranty the thermostat cover started leaking. I took a day off work and drove three hours to Philly to get it fixed. A year or so after the warranty ran out a part in the supercharger went bad. I was without a car for a week while the local BMW dealer fixed it. Now this. I have been without the car for more than a week. This makes getting to work difficult and costly as I don't have a spare car sitting around that I can legally drive to work.

If there was a dealer in town it would be a different story. I could tolerte these things becuase they would get fixed a lot faster.

As for remaining "loyal" to a car; that's just plain stupid. They are inanimate objects. That's why I still have my MGA after 43 years. The difference is, it is a toy and if it doesn't run for a while it's no big deal.

The Cooper S is just a tool, not a friend. Sorry if I hurt some of your feelings that was not my intent.

I do appreciate the help. It looks as though replacing this filter unit is going to be real challenge. I'll post results if I am allowed back on this forum.

P.S. I also own a left hand drive 1970 Mini.

 

Of course you can come back. You have done nothing wrong. Your right it is an inanimate object and after all just a car. Friend is kind of a weird word for a car I agree. While I like my car it's certainly not a friend. My human friends are my friends. I can certainly agree with your frustration as well. Hopefully you can get it worked out and your frustration level will be more tolerable.

I wish I could help more but alas my knowledge is limited. I don't do any of my own work. I hope you get it worked out. In the meantime you are always welcome. I hope someone can give you some good advice to help with your issue.

Pat

 

There are now 4 mini dealers in Pa. I do not know where you live, but maybe there is one closer that where you originally bought yours from.

 

Spice Orange thanks for the update on the Mini dealers. I checked on this and found a closer one. Only two hours away. That's what I get for living in the middle of nowhere.

And the review on them I read is here.


Response from the owner

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MINI of Allentown - Verified owner






Mushin9 ‎ - Aug 31, 2011







[SIZE=3]Service is acceptable.[/SIZE] The service team was very polite. But, everything is WILDLY overpriced. I was quoted an oil change for $165. Not sure what a $165 oil change would entail. An alignment with state inspection ran over $200. Unless you are giving money away because you are an altruist, find somewhere else to go.


Now I need to keep in mind that I have changed my oil and filter myself at least eight times. 8 X 165 = $1320. Subtract the $30 in materials each time ($240) and that means I'm ahead by $1080. So this oil change is going to cost me close to $400 before it's all done and that means I'm still ahead of the game. Excluding the time lost and the added cost of running a borrowed gas guzzler. But I'm still ahead.


How's that for twisted logic? :-)

Bill

 

We are back on the road now.

I removed the little plastic valve from the new $263.00 unit and installed it in the old filter base. It's a shame that BMW will not sell that little part by itself. I am certain I am not the only person to break one of these. If the element is forced down onto the valve with too much force you can break it. From this point forward I will always insert the element into the cover first.