Is there supposed to be a spring and rubber seal inside the oil filter canister?

[lsquaredb]

Hi everyone,

I just did the first post-restoration oil change on my 2800CS. It has the original style oil filter with the filter inside of a metal canister. According to the owners manual, there is supposed to be a spring and rubber disk that forces the oil filter to seal against the oil outlet. They're not there. Did I just drive 1000 miles with an ineffective oil filter?

Leonard

 

[bill]

Leonard:
Check out the diagram on Realoem.com that shows the filter assembly. Not sure the 2800 is the same as the 3.0, but if it is, you will see there is a plate that is pushed up against the bottom of the filter cartridge by a spring. The plate has a rubber gasket which mysteriously disappears and/or is prone to being overlooked by POs (Thanks to De Q for pointing this out a while back) and may go missing. If these are missing (and are what you are referring to), you need to replace them. You may have driven 1000 miles without the filter filtering the oil, but I would think this wouldn't be a problem unless the oil was really dirty. I'm sure more knowledgeable members of this invaluable forum will add their expertise....

 

[Stevehose]

Yes these parts are critical, mine were missing when i did my oil when i bought my car. More reason to go to spin on adapter as it eliminates these parts and the need for them to be installed correctly to work.

 

[Ohmess]

Agree with Steve -- I just did my oil change, and that spring assembly is a major pain in the a$$. If you are missing the spring and seal, just change to a spin-on adapter.

 

[OCCoupe]

The spring, metal plate and rubber bushing are all available.

 

[Luis A.]

Here are the items in question. Note the new aluminum seal washer between the bolt and the canister.

View inside with the spring first and the the sealing metal piece with the rubber grommet. Like many here, mine was an improvised piece of metal when I bought the car.

 

[sandhu]

The spring, metal plate and rubber bushing are all available.

Where can I buy these parts from ??

Am based in England UK ??
Thxs

 

[Luis A.]

You get one guess... it starts with B and ends with W...

 

[lsquaredb]

Hi everyone,

Thanks to all of you for your help. I'm going to the dealer the first thing in the morning to order the parts. I was freaked out at first, but then remembered that my '46 Citroen didn't even have an oil filter and it survived. I didn't even look at the CS, but today installed a Grundig Statomat (period mono radio with motor driven seek function), and it works. So the weekend was a net positive.

 

[scottd]

Re the dealership... Prepare to be flabbergasted at the lack of knowledge. Having JUST gone through the exact same process, you probably want part #s. My local dealership (Lauderdale BMW):

-thought my car was a 318, which didn't surprise me as I have heard this from independent shops based on VIN. "Is it a 3-series?" No, it's the predecessor to the 6-series. "Huh?"

-argued w. me that I had not provided a VIN, "as it wasn't 17 digits" and therefore could not help me as I wasn't helping him.

- hung up on me after I said that the dealerships really don't support their classic cars, despite saying they do.

-when shown a picture of my car and asked if he knew what car, the same parts mgr. said, "umm...its a BMW."

Scott

 

[mulberryworks]

Sigh, yes the young pups behind the counter don't have the experience needed to assist with our cars. You had better have the part numbers to get any meaningful response. It's not just BMW, a friend needed an internal engine part for his early 80's Toyota and had to show the parts guy where it was on the parts diagram on the screen so they could order it. The closest one to Seattle was in Philly.

At this point, I mail order from one of the BMW dealerships that do that since the online parts interface does know about the classic cars and shipping costa aren't horrible. BMW of Atlanta or Monterey have done a good job. There are others as well.

Ian

 

[lsquaredb]

I hate going to the dealer because they insist my car doesn't exist. What I do now, is look up the part numbers on RealOEM and bring them a list. I also get parts from W+N which is faster than getting them from BMW, but in this case it would be $50 shipping on $17 worth of parts, so I went to the dealer.

 

[bill]

Yep, get the part numbers from RealOem, go to the dealer (mine in Flemington, NJ has been OK), pay for the parts, wait a couple of days and go back to pick them up. Two 15 mile round-trips trips, but there is no shipping.

 

[Honolulu]

Top-bolt filter cans use a different filter and as discussed many times they are MUCH easier and cleaner to work with.

After all the above, someone should provide the part numbers, so from realoem for my 8/72 build (YMMV), from the bottom up:

"Gasket Ring" (aluminum sealing washer) between bolt and bottom of canister: 07119963155
"Compression Spring" (looks a lot longer than photo above) inside canister: 11421252467
"Gasket Ring" (oring-like seal under the dished washer): 11421252465
"Reinforcement" dished washer between spring and filter element: 11421252466

All parts appear to have been used on the E12 model as well according to realoem, BUT if you go to the E12 530, the top bolt system does away with the spring, dished washer and accompanying seal. Had me going for a moment there! not having any of that stuff inside my top-bolt canister.

Coupe bits at realoem.com: http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=3436-USA-08-1972-E9-BMW-30CS&diagId=11_2445

E12 530i top-bolt system at http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=3985-USA-06-1978-E12-BMW-530i&diagId=11_0468