oil change, no sealing plate!

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so i went out to do the oil change, up on the ramps, everything going fine. dropped the sump plug and in the drain pan the oil went. next the filter bowl, wow quite a few turns needed to get her off! couldn't find the universal joint, would have made things more comfortable but found it after, always the way!

took her off and discovered that there was no sealing plate. no rubber ring between the outside bowl and the washer behind the nut. no rubber ring on the inside either. the two washers were on the outside of the filter bowl, one is supposed to be after the spring, then a rubber ring, then the plate, then the filter. so things were amiss there. inside the oil i filtered it to make sure i didn't have the sealing plate in there but i could have sworn i didn't.

i didn't. what i did have was a couple of strange small 5mm bits of pipe that looked like clear petrol pipe from a motorbike. also, a small hairball (pictured inside the oil filter chamber below), and a very small, 3mm piece of electrical wire!

am i right in thinking that it wouldn't filter properly if the filter is not flush up to the large o-ring?

oh how could i forget, there was no large o-ring there either! pics coming up soon. (pictures now added)

what a bleedin' liberty!!!

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[PaulTubby]

Im amazed it wasnt leaking oil big time! If you dont get the large rubber ring fitted properly to the oil filter housing when you build it all up and start the car, they leak out big time, trust me!!! You are right, you need the sealing plate and the washers, springs and o rings or it will not work as it shoudl and filter the oil properly..... you can stilll buy the plates from most morris minor specialists... or if it was me and your missing these parts i would now plum for and order a spin on oil filter conversion kit for around £20 to £25 which will make future oil changes a breeze ! East sussex do a superb kit.

[les]

I reckon you used the bowl as storage and forgot to check it was clean before you fitted it!

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lol les you're a character! i only have one bowl and it was on the car. trust me, i wasn't pleased when i took it off, it meant that i had to get a push to put the car back in the garage and i have to wait for the bits to come.

to the previous poster, totally i am going to fit it all properly with both tiny o rings sandwiched in the right place and the big o ring in place. i dont' know which o ring to use now, since i don't have the old one to hand. can anyone measure the width of one of their old wide o rings that the oil filter housing cups onto and tell me how wide they are in mm?

i cleaned the oil bowl it when it came off with a j cloth. those bits inside it are what was filtered out of the oil with a funnel and a tube. i put them in there for safe keeping. yes i am amazed it held any oil, i must say i did have to top it up from time to time and she left a tell-tale drop of wee wherever she was parked.

i am seriously considering a spin on kit, do you have to take any other bits off or is there decent access to take off the old assembly to fit the new spin on? how easy is it and any tips? cheers. i am not aiming for concourse, just a daily driver so spin-on might do the job nicely.

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damn, i think i have just realised what the two bits of petrol pipe were for! they came out of the oil in the bowl after i took the old filter out. someone's stacked them up somehow at the bottom of the oil bowl, then dropped the filter in to get it to sit at the right height, instead of using the correct concaved filter dish and spring. that's an interesting way to do things!

[PaulTubby]

damn, i think i have just realised what the two bits of petrol pipe were for! they came out of the oil in the bowl after i took the old filter out. someone's stacked them up somehow at the bottom of the oil bowl, then dropped the filter in to get it to sit at the right height, instead of using the correct concaved filter dish and spring. that's an interesting way to do things!

Thats not good, why cant people do things right! Im glad your going to

[Neil MG]

You will find the sealing rubber squashed up inside the filter housing. They are often very difficult to see, but if it wasn't there you would have oil pretty much pouring out.

[xpress]

not so, neil. check that picture where the sealing ring goes. it's not there!

[liammonty]

There HAS to be a sealing o-ring stuck in there. They are hard to see, and rarely come out- try picking it out with a pen knife or something. You can be certain that if there was not one in there, your engine would have dumped the contents of its sump in about a minute flat, and more importantly, if there is one already there and you put another in on top, your engine will also dump all its oil all over the floor in no time. Trust me- it takes a while to clean up a gallon of oil off the floor!

[xpress]

take a look at the picture. see the grooves in the moulded casing! It's not there. that would explain why I had to top up the oil all the time.

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take a look at the picture. see the grooves in the moulded casing! It's not there.

[les]

Could be there but not seating properly, no seal = no oil----except on road/drive!

[Neil MG]

I am sure I can see it quite clearly in your the picture! Are we talking about the same thing? It is in the groove on the very outside edge of the housing.

[xpress]

it was was leaking from this joint. its coming off for a spin on conversion anyway so I will have a poke around in it then.

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it was was leaking from this joint. its coming off for a spin on conversion anyway so I will have a poke around in it then.

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it's not coming off. not before spring now. i had a poke around with a 5/16ths, i would have to take the dynamo off, heat up those nuts, quench them and generally mess around more than i want to right now. maybe a job for when i convert to alternator which i will be doing maybe quite soon.

i got a textiles unpicker (good tip for anyone out there) and went up there where i thought there was no o-ring, there was. it turned round in there, easily dug into it and fished it out. will get the right filter plate and spring, and bits and will put it back on and carry on as it is for now.

[les]

Should have gone to specsavers!

[xpress]

lol, quite!

[bmcecosse]

If there was no plate under the filter - then it has NOT been filtering your oil - AT ALL. I do rather suggest that you should go for the spin -on conversion - with your luck, it's going to be much more reliable for you......... It all just bolts on - get the parts from a scrap Mini engine...