Article by: Johan
Article applies to: All models with the M70 v12 engine and 730i/740i (M60 engine only, and yes: in Europe a 730 V8 was available)
Problem: Broken oil filter mounts seems pretty obvious to me, but I am on a weekly basis spending family time under the hood of my mighty M70. Someone else reported ‘a strange noise around 2000 rpm’ which turned out to be the oil filter housing resting against the chassis, and another reported some strange rattles when driving over bumps, which turned to be the same cause.
Used technique: The separate oil filter housing is mounted to the chassis with 2 rubber mounts. These mounts have a nasty tendency to tear/wear out/crack, in that case leaving your oil canister resting free again the chassis, which is not a very good thing. Also the oil supply/return and coolant hoses connected the oil filter housing don’t like a hanging free oil filter housing very much either. Another cause (besides aging) of this problem is tightening the bolt of the oil filter housing lid a few grunts to much, in particular by the gorillas from the quick-stop-and-lube-shop, causing way to much stress on these mounts (not to mention the bolt and lid itself). The design of the mounts is changed/improved by BMW and you need the upgraded parts. See the last section for part numbers/prices.
Lets start unbolting things: Folks, this ain’t rocket science. Therefore just a couple of lines of explanation here.
At this picture you see the holy room, a bit of the engine bay of my car. The left mount is still in place, but is cracked and will break very soon, the right one was torn in two pieces, leaving a bit of the mount in the oil filter housing (of course, I wouldn’t expect this car would make things easy for me, we have a love-hate relationship).
The problem with these straight-broken-off-rubber-thingies is how to get the broken part out of the oil filter housing without removing the entire housing.
They invented a clever little piece of tool for that job, calling a water pump plier. Also useful for lots of other purposes, like ruined brake bleed screws and numerous other things.
A good water pump plier should be bought from a decent brand, having the largest size as your wallet can afford, and never be lent out to your neighbor or nephew. . .
Notice the absolute lack of working space, which is not uncommon while working the engine bay of the big twelve.
In the mount is a little piece of steel, just enough to get a grip with your plier, as shown here:
After removing the other one, the new mounts can be installed. To show the difference in design between the old and new mount:
They look a bit beefier, don’t you think? The words on the plastic bag stated ‘BMW original parts’.
Installation is simple, just screw the new mounts into the housing:
Mount the bolts to the chassis (wrench 10mm):
Et voila, J’ai fini! Very nice isn’t it.
The quickie lube shop can grunt again (btw: but not when I am still alive and owner of this car).
Also the rubber mountings of the left and right mass air flow meter housing where cracked and already separated.
These parts have strangely enough other part numbers and are twice as expensive (see total amount of parts and costs).
I replaced them together with the oil filter mounts, same procedure. These mounts have still the old design, apparently BMW thought that this wouldn’t be necessary to change the design.
According to the dealer where I bought the mounts, this problem doesn’t occurs very much. Or in another words: ‘I never seen that before’.
That is not an uncommon statement from the dealer when I am ordering parts.
Total amount of parts and cost (for convince: 1 Euro equals 1 US dollar) :
Remark: this is Europe. Some prices or part numbers may differ depending on country, model or production year. Check out your dealer for the right part numbers for your car. Prices are in Euro without BTW/VAT or any other robberies/theft from the government:
| BMW Part Number | Part Description | QTY | Price |
| 11421436982 | oil filter mounts | 2 | $2.21 |
| 13711720029 | mass air flow meter mounts | 2 | $3.92 |
Total amount of time: 1 hour, mostly because I dropped a mount in the engine bay and I couldn’t find it anymore. Don’t you just hate that when that happens?
Skills needed/difficulty level: It ain’t rocket science. If you have troubles with this repair, you should trade your bimmer including your tools for a nice decent Japanese car.
Satisfactory level after the job done: Quickie-lube isn’t gonna abuse this baby anymore.
Some things I should have done but I overlooked, forgotten, just being too lazy or didn’t replace because I am cheap and now I am regretting that while everything is reinstalled already and I drove it for a few thousand kilometers/miles?
No. I guess I just did a very, very good job here.