Snowbeast

As you all probably know, the oil filter housing is fastened to the car with some wimpy rubber mounts. If the person changing the filter before you was an idiot and put the filter housing cap on too tightly, you need a wrench to remove it. This is what happened to me.

So, the rubber mounts broke when I wrenched the cap off. It seemed like a bad idea to let the oil filter just rattle around in there, so I drilled out one of the mounts and put nice strong bolt in there with a few washers.

Well, now I know that BMW made that thing rubber mounted for a reason. Apparently, the oil filter and housing generate some serious vibration and noise. Hook that to your car body firmly with a bolt and you get the scary new noise I heard while driving. It resonates loudly in sync with the RPMs right through your dash.

So, I unbolted my mess, replaced it with a zip tie and some rubber pad until I get the new mounts - and the noise is gone.

It is amazing to me that the oil filter would generate so much noise and vibration. Believe me, it does. Bolting it firmly is not a good idea.

There is a nice thread about these mounts with a part number on search.

But I think I might be the first one to have really secured it and gotton noise as a result.

Thanks to those who chimed in with ideas.