remove the oil filter. you will see a large nut. that nut holds the oil cooler on. CAUTION:if you overtorque that nut, you will crush the cooler, and oil and coolant will mix, destroying your engine.

 

Thanks for the caution.Any idea what the torque spec is on that nut? Just a nice tight snug on the o ring? Will i need to remove the coolant lines or is there enough clearance to pull it down and change the o ring?

 

fsm says 19-25 ft/lb. i would red loctite it, too. those hoses are pretty stiff, i take them off. actually, i get new ones. if i do this job, i pull the oil filter head, and do it on the bench. but, to do that, i go in from up top, and a lot of stuff then has to come off. plus, you will have to clean the gasket to the block, if you dont get a good seal, it will **** oil all over the place, and you get to do it all over again. even on a lift, and going from below, it is tight.

 

I rolled her up on ramps...
I could see the top of the oil cooler from looking down but didn't try going at it that way.
I removed the two hoses for coolent...have a bucket ready. Then removed the filter.
Here is where I meesed up but learned from it...I removed the entire unit from the block. There are (3) 10 or 12mm bolts holding it on and you can only really see part of one. You have to feel around for it, and use extentions and a universal joint would have been useful.
Anyway, once that was all removed, I took the nut holding the filter adapter (I think Keninn calls it the oil filter head) off and there was the seal. Had I known what I was doing ahead of time, I would have just removed the filter adapter (head) first but its done now. I can't remember the size of the nut but it was larger than I had...had to borrow from a neighbor.
If you take the whole unit off, it is a pain in the **** moving the gasket. It is very tight up in there and I would guess it took about an hour to take off the small gasket plus it was a special order part. I ended driving to phx from Tucson...well, read the earlier post.
Then it is putting it all back together. I am not going to comment on any leaks now because there isn't any wood handy to knock on, but lets just say I am happy so far.
Thats it...have fun.

 

Keninn, me again. Car is running great as I reported yesterday, but we also have a pretty quick oil leak from above the filter. I have jacked the car up and cleaned up the area. When my son starts the car I put an extension mirror up from underneath and can clearly see the oil seep out at the diameter of the body that the filter screws onto. It has a rubber hose connected to it. Is that a cooler?

If so, what is the best way to access and remove - I suspect it is a cooler or adapter of some sort and probably has an O-ring or gasket that is leaking.

Thanks

 

Keninn - a related question. I have looked all over for a good shop manual for the 2000 Millenia S and can't find one. Any ideas on where to get one?

 

if you have a 2.3, then it will be and oil cooler/heater sandwiched between the oil filter and the oil filter head. there is a large o ring that seals the cooler to the filter head. if you remove the oil filter, you will see the nut holding it together. you can get the manuals from the dealer, or check ebay

 

We're trying to measure this nut - can't get verniers all the way in but best guess looks like it is a 30mm nut. We have a 30mm deep socket but it won't fit into the cooler opening around the nut. Does this require a special socket?

 

iirc, i used a 30 deep socket that i had ground down to pull the rear flange nut off early bmw manual transmissions. 6 pt. it fit perfect. i had removed about half the outside metal on a lathe