I have an intermittent oil leak on my MSM, and it seems to be coming from the oil filter sandwich plate. It only leaks when it's cold and and after it's been sitting for a few days.

The car has 110k and sat for about a year before I bought it, so it seems reasonable that the sandwich plate seal is shot. Has anyone pulled one of these off before? It almost looks too easy... just one nut and 2 spring clamps?

Also, is there a part number for the seal? My interweb and mazda part # searches haven't turned up a thing about the plate or the gasket.

 

Yes, it is that simple. IIRC it seals with an o-ring instead of a gasket. Have you tried just torquing it down a bit? The torque spec should be in the book with the rest of them. This part was the same on most/all of the 1.8s I think.

 

Part # KL01-14-702A
$12.02 from local Mazda Dealer

 

Lol ANOTHER KL part on a BP? Love it!

 

For what it's worth, when I retrofitted a 1.8-style oil cooler onto my '92, I replaced the O-ring by taking the cooler to an auto parts store and rummaging through the oil filters until I found one that fit. Removed the o-ring from the filter, threw the rest of the filter away.

 

I thought this was unique to the MSMs just to feed the turbo since I can't remember seeing anything like this on my 94. I didn't try torquing it down--as long as I drive it every other day it doesn't leak

Win. Thank you! Or $8.26 from Rosenthal

I was wondering about that too after I spun the filter back on. It wasn't the same O-ring used on the oil filter? That would have made too much sense...

Looks like it'll be an easy fix in another few thousand miles. Thanks for all the help!

 

I honestly have no recollection whatsoever of which filter it was that I got the O-ring from. At the time (this was on the turbo '92) I was using M1-104 filters on the engine (which are spec'd for Honda B-series engines) and I know it wasn't that filter- it was one of the cheapies in the Fram / Purolator / etc section. Might well have been the "official" cross-reference equivalent for the Miata filter, I simply didn't pay any attention.