My Cooper S Convertible is less than 18 months old and has covered only 15,000 miles. Apart from a problem with door seals has been a wonderful car until now.

Had driven less than a mile from home to pick up daughter from a friends when 30 yards from destination oil warning light came on and engine started to sound like a tractor. I pulled in straight away and could immediately smell oil/fuel. Getting out of car after a few seconds I saw a lake of oil appearing under the car and looking back up road a trail of oil back to where light came on.

I check oil regularly and not even tiniest drop of oil on drive at home. Mini Emergency Assistance picked up car but obviously will not know until the recovery service drops off at dealers tomorrow what problem is but looks very serious.

A very sudden problem like this doesn't seem too clever!

Sorry to hear about this problem, when the desire repair the car make sure they have done a comprehensive inspection and replaced all the relevant parts as a leak like this can have knock on effects if the car has been driven without oil. Also the warranty should be extended just in case something goes wrong in the future.

That would be my thoughts on the matter of this had happened to me.

Cheers and hope you get sorted- it is a really nice car the S convertible

Thankfully I literally only drove 20-30 yards from when oil loss occurred as I was due to stop anyway so hopefully no major damage done.

Good job it wasn't the other day I was on the M1 on a 200 mile round trip and would have been doing 70+mph and probably wouldn't have stopped so quick when light came on.

I will be making sure that the Mini dealer does a thorough top to tail check of engine though. Will post an update when I have spoken to them tomorrow

It seems from the dealer that their first assessment of the oil loss was as a result of the timing chain tensioner working loose. Having done some digging on this and other forums it seems there are issues with this part and noisy engines from cold starts, but not of them coming loose. I have had occasional noisy starts but these quickly stop and I assumed where a "characteristic" of the engine. Looks like it may have been the first signs of a problem. Car in workshop tomorrow and will know more then