[morgsmini]

Ive just had my 03mini cooper in for its inspection 2 service and the follow was found;

• sump gasket leaking
• rocker cover leaking

is this a normal occurrence on a car this age?! or is it down too build quality>?
has anyone else had this happen?

anyway i took my car home, then following morning i went out and i noticed an oily residue on the back of my car.
black little speckles and greasy to the touch

so took back too my new dealership who got it up on ramps and was told it was caused by a coolant leak, coming for the radiator. so it now appears to have developed a radiator leak on way back from dealership too!
(how was this not noticed the day of inspection 2 ?!!!!)
it was pressure tested and showed no loss of pressure ?

the only sign of a leak came form a wet/damp patch from the location of the bottom quarter of the radiator. if standing in-front of the car it would appear to be the bottom right hand side of the rad. i asked how could this happen on a car of this age?
its not even 6yrs old yet!

they said too keep and eye on the expansion tank too see if the coolent level dropped at all.
if did to bring it back for the work too be done, but are unsure if its the rad or a pipe? only way too tell is too take apart i guess, but at a cost !

i first noticed something wrong with the expansion tank being empty last year after my gearbox was replaced at my old dealership,
but was told just too fill up with extra water and it would be fine.
i took it back again also when i heard a noise from the heating matrix - a gurgling sound but was told this was normal? and not too worry
Ive now been told by my new dealership this is anything but normal

i now face a huge bill to fix all of these problems
could these have been caused when my gearbox was replaced
sorry for such a long winded post but I'm losing faith
any replies would be extremely grateful

[AJ_ONE]

I've got a rad leak in the same place on a '02 "One" - same rad I think. Looking from the front, bottom right hand corner of radiator matrix looked greasy/wet. Leak was evident when car got up to temp (but not before). putting kitchen roll around the area suggests it is leaking from the rad not running down from anywhere else (tissue stayed dry). Need to take bumper off for this but it's not difficult.

I was relieved to see this leak - because the expansion tank level was always having to be filled up. Inconsistently too, sometimes a long journey would empty it, sometimes it wouldn't. There had previously been no evidence of a leak (no puddles or obvious deposits in bay).

By the time I took the front off though, you could clearly see water on top of the splash guard at bottom of the engine bay, so it was clearly an external leak, rather than head gasket problem.

It doesn't look like the radiator has been damaged - possibly down the a weak join/seal ? Dealer price was approx £190 part + £200 fitting. Didn't bother trying radfix, gone for £130 valeo rad from eurocarparts.com and fitting this weekend.

I never had it pressure tested - that was going to be the next step if the problem didn't get worse (and become more obvious where the leak was from). I had suspected thermostat housing from other posts here.

I only found this post because I think I've got a rocker cover and sump leak !!!!!

Sorry - not sure this helps, but had to comment.

[morgsmini]

no thank you, any response is welcome
with regards too your oil leaks,
Ive been told that its best too do the rocker leak first just in case its causing the appearance of a sump leak by running down.
plus its a hell off a lot cheaper as you don't have too remove so many other components!
I'm hoping its just an elbow joint i need to replace but wont know till bumper comes off .
thanks again!