Oil leak.....help please

[BUTTONMUSH]

Can anyone please diagnose the likely cause of this Oil leakage (pictured)

I'll take it to 1320 as I live near St. Neots but I'd really like a heads up on the probably cause & effect. Plus I have an MOT next week so will this effect it??

[sef]

That's probably your oil sump gasket... Mine's leaking too... Might be worth giving Thomas at 1320Mini a call to discuss it.

[khalil]

Hi,
I don't think you can tell where the oil is coming from, by just looking at the picture, the best thing to do is get underneath the car and give it a good clean then keep monitoring to see where it's coming from.

the common areas to look for is, the rubber engine mount which sits to the left of the engine as you're looking at the engine, these have oil in them and often leak.

the sump gasket is also a common cause for oil leaks.

hope this helps.

[iain cooper]

yes you cannot tell from the pictures where the oil is coming from.

as Khalil posts clean all the oil off and monitor the situation..........if you do have a leak it could even be near the top of the engine and running down to where you have seen it.

eg rocker cover, etc

have you recently had it serviced or any work done on it ?

[BUTTONMUSH]

"the rubber engine mount which sits to the left of the engine as you're looking at the engine"

I know about the annoying one above the SC when you open the bonnet (failed a couple of summers back) but by your comment do you mean relative to the picture I have taken? (ie from behind the passenger wheel looking fowards)

2nd picture is poor but basically the oil doesn't seem to be above the area pictured.

As for work...it had it's Inspection 1 about 4000k miles/ year ago.

If there are other mounts down below that have the same rubbish oil spilling characteristics as the top one, are they easily replaced?

[khalil]

Hi,
I was referring to the one as you on the left hand side when you "open the bonnet and look at the engine" the same one which you've had fail previously.

I don't THINK the other mounts are oil filled, i'm sure someone else could confirm that.

I think the safest option is to clean it and monitor it, like Iain mentioned it could be running down from the top of the engine.

[Ade1986]

I took mine to mini when it was under warranty with similar leak thinking it was the sump gasket. Had a phone call when it was all apart to say it would take a bit longer because it was the crankshaft oil seal that had gone.

[BUTTONMUSH]

Right, I cleaned the underside off shortly after my last post so there was no oil to the touch. Had a drive up to crewe yesterday so (with all the short journeys since) I thought it was time to have a looky underneath.

[iain cooper]

I'm not sure from the picture if this is the oil drain plug..........someone else may confirm.

if it is it should have a copper washer fitted and should also be tight.

easy to check, but I'm always suspicious as people seem to have oil leaks appearing after a visit to the dealers.

I once had a Landrover, and after three years sitting on my driveway with never any oil leaks I put it in for a service and they discovered an oil leak from the transmission ??

don't worry sir it should be covered by the warranty !!

I also have a 24 year old Golf GTI which has never ever been back to the dealer for anything, and guess what, never had an oil leak.

as I've said before, this is how the dealers make their money, and there's not a lot you can do about it, as it's a hard thing to prove.

[XRV848]

No, that's not the drain plug. The drain plug has a dab of blue paint on it, just to the left and below the power steering fan.
Try to look around the engine and make sure that it isn't oil leaking from further up and running down. At this end of the engine there is also the possibility that the oil fill cap is loose or that some oil was spilt when re-filling and is running down the back of the engine.
This is really just clutching at straws though, the location and the amount of oil really point to one of two problems, the oil pan gasket or the crankshaft oil seal. The oil pan (sump) gasket takes about 4 hours to replace (I have to change mine, it seems to be leaking in several places) and the oil seal will take much longer as the transmission and flywheel has to be removed.

[khalil]

Hi Button,
The bolt you have circled is one of about 10 to 12 which secure the sump (oil pan). I have recently changed my sump gasket and had to remove this bolt to get the sump off.

Its really easy to fit the sump gasket but time consuming - 4 hours is reasonable if you're good with tools.

hope this helps, the gasket costs about £18 from bmw.

[BUTTONMUSH]

[quote=khalil;3717451]Hi Button,
The bolt you have circled is one of about 10 to 12 which secure the sump (oil pan). I have recently changed my sump gasket and had to remove this bolt to get the sump off.

Its really easy to fit the sump gasket but time consuming - 4 hours is reasonable if you're good with tools.

hope this helps, the gasket costs about £18 from bmw.[/QUOTE

Cheers for that, I'll hopefully be getting it over to 1320's soon when I get the time, maybe a 15% whilst it's there

[BUTTONMUSH]

Just realised I never finished this off....think it was some Oil run down from top up as after washing it properly down below it never came back.