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R56 oil consumption / weeping gearbox seal

16K views 7 replies 6 participants last post by  KidneySD 
#1 ·
Hello all,

First post on this forum so be gentle...!

Missus has a R56 Cooper (one of the first R56s I believe) in Lightning Blue. I had it on a ramp the other day and noticed a very moist gearbox casing.

Files now attached!

Now it looks like the gearbox seal is weeping oil. I filled it up the other week so will check again this weekend to see how much it's consumed, but I reckon it's in the order of around a litre every 1200 miles (maybe a bit more) which I would say is a lot. My motorcycle and Focus RS use much, much less than this. So this has got me thinking that it is an engine oil leak despite the visual evidence to the contrary. Also the oil it looks to me like used engine oil, golden but quite dark and dirty. I would also expect the transmission oil to be red as many OEMs seem to put ATF in their manual boxes.

I've always found the engine quite noisy, very rattley and whistley almost, hard to explain, but other than this along with the gearbox it runs fine.

So I guess my questions are; is it the 'box seal weeping or an engine oil leak? Anything that could be a common issue? Is that amount of oil consumption for this engine (1.6L NA, so not the MCS) normal? Are these engines usually so bloody noisy?!

Thanks!
 

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#3 ·
Bit difficult to say from just a description, yes engines use oil, gearboxes can leak and engines make a noise, to what degree depends on many things, age, how its been looked after, mileage, so without actually seeing it first hand its hard to say whether its more than normal.
Someone says my engine is leaking is it normal, well could be they all leak in the end once the seals and rings wear out.

How much an engine consumes oil wise can also depend on how the engine has been used in the past, if they arent run in correctly, or given chance to bed in, in other words foot down from the word go, they will always consume more oil as it never bedded in properly.
 
#4 ·
Hello jim, from the look of your pictures your right hand side gearbox side is leaking, these do happen before time to time on the r56 gearbox. To answer your question the mini gearbox uses mtf 95-96 which is gold in colour almost like engine oil. BMW/MINI highly does not recommend the use of atf in there gearbox as this has cause heavy wear issues.

At this age on a r56, look for the sump gasket seal, which is non to leak next to the rear engine mount and run along and run down the gearbox. This is where I would look and also look at the timing chain tensioner, there famous for the sealing ring to leak.

Finally on a mini with that many years have a look at the rocker cover or cam cover gasket these leak often and u will see signs of oil all down the front or back or possibly both if it is leaking.

Minitech93
 
#5 ·
Thanks mate that's some very helpful information, particularly about the gearbox oil colour.

I've checked around the top of the engine at interfaces and all seems fine, but will check the chain tensioner and get underneath again and properly inspect the sump as it's something I haven't considered but is certainly a possibility. I hope it is the sump and not the diff seal, as it would explain the engines taste for oil and is a much easier job!

Have you changed the diff seal before? Is it a difficult job?

Thanks
 
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