There's oil leaking and then there's oil seeping ...

Leaking oil pans seems to be a common fault, but unless you are seeing oil drips under your car or are having to top up the oil frequently, it's something you can delay having done.

 

True....

My car is seeping oil very slightly i need a new copper washer on one bolt on the back off the cylinder head.

£450 to change a sump gasket is an absolute P*ss Take from the dealers its a good few hours work but they will have it done in less than no time.

Ive dropped my sump before and it took about 4 hours on and off because the aircon pump is attached to it and it was fiddly on axle stands.

What area do you live in? maybe a sponsor can do it much cheaper.

 

I've got the same problem, but the leak is slight so should be fine for some time yet... I was quoted silly money to repair it too...

 

I would also make sure the leaking oil is not dripping onto something like and electrical harness. That would not be good.

 

check it yourself and/or get a second opinion.

not unusual for the dealer to fake or deliberately cause a leak to rip you off !!

eg my discovery sat on my driveway on the same spot for three years, never any sign of an oil leak,...............took it to the dealer for a service and suddenly they found an oil leak from the transmission which they fixed under warranty !!

in my opinion sump leaks are happening much too frequently with minis to be genuine.

 

hmmm interesting points peeps

problem is of course we dont want to take any risks - lets see - i live in the essex area - i will check for any spills and action from there

400 quid IS a joke!

 

400 quid IS a joke!

Labor to replace the oil pan gasket is 3.5 hours.

 

I looked at about 10 Mini Cooper S manufactured in 2003/2004 both private and main dealers. 8 of them had weeping sump gaskets

 

I have seen alot of cooper s sump gaskets seeping, but the cooper one rarely seeps... its because there is a build up of pressure in the crankcase caused by supercharger pressure bleading past the check valve in the rocker cover (little plastic valve on the left hand side of the cover as you look at it from the front of the engine bay)

remove this valve and check if it is working by blowing thru it, you should only be able to blow one way, check its operation several times, giving it a gentle tap off of something inbetween each test, if any of the tests allows you to blow in either direction... replace it, they are only about a tenner anyway!

I have saved 8 MCS owners from the expense of a sump removal by fitting this valve so far (chances are, the new gasket would have leaked within a few months again anyway, because the cause of the gasket failure had not been rectified!)... and £450 is what I would expect a dealer to charge, an independant should be around the £150-200 mark... although, my guys have changed a damaged one in 10 minutes before!!!

 

Do I have a weeping sump?

I've noticed an oil patch on the drive at home (or what I assume is oil, it feels like oil!), which has grown slightly over the winter, underneath the left hand side of the engine, but there is no oil patch under the car in my office garage at all. And nothing visible from the engine bay.

Also I just had my annual MOT inspection (they're usually very thorough indeed here in Finland, as the inspection centres are run by the government, so not like the UK at all), and the inspector didn't comment on any oil leak while the car was up on the lift, or lack of any fluids at all.

And if it's not the sump, would it likely be an engine mount leaking?

I'm running an April 2006 MCS with 22,000km (it only managed 9,000 in the 1st two years!), and I don't abuse it. So, any ideas?

PS I've been checking the oil, no noticeable difference in levels.

 

MCS 09/2002
I have this issue too. I'll change the gasket this WE. Just a couple of month ago, I've also changed the o-ring on the oil gauge. This car is leaking a bit but the engine is fit even after 153000km ! Good boy !

 

aha! fiendish boche engineering, eh? engines have long been supposed to not have positive crankcase pressure exactly so there's no leaking/venting etc. cars used to have a crakcase vent to atmosphere - my first three cars were like that (er...i'm that old) and it's cr*p but helps with corrosion control!

I too have a quote from local stealer (they always have nice posh premises, don't they?) for ballistic dosh to change an apparrent weep, no mess on drive but the engine is oily down there. I'll look for the vent/pressure valve tomorrow.

 

R53 oil sump leak

Well not knowing all of the tidbits noted below in this thread, I took it upon myself to replace the gasket and the oil cooler gasket while I was there. I'm also replacing the oil pan gasket which is leaking quite bad. So I have a couple of questions I'm hoping to get answered:

1) Does anyone know the torque value for the three oil sump 13mm bolts?

2) C. Noble talks about a check valve on the left side of the engine to verify proper operation. Can someone help me locate the valve or tell me the proper name as called out in the Bentley Manual?

 

According to my TIS CD
Oil pan drain plug 25 Nm
AC compressor to engine 25 Nm
Lower stabilizer to oil sump holder 100 Nm (the 2 big bolts for the lower vibration mount)
Stabilizer bracket to oil sump 45 Nm (4 bolts lower vibration mount to oil pan)
Transmission to sump bolts 85 Nm (3 bolts transmission)
Sump to crankcase (13 bolts) 31 Nm.

 

Can anyone help me in locating this valve noble is referring to

 

Anyone got any idea??

 

its on the top of the engine on the left hand side in front of the MINI label. It has a rubber hose connected to it and it simply bolts in to the cylinder head cover facing you. It is fragile plastic so don't break it when you pull the hose off.

 

Is it this here?

 

Yes that's the one. You cannot get the middle one anymore from BMW, they only do the one that screws in (bottom). You'd have to check there is a thread for it on older models.

 

Well, my valve is functioning perfectly

So not the cause of my weeping sump gasket.
Well, I'm guessing it's this. Could be the crank seal/gasket, as I've heard this is common too and causes oil to cover the sump gasket.

Only owned the car a month, and the oil level hasn't dropped at all though.

 

Using a rubber gasket in a heat cyclic area is going to create a problem in the future. We have just had ours changed, as was leaking from the back of the sump. Ours was done at 72k miles, although a mates was 34k and was told of it leaking. Age ahd heat will in time cause it to leak. My mate has a garage buisness and changed ours on a major service and the gasket isnt expensive at about £20 and the labour was about an hour. So thats about £60 to me inc vat every 70k miles. He has used a sealant as well as the new gasket and said it will never leak again anyway.................................... and then 1k miles later out power steering pump goes.............aaarrgghhhhh...........bloody minis