R56 1.4 oil leak

Sounds like a oil pan gasket that went out. The only other thing around the front of the engine is the turbo oil line. You were talking about a crack hard pipe for coolant before this. And it leads me to believe what you might be seeing is coolant coming from the weep hole of the auxiliary waterpump to that turbo(if you have one.)
The crank seal will cause alot of fluid to leak I don't know how it could do that though. Unless it is pooling up on the triangle splash shield and when you hit little bumps in the road it splashes up toward the front of the engine. A crank seal is easy enough to replace and is cheap. I would us a 1/4 inch socket extension and a tac hammer to drive that seal in it works perfect for me. make sure you get the seal kit that comes with the blue plastic dome to sleeve over the crank hub until the seal is over the hub enough to finish driving it in.
Starting the car sometimes shows where a leak is occuring also. If you broke the pvc hose to the intake you might have also had a cracked neck on the valve cover that the pvc hose connects to(it's fragile.)
Simple leaks on my mini were as follows.
1. Hard pipe(coolant leak)
2.aux waterpump(coolant leak)
3.Valve cover (vacuum leak).
4.crank seal from putting it in backwards once(oil leak)
5. Vanos from not clocking it to the bolt hole yet was flush with engine(oil leak).
6.cracked heater core(coolant smell coolant leak in cabin of car) which I bought a new one AC Delco or something like that.
7. overfill tank underneath hose(coolant leak).
8.windshield washer fluid pump connection (washer fluid leak). I just used sealant around the sump end of the washer pump and a zip tie to stabilize from bumps on the road to fix it.
9. not really a leak but oil residue from the cumbersome way that I remove the oil filter each time.

Never had a petrol leak and never had a oil line leak from the turbo although I have replaced the banjo bolt washers with copper washers sense they are cheaper and still crush washers.

thomp1983 said:

Hi all,

My nieces 2008 1.4 mini has come to me with a coolant leak, I've traced this to the well known pipe into the water pump breaking at the end.

She also mentioned its been using some oil (helpfully no mention of how much over what mileage)

The pcv hose where it joins onto the inlet manifold is coated in oil so I've ordered a new one as there known to fail, I don't think is the main source though.

At the drivers side front of the engine there is oil residue all over the rear of the radiator shroud, there is also a large amount of oil gathering on the bottom of the alternator before dropping off, I can't see any trace of oil above the alternator or feel any from the headgasket in that corner.

Is it possible a crank seal leak is able to flung that far by the pulley and belt as I can't see much else in that area to leak?

Thanks
Chris

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cover the oil leaks first, the one on front can only come from a few places, 1, rocker cover, 2 the oil control solenoids front and rear the 0-ring can go hard, 3 vac pump on side of head leak a lot,, 4 lower down oil filter housing, 5 crankshaft oil seals, 6 inlet manifold pcv pipe , sumps leak if not been sealed correctly if been removed at any point,
i would pull then one at a time and clean off and use wellseal sealant dont use to much very thinly,
the link water pipe at rear of engine are cheap to buy remove the inlet manifold is best way and once again i use wellseal on both ends,, little tip when removing the inlet manifold there is a single 10mm bolt at the very bottom can only gain access to it from under the car,,
its possible to use UV dye in oil and use black light to find the leaks as well
wellseal
uv dye kit with light
rear link pipe to water pump

ok so today I've had time to do some more work on this, new ebay coolant pipe fitted along with genuine o rings and thermostat seal from my local bmw dealer and there is now no coolant leak, good news.

Next up was the oil leak, I replaced the inlet manifold pcv pipe while doing the coolant leak as I could clearly see it had failed, this appears to have been dripping down the back of the engine and onto the cv joint which I suspect is what has sprayed oil up the radiator cowl but I wasn't happy this explained the oil on and around the alternator.

I've removed the crank pulley and there's no sign of any leaks there which is good news as I replaced it just over 12 months ago. Next I removed the alternator as it's only 3 bolts and you just can't see past it which has revealed this,



that's the joint between the head and block looking form beneath the car and as you can see it is leaking a small amount of oil, I'm not convinced that's enough to cause all the oil all over the bottom of the alternator although I can see where it#s dripped onto the wiring conduit and over time dripped down onto the alternator so it may be, either way that'll be a head gasket replacement to fix and im not sure if my niece will want to pay the couple hundred quid parts bill at the minute given she's furloughed due to being a hairdresser.

I've cleaned all traces of the leaks with brake cleaner and im currently charging the battery so I can run it for awhile with the alternator disconnected to see how bad it leaks, I'll also need to keep an eye on the coolant temp with my code reader as the alternator belt also drives the waterpump.

Chris