1st Gen R53 Cooper S 130k Cooper S - Dissappearing oil!

Hey guys...

My fiancee has a '05 Cooper S with just over 130k on the clock. Car runs great, starts fine and pulls hard - no issues. We changed out the oil just before the cold season (put in a fresh load of MINI-OEM oil and a new filter).

I don't drive the car all that often but I was driving it the other day and I noticed more than the usual amount of engine noise at start and idle. No smoke whatsoever on startup (absolutely none). While in a hard turn, the oil light flickered so I checked it immediately and found there wasn't even eough oil to wet the dipstick! :idea:

Long story short, she was about 3.5 quarts low... I topped her up with fresh Mobil-1 5W-30 and have fresh filters and oil on order.

I know the Gen1 MINI engines use up oil at higher mileages, but I thought it would be about .5-1 quart with the amount of driving she does (about 5K-6K since her last change). I can't find any leaks in the usual places (pans, etc.) nor am I seeing any spotting on the garage floor of any kind.

Is this just a case of "high-mileage = keep a closer eye on things" or should I check something out specifically? Like I said, there's ZERO smoke on startup so I don't suspect valves, and the car pulls almost as hard as my '05 R52 with only 33k on the clock, so I wasn't going to do a compression test.

Thanks in advance!!

-Matt

 

Don't know if it's recent or not I'm afraid... Since MY car doesn't really consume all that much oil, I wasn't keeping that close an eye on it ((sheepish)) - just changing it every 4K-5K or so. I'll keep an eye on it more closely and also check the coolant - thanks for the tip!

Re: Rings - wouldn't I have blue smoke on cold startup or excessive tailpipe deposits as a result of that? I'll pull the plugs and check them - I don't know when they were last replaced, anyway, so it gives me a good excuse.

 

I looked pretty close (as best I could lying on the garage floor crammed beneath the car, anyway) and didn't see any really grungy/wet/oily spots, but I'll have the car up on ramps for the oil change so I'll look again. Last oil looked fine - no cheese or any other indicators of moisture, but I'll check the current stuff. I'm shopping for plugs as we speak - anyone have any good recommendations for her? She's a very mild driver and seldom puts the hammer down (unlike me... heh), so just basic, well-performing units are fine.

 

Crap... that would have been a good idea... Feh.

Oh, well - he had to order a few goodies I'm putting on this summer anyway, so I'll just ask him then. Thanks!

 

Yeah, I know it... My classic gets checked every single time I start it, but the new MINIs are so high-tech I fell into a state of complacency. Totally my bad. rrr:

Oil filters obtained and I'm switching to Mobil-1 All Synthetic. The other stuff's (Redline, Royal Purple, etc.) is just too bloody expensive if the car's gonna gulp it down at that kind of rate. I'll change it often - I know me.

Thanks, guys!