So I was stuck in rush hour traffic a few days ago behind a crappy old saturn, inhaling some godawefull burning oil fumes and I'm thinking to myself its time for buddy to trade up to a less carcinogenic model. A few blocks later and another set of lights - saturn is gone but I still smell the oil. Okay, it must be the old pickup behind me, right? It takes a few days of similar happenings to finally admit the problem is me. Yes I am suddenly burning oil like an old diesel city bus and I only just passed 120,000 km (74k mi). :mad2: So, is my engine doomed? Do I need an expensive overhaul, or is there maybe a simpler explanation that is common for middle-aged R56's that I don't know about?
I think its likely that your engine may be burning oil, Do a compression and leak down test and see how that turns out. if not check the oil lines that feed into the turbo as they are prone to leak. also check for leaks around anything else that may be hot enough to burn oil off. have you been having any trouble with cold starts?
I'll assume the burning oil smell is being drawn in through the front vents. The first thing I would look for is oil seepage at the oil connection lubricating the turbo bearing. That crimped oil line connection has a flexible gasket o ring seal. They are known to start leaking after awhile. I suspect MINI is aware of this since the came out with a heat shield that clips over the fitting (see pic). Tightening the banjo bolt won't stop the leak if the rubber seal inside the crimped fitting is the culprit. The oil line will need to be replaced..... If this is where it's leaking...... Item #20 is the heat shield Item #6 is the suspect oil line.
Thanks for the input guys. It's pretty smelly under the hood after going for a drive today. I checked the oil line and it is pretty loose at the banjo fitting where part 6 meets part 7 (lower end in the diagram). I can easily slide it in and out of the fitting - there's at least a 1/4 inch of movement. That just seems wrong - is it supposed to do that? Surprisingly, I don't see any oil around the fitting though. Maybe it burns off right away due to the turbo heat, or else the leak is somewhere else.
A friend of mine just had that part replaced... it's a known issue- the rubber cracks and dries out and then you get the oil leaking and smell. I'd get it checked out/replaced asap.
Funny thing.... One of the guys mentioned smelling oil during our dent party. Sure enough, failed flex seal at the crimped joint.
That would be me. I have oil build up at the front of the valve cover which appears to be blow by from the cracked o ring. Looks like a bad design to me with the amount of high heat from the turbo. A better design would be a stainless flex line IMO. Has anyone replaced this oil line with anything different than the OEM line? I would think one of the engine builders on here would have a solution.
Good idea Mark. And if the line had a larger ID, that would also be better. Less chance of getting plugged and coked up. Better oil flow as well. ...
I took mine in for burning oil, and the smell.. It turns out the oil pan was loose ever since then it has not come back. If you need the torque specs, I can look them up.
Here ya go Mark, they can / should be able to make a custom line kit for you. A kit typically runs $30.00, not bad at all..... Techna-Fit | Turbo Oil Line Kits
If I am to go to a mechanic, how much would he charge? I mean I would buy this part to replace the turbo line leak. Locally I was told this cost me $1100.
:cornut: Print off the above post and take it(with your MINI) to a local California shop that works on 'a lot of MINIs' and ask them.It will be $100s and $100s less than $1100. Jason
Update. I wimped out and just had the dealer take care of it. It was $500 and change to replace the oil line with new oem. I was glad I did because they also fixed an annoying squeak I thought was from the poly control arm bushing, that turned out to be a loose bolt on the transmission mount.
Thanks for the heads up on this I too took my Mini into Global Imports here in Atlanta due to the 1/4" slide of the turbo oil inlet line. I was quoted $1296.39 for the repairs labor being $1072.88, needless to say I had a tow truck come and pick up my '09 S and tow to a local repair shop where I will have this done using the parts you mentioned above as I feel this is a terrible design having a crimp connector on a part that gets so hot and what happens to metal when it gets hot - it expands so over the course of 70k miles it will start leaking.
This may be old thread can you send me the photo of part or send part # to [email protected]. Thank you