I have a 08 Cooper hatchback,this morning I noticed sparkplug tubes filled with oil. Is this somewhat normal for these Mini's to fill up like this?
Welcome! You can get oil in the spark plug tubes if you add oil this way: [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DM6x1iK-XY8"]The blonde and the engine oil - YouTube[/ame]
It's not exactly the valve cover gasket, it's the seals around the tubes, which you get to by removing the valve cover. If someone had the valve cover off and forgot to put those seals back on or if they've just gotten old and hard you can get a significant amount of oil in those tubes. The fix is easy, a new valve cover gasket and new tube seals - they're fairly easy to change