1st Gen R53 Cooper S Mysterious Grease??

Hmmm, my first thought was the engine mount... maybe just early enoug to splatter a bit and not enouth to pool under the damper.

Another possibility would be steering fluid. The factory clamps like to come loose from the top and bottom of the 2 tubes that lead from the bottom of the resovoir down to the steering rack. A shop caught my '06 MCS leaking there during a track inspection and I never had a tell tale puddle under the car. The steering pump was gummed up with goo and road dirt, though... it must have been leaking a bit at a time for a while under harder steering conditions.

 

If thick greasy goo, my bet is a blown CV boot. Need to get it checked ASAP - running this way for extended mileage can result in CV failure or wear, and need for a new axle. If you catch it early, you can just have the boot replaced and repacked.

 

If it's way up there, then likely a leaking engine mount... but that's not thick greasy goo, just oily gunk. lol

 

If its Black its mostly the engine mount. If you remove the bottom bolt holding it to the body and fluid comes out thats your problem.
You need to check both inside and outside CV boots. Check them by hand and see if they are split/torn. If it is the CV shaft you may be able to save it with a repair kit instead of buying the whole part

 

Maybe it's left over from the first one that failed??

 

Here is a pic of the bolt that goes up into the bottom of the engine mount. It was taken laying on my back under the front passenger side tire, pulling the wheel well liner away a bit (you can see the crank pulley). Like someone mentioned above, loosen the strangely shaped bolt in the center of the pic. If oil drips out, you now know the problem.



The replacement isn't a snap, but it's doable if you are handy with tools. I'm on damper #3 for my '06 MCS, so yes... they can blow again. Way Motorworks sells the TSW upper engine damper to replace this part, if you want to go non-stock to solve it once and for all.

A to-do article I wrote a few weeks ago is here: http://www.motoringalliance.com/library/1st-generation-mini-cooper-how-to-3/powerflex-transmission-mount-bushing-install-w-upper-engine-damper-replacement-82/

 

External torx / female torx / reverse torx... my craftsman socket is marked E12.

 

Yeah... it's looks funky, but a standard metric socket from my Home Depot special (Husky brand) socket set fit it just fine. I just treated it as a regular old bolt and had no problems.

You can tell from the grease splatter in the pic, that I was definately having a problem with the damper, and once I loosened the bolt, oil came dripping down (1 drop a second for 15-20 seconds or so). I didn't have a huge mess on the upper frame rail with this one (like I did with the first one that blew around 25k miles), but there was some build-up there which was my first alert that there was a problem.

 

Congratulations on finding the problem!

Order the transmission engine mount bush from Powerflex from him too. I'm liking that mod more and more now and it's fairly simple to do while you are replacing the upper motor mount. Some have reported additional NVH with that bushing addition, though I haven't. Poke around the website for the thoughts of others to get a balanced view.

 

Correct.

 

haha Strangled Shaped bolt... I like it.... crazy european cars
Yeah if you loosen that and get hydraulic oil on your head its the engine mount
You may have replaced it before but the next can leak... trust me