1st Gen R53 Most liked posts in thread: Oil leak.

I think you've figured it out at this point. But, as confirmation, I had a similar leak and YES it was in fact a leaking timing cover gasket. Its a simple fix, cheap, and you can do it without pulling the motor -- takes longer to pull all the pulleys off than replacing the gasket. The gasket is super small (thin, round) and fits in a grove. I also replaced the oil pump seal rings ( 1 lower and 1 upper) and front main seal. Its all right there in front of you. And, note a few of the cover bolts have small sealing 0-rings. Good luck with that.

 

Lee,

It looks like you have an old school TV Dinner on your intake box. Lol

As for your oil leak look at your upper tensioner bolt area. Also the upper bushing on your tensions is going fail soon you don’t adjust it. Zoom in on you picture to see what I mean.

I think you oil leak is up by the valve cover / timing chain cover area. Start with wrench and start checking the tightness of each bolt in that area. (Every bolt) Also double check the valve cover bolts torque settings because one of them could have backed out of spec.

 

the type of camera I have - put it on a stick when you need it on a stick, but you can usually get away with the cable itself bent into the right shape to get it into inaccessible spaces. It has a light on the tip, so you can see in the dark spots, too

https://www.amazon.com/Endoscope-Inspection-Waterproof-Automotive-Semi-rigid/dp/B078QBQPBR/

 

likely isn't a JCW then. in 05/06 these were factory options, not dealer installed. Sellers love to call their cars JCW because they see them sell for more, and most buyers don't know the difference.

 

somewhere around the oil filter looks most likely. Some oil will move up with air flow and g forces, so unless there is a lot above that area, I wouldn't worry about anything higher than where you can find a lot of oil. It is amazing where you will find oil on the backside of the engine if you let the dip stick and CPS leak long enough. I had oil all over the car in the left side and all it was were those leaks behind the radiator.

 

Not saying it's that. Looks like too much fresh flow to be creeping around from the front, unless something like the dip stick tube got unseated. That's unlikely. You'd also have oil on the alternator and not so much on the exhaust. I would check oil filter area in detail if possible. I bought a USB inspection camera just for stuff like that.

 

I fixed one of them over 3 years ago, no leaks over 15k miles. Must confess, I always add some high temp RTV silicone to add a little extra insurance, though.

None of my cars have had an oil leak after I fixed the ones I found on them. All three had dip stick and CPS sensor leaks. One had a top valve cover leak. That's it. All other oil found under the cars has to be blamed on the sloppy oil changer pulling a filter before it was fully drained or transmission oil drain bolts not tightened enough.

 

could be tie rod ends. I replaced them on my 100k Mini last summer. The old ones were ok, but when I got them off, the link was just floppy loose, while the new part was nearly impossible to move in the ball joint or whatever it is called, just tight and unlikely to make any noise when pushed to the extreme steering positions at the end of your lock.

could totally be something else, but at 170k, I would say all your ball joints and tie rod ends are worn out. .

 

well, a good opportunity to replace timing chain guides and tensioner, or even the whole assembly, as it is a lot easier to see and access with the cover off. Pulling the engine may not really be necessary. Gotta check a few mod-mini videos to be sure, but I'd be surprised if you need to take the whole thing out just to get to those cover bolts

 

True, but some dealers still installed the JCW kits on cars.

BMW / MINI had JCW kits in the supply line they needed sold because they knew the next car would have the great turbo N14 motor.

 

big effort difference between dropping the subframe and taking the whole engine out, but I am thinking that at least one of my cars will soon have the engine out, mostly to do the clutch, maybe to do a differential, but mostly to clean everything up.

It's actually not hard at all, I hear - under 90 minutes if you have a little practice

 

With your 3 cars, I think you will have a little practice sooner or later!

 

I have a usb camera also. They look like this but mine is better quality. I hook it up to my iPad Pro 12.9 screen.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/HD720P-WIFI-Endoscope-Camera-8mm-Lens-5M-3-5M-2M-1M-Snake-Pipe-Inspection-Iphone-Borescop/32756346544.html

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Waterproof-HD-2M-7mm-Endoscope-Lens-Mini-USB-Inspection-Camera-with-6-LED-Lights-Borescope-for-Android-Smartphone-PC-Laptop/924102324?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=9869&adid=22222222227083850308&wmlspartner=wmtlabs&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=t&wl3=196367365898&wl4=pla-314984353131&wl5=9007365&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=115780161&wl11=online&wl12=924102324&wl13=&veh=sem

 

He forgot to peel the foil back over the brownie compartment... it's gonna be all soggy now!

How is the valve cover gasket? Most of the stuff on the bottom of the oil pan I would have blamed on a front crank sensor (those things start leaking within months of being installed), but several of those were way too high, IMHO, for that to be the sole cause.