1st Gen R53 Cooper S Most liked posts in thread: Oil Pan Gasket Failures?

Mine has been weeping for the past year (currently at 60K+ miles). No dripping. I check the level regularly and have not had to add much oil. MINI of St. Louis charges $700 for the job and I have decided to just live with it for a while.

The bottom of my pan had been dry and clean until I absent-mindedly (stupidly) added too much oil during an oil change. The gasket may have a fixed life span, but also be careful about how much oil you put in!

 

It doesn't help that most of our cars had the oil pan used as a jacking point to support the motor during a pulley swap and/or motor mount/bushing replacement. That's a lot of extra weight compressing the gasket beyond the factory torque.

 

Update: I fixed the oil leak for now. So if it keeps leaking I will be happy to do the write up but for now it has been post-poned...

 

I have oil dripping on to the floor in my carport. Hoping it's engine oil.. easier than taking the transmission out again. Level still looks fine for engine oil, so we'll see. I'll have to do some analyzing of where exactly it's coming from sometime after the holiday.

I'll try and do some kind of write-up when I get started fixing it. Need to check that there's still oil in the supercharger too while I'm at it.

 

I read this thread a few months ago and jinxed myself by thinking "Hah, there's a problem my car doesn't have!"
Low and behold this weekend when I did an oil change/belt replacement I notice a film all over the oil-pan. It's not dripping and I can't get to the dealership until Jan. I'll just have to play this carefully, I'm 2500 miles from the end of my warranty.
The bad thing is they'll drain my Royal Purple when they fix this and refill with the recommended Castrol, I know it's good enough but it's a shame to waste such expensive oil.

 

Oil Pan Gasket Leaking after Repair on Monday!

Hello everyone,

I was doing some searching online and found this thread related to first gen mini's.

I have a 2006 JCW mini with 50,000 miles on it and last I noticed in my garage I have oil spots / puddles on the floor. When it's parked it's on the passenger side of the engine.

Previously when I had a leak it was the engine mount leaking and a cracked thermostat. All repair under warranty last year. My warranty expired in November of 2009 - I suspected it was the same thing so I took it in this past Monday (12/28/2009). Since it would still be covered if it was those 2 things.

Nope, the gasket on the oil pan is leaking. $138 to do an inspection to find the problem, it's $59.99 for the part and 5 hours later it's $840 for a new gasket and replace the oil.

So.. I get my car back yesterday thinking it's all good, I pull out of my garage today and see fresh oil spots on the ground. I called Long Beach Mini, ( I'm in California ) and raised hell.

In the previous comments on this thread you guys were saying it's a common issue.

Well if it's a brand new gasket it shouldn't be leaking!

:mad2:

 

The post above deserves repeating. The blow-by past the crank position sensor can spit a fair amount of oil; when combined with a weeping water pump O-ring, you get a characteristic dispersed mess on the pan and dripping.

For dripping on the passenger side, consider spillover from an oil change, loose canister cover, or loose camchain cover; don’t rule out a failed control arm bushing either.

At rest, the oil level is below the gasket line. Under dynamic conditions the oil splashes everywhere and there is a return galley above it, but I don’t think there should be a worry of losing significant amounts of oil through a weeping pan gasket.

 

Thanks for your response! I was thinking if it was in the shop and they inspected it and tested everything and the only that came back is the gasket leaking. Should I wait a few days before I go in to see if there are any more leaks?

Cheers!

 

I had mine replaced under warranty Monday (1000 miles until my warranty is up). The dealer replaced it and the O2 sensor with no real issues and all in about 2 1/2 hours.

 

It's great you got it done under warranty.

I just can't get myself to shell out ~ $700 to the dealer when they are going to get the job done in ~2 hours. :frown5:

 

you can replace the sensor yourself...just get some jackstands or a roll up ramp and they sell a o2 sensor remover or you can rent one from autozone or advanced...just unhook it from the harness and unbolt it from the header...ive removed mine a few times when working on my exhaust just to make sure i dont yank the wires or something...new o2 sensors are on my list of things i want to replace

 

I had my pan gasket leak. but it's fix under $200 hopefully it won't happen again!

 

Had an oil leak, dealer replaced oil pan gasket under warranty (46,000 miles). I hope that resolves the leak.

 

I recently had mine replaced twice under warranty within 15k due to leaking.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Discovered mine leaking after warranty ended. It just weeps a little bit like most British cars.
Just a reminder to keep an eye on the oil level.

 

same here!

got my oil pan gasket replaced around 45K. nothing wrong with the pan though thanks god