Hi I'm Mike
 

Here's a little story about how I became a Mini owner....

It all started when my wife and I decided to buy her sister a car, we had sold our Tahoe and planned to buy her a $3k-$4k car. As I looked for cars everything in that price range was junk and I would spend more time fixing it that it would spend on the road so I upped the budget to $10k and found a great used Passat. A few months later the Passat was hit by a crazy light pole that jumped out in to the middle of the road :sad: (someone was texting and driving). So after it was totaled I went on the search again, this time for a car with a manual transmission. Thinking for someone who has never driven stick they won't be able to text(that didn't last long). I found an 03 MCS with about 70k for $9.5k it drove fine, had a little clutch chirp(slave needed some grease) but was otherwise in great shape.

Fast forward to last month, the battery had died so we decided to be nice and get the car and fix the battery/alternator/whatever. So we go and jump the car, fires right up, and drive it home. On the drive home I notice the last oil change was 12K miles ago, well maybe they didn't reset it look for the sticker, same 12k miles ago :eek: So I baby it home and check the dip stick, no oil, I add a quart, no oil, this goes on for 4 quarts until it's full. (Side Note: How was the oil light not on????) So I parked it in the garage, put it on the battery tender, and left it for the night.

The next day I go out to the garage to check on the battery and notice a large puddle of oil under the car :eek: so I tossed a cardboard box under it to soak up some of the oil and see where it was dripping from. I also topped it back off to check how much had spilled (2 quarts). So I moved the car and put it up on jack stands, get under it to see if I can narrow down the leak… OMG this thing has been leaking for a while the entire underside of the car is caked with dirt and oil, the PS Fan is almost unrecognizable, there is also a PS leak. At this point I remember that there was a 5 qt jug of oil and a bottle of PS fluid in the trunk… so someone knew it was leaking and instead of fixing it they decided to just keep driving it. :mad: This was the point where I became a Mini owner!

Now the car is mine and I will be working on it for the next few weeks to get everything back to the way it should be (also adding some fun parts)

Here is a photo of how she looks right now.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...7cb5c23081.jpg

Wow thats crazy, might have an oil pan gasket leak or the oil filter housing leak? Yea with low oil, should had at least the oil pressure light kick on?

Its black oil correct? Not clear or anything else.

Let me know what you find.

What do you mean black oil? :confused: I'm sure it was motor oil, and it was very dark.

Mike

Just making sure its not a crazy P/S pump leak with CHF 11s. Its clear/green a tint. Or transmission fluid (little redish and smells stinky)or something. Because I don't know how you did not have an issue with only 1-1.5 qts of oil left. Or a light.

Good luck on the fix, i hope you can find where that leak is at.

Thanks! I have another thread going about the leak https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-in-there.html

Welcome and sorry. It'll be interesting to follow your progress.

Welcome, great story. Funny I just moved from Memphis to Clarksville. Cheers!

Welcome. Hope this is the end of the issues

Welcome.


Keep us posted.


Motor On!

Thanks for the warm welcome, if you want to follow the progress I have a thread going here https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-in-there.html

Mike