I've got a little oil leak going on (what mini doesn't...) but I checked under my Mini yesterday and the piece of cardboard i put under the car was soaked all the way through (piece about the length of a piece of paper and about 6 inches wide). I checked the dipstick and it said the car was full of oil... Anyone got an explanation? It could've been sure but the last I checked it was full... I'm going to be doing an oil change soon so I might not have to worry too much about this.....

 

It's a MINI. Worry about it when it stops leaking. Same as old Jeeps and Harley Davidsons. In all seriousness, you'll need to find from where the oil is escaping the engine/trans. It could be leaking from the axle seals, or from any of the seals for that matter. I'm not familiar with the auto trans, so I can't help there. Get some rags and wipe down the oil covered bottom of the engine / trans. Wait a day and look for signs of fresh oil leaking / dripping.

Prior to Heritage Garage rebuilding my engine/trans, mine leaked like the Exxon Valdese from the axle seals. A short drive, then a wipe with a rag and letting it sit overnight made it pretty easy to see the location of the leak. Of course you're going to have to get underneath your MINI somehow ...

Good luck,
Jeff

 

It's leaking from the front of the transmission...don't really know what the area is called but I'll try to get a picture of it..

 

It doesn't take a lot of oil to soak a piece of cardboard, I wouldn't worry about it either unless it's leaving a pretty good puddle every day. You can buy an inexpensive flat pan from Autozone or one of the other parts stores to put under it to catch the oil - think extra large cookie sheet!

The front of the transmission may be where you're seeing the oil drip off, but it may be coming from somewhere else, wipe it down good and see if you can trace it back to the leak.......

 

What oil do you use? I had a similar set of leaks until I switched to the Castrol High Mileage 20W-50 (petroleum-based, NOT synthetic). THe High Mileage seems to have done as advertised and swelled the seals just a bit, stopping all my leaks.

You can also try spraying the cold engine with engine cleaner, hosing it off (don't get any water on the distributer or spark plugs - aluminum foil is a good, moldable temp. water shield) and seeing where the leak's coming from - the Big Book of Lies lists some common places where the oil leaks from, namely near the clutch, at the rod change seal, up on the valve cover and elsewhere. The good news is that most of these locations are easy to get to and the repair kit/gaskets cost less than $10.

Until then, you can get a cheap tin cookie sheet (the kind with the raised edges) to slide under the car to catch the drips. GOod luck!

 

If it's not leaking, it's empty.

 

I use 20W-50 Castrol GTX oil (the real stuff not synthetic). I might switch to high mileage on my next oil change here soon and see what happens. She doesn't leak much every day it's just some drips every once and a while.

 

And it has a new valve cover gasket already.........as well as new oil filter and the square section o-ring for the cannister.

It also has a new oil line for the oil pressure gauge......hope it's not a head gasket leak, tho those rarely leak just oil.

 

I kinda doubt its a head gasket... I've wiped down the engine before and the oil drips from the same spot on the tranny....

 

If you can post a pic and point to where you think it's leaking from, we can help diagnose what it might take to fix it........

 

Hi..is the leak on the rad end of engine front of or back ...............

rad end it could be the crank pully oil seal on timming chain cover
front it could be O-ring on dizzy shaft, loose nuts on oil filter housing, and oil pipe union to filter
back could be petrol pump, gear shift seal.

also some of the box to block gaskets may have failed...............

 

If you are running the canister style filter, that's likely the source of the leak. Also, if there's a lot of blowby, you can be pushing oil up out of the dipstick tube. You can hook a spring to hold the dipstick down into the tube.

If it's a cannister filter with replacement inner cartridge, that's the most likely source. Replace it with a spin on conversion of the later cars or mg midgets. If it's an automatic, you may have to stick with the cartridge style.

--Spank

 

Its an automatic. They all have the cartridge filter...

 

i don't have an automatic, but i stopped my leak with a "Main seal sealer" from your local parts store. ABout ten bucks and seals as you drive.

 

If it is a cartridge filter, there is an O-ring that seals it. The filtwer may have been over-tightened and nicked the O-ring, or the ring may simply be old and hard.





or #3 & #5 seals

 

That ring just wears out over time as well... It's worth swapping out anyway. And always put a thin layer of NEW oil on the o-ring every time you change the oil (but I'm sure you already know that).

 

She does...........I helped her change her oil last time.

The o-ring was difficult to get into the slot, it wouldn't surprise me if it's coming from there, although we watched it run pretty closely after we changed it and it wasn't leaking then........

Like others have said, it's not that hard to fix once you pinpoint where it's coming from......

 

Hi..If is a canister type filter then it could be an old oil ring that fits filter head thats jammed and or a bit of old ring stuck in groove..........

 

Awesome... sounds like you checked all the obvious stuff as you were going. You da man, Dave.

MiniXB- did you ever move to the midwest? IIRC, you were considering that a while back. Sorry if you announced it and I forgot - I've been distracted lately.

 

I'm still living in Kansas City just moved futher north by the airport...