I jacked my car up and got rid of my mushrooming and put in IE fixed plates this weekend. After putting everything back together I took it for a low speed test drive around the block and heard some clunks while going over bumps, sounded like it was coming from the front drivers side. I jacked the car up again and pulled the wheel, everything looked fine, so I retightened everything and the sounds went away. But while I was down there checking everything out, I noticed what seemed to be oil had leaked down the bottom of my oil pan and had sprayed a little on the power steering fan. I am not 100% sure it wasn't there before, as the only reason I had to get under the car was to double check the play in suspension components.

I had earlier(2 weeks ago or more) replaced a bad t-stat and cover, and also a leaking valve-cover. As best I can tell these are working fine and are not leaking any more. I knew I had a leaking oil-pan and will be taking care of this soon. I don't think the fluid is from the oil-pan as it seems to be coming from higher up, I can see it about 4 inches higher then the oil-pan gasket. Also it's a very thin oil and doesn't seem as thick or dirty as regular motor oil, though I could be wrong about this. Only thing I can think would be SC oil, but I don't really know how it's sealed. Any chance jacking up the sides put stress on anything and allowed a leak?

Any other ideas? Next weekend I will be doing my oil-pan gasket and clutch, I should have pretty good access to just about everything on the front end, I'll pick up some oil to replace it anyway, just wondering if it could be anything else?

 

A shaft seal was leaking on mine at about 60K miles......5 below. When installing a new MINI updated crank damper pulley ( 05-06 MCS version ) seal was changed same time.....costs like 14 dollars for this little seal and is a known issue.

SC has little oil in it actually. If you are seeing that much oil coming from a SC reservoir, it would be accompanied with lots of grinding noises from the SC. So doubtful that is it.

 

Gray Raven,
That side of the block was the only one that was even close to being dry.

I took some pics, but I'm just getting around to posting them. They are not very good. I can't say for certain because I had so many leaks(valve cover, oil pan, supercharger inlet horn, t-stat, coolant reservoir,input shaft seal) but I believe most of this was coming from the supercharger inlet horn. Here are some pics I tried to get while the car was all together.

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink

Here's some of the front of the block after removing the front end.
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink

I think it's obvious why I think it was the Supercharger inlet horn. Also seems like a lot of oil to be leaking from that area but but apparently it is somewhat common. There was oil throughout most of the intake tract.

It was a little strange, I found a little oil pooled in the super charger inlet horn(the metal part) a couple of days after I had cleaned this off and left it sitting. No idea how it got there.

 

The front of the SC has 2 oz of oil when new, the rear has 6oz. It would only be a little trickle until it is empty.

Maybe the valve cover gasket?

 

Don't think it could of been the valve cover gasket as I replaced that a while before I was seeing the film on the bottom of the oil pan. Also I tried my best to look at the front of it when I had the radiator and all the other junk removed. It looked clean still. I'm pretty sure it was the SC inlet horn gasket, and I'm assuming it was oil from blow by now, and not the SC oil.

Thanks for the help!

 

My 03 cooper s had the same thing.I was looking an internal coolant leak and inspecting my water pump gears,when I took off the plastic intake tube a puddle of coolant came streaming out.So now I am looking at either a head or head gasket concern.