Has anyone seen this before?



I've had the OCC a year or so. Have never noticed a tremendous amount of oil residue build up, so I don't check the can too often. I was out puttering about the garage and car and thought I'd check the OCC. Low and behold, I pulled out about 6 or 7 full syringes like that!

Not a full-on smell of fuel, so maybe condensation, trace oil & vapors, mixed with fuel vapors? I should have poured some in a container and tried to light it (outside, with safety protocols, etc ) to get a clue how much fuel was in there, but instead just washed all down the garage mop sink. A little bit of white pasty goo mixed in, too.

I haven't found many similar cases through search. This R53 thread shows some similarity...but I don't know the supercharged engine and don't want to make the assumption that the routing of air/fuel is the same.

About 55k on this engine. No engine work recently except timing chain cover gasket replaced by dealership. Usually have Sport mode off, roughly driven 12-15 miles at a time to work (30 min). Gas mileage has dropped about 0.2 mpg in the last week or two, but I've been on the throttle more and using Sport mode a little more often.

Thoughts?

 

Yes, I get the same thing in the winter. Most of the fluid is water, I believe condensation collected through the PCV system. I really don't collect much of anything in the summer.

I empty my OCC each weekend in the winter and it will have at least 8 ounces of water with a very small amount of oil. I see you're in FL, and it's been cold everywhere, so you might be collecting more water condensation than you would in other years.

 

Thanks gregsmini. I suspected as much, but it seemed like a lot more fluid than I would have expected. Granted, I haven't checked my OCC since the fall. (Fill in with the usual discussion about the usefulness of OCCs, the limited oil collection, etc...)
Yes, the weather has been all over the place lately, though we still have humidity. 20s one day, 60s the next.

 

Glad you drained it before it filled up...and got blown into the motor!!
Failure to drain it can grenade a motor....so if you have a OCC, check it regularly!!

 

It wouldn't grenade the motor, but it wouldn't do the turbocharger any good to slug it with water. There is a Turbocharger an intercooler a throttle body and a bunch of hoses between the Oil Catch Can and the engine. The amount of water in the Catch Can would have a hard time making it through the whole loop to the engine.

Dave

 

What you're finding is that catch cans for this car are FANTASTIC at catching condensation and very little oil. That's all you see there. Yes, it will have a slight fuel odor from some of the piston blow by.

Not to make anyone feel bad for having one, but catch cans offer a false sense of security on the N14/N18 engines. The only way to fix the problem is to clean the intake ports/valves manually or with a walnut blasting treatment. That sure won't stop vendors from trying to think you really need it. Absolutely worthless cans in the 2nd gen MINI.

 

I don't run an OCC in hopes of keeping my valves clean. I do it to cut down on the contaminates being run through the turbo.

 

I have had issues with condensation in the engine making the car go into "safe mode" and the dealer did an intake manifold replace. The new manifold is supposed to be a different design. It has been much better, but I can still tell the car doesn't like cold weather. The dealer said to pull the oil cap at night after driving to help with condensation. Will getting these occ help me with my condensation issue?