Help!! I have a 2017 f56 mini S with 91k miles bought new with 11 miles on it. About 2 years ago at around 70k miles car over heated and had low coolant topped up and good. Fast forward to now about 8 weeks ago car over heated i topped off and i went from vegas to LA and car had 0 issues. Yesterday heater was blowing cold so i look it up the say check coolant levels. Coolant was low i topped it off and it took a whole bottle of coolant. So i immediately started looking for a leak. Checked everything i could and this seems to be the issue on the driver side of the block seam. What gasket is this? And how much is this job!!? Any help??

 

Fluid goes downhill, so go to the highest point you see it, then look up above it.

 

That is the connection between your bell housing of your transmission and your oil pan. There shouldn't be that color fluid in either one of those two. It has to be coming from somewhere above that.

 

My guess is it might be at the oil filter connection to the coolant section. +1 on following upstream.

 

I was actually reading yesterday that there is a coolant hose that commonly leaks on b46/48 engines. It goes to the head from the expansion tank and leaks often on the head side from what I have read. Might want to check that. You can google about it.

 

The oil pan has coolant residue from runs down its front (well, actually it's side, but the front-of-vehicle face of the oil pan). This points to what @ECSTuning is talking about. Same thing (including the coolant collecting around the block seam) happened to my 2017 Cooper S. Failed oil filter housing (both a gasket and the housing at the gasket mating surface failed). Coolant runs mostly down the front-of-vehicle face of the oil pan; will also run down cabling/cable housings in the same area; it will then scatter backwards as well as to left and right across the bottom of the oil pan, etc., and collect in other places (like that seam).

See thread at the link for my situation. I had to replace the oil filter housing.