2015 Cooper S 2.0T

So, just started yesterday and I don't know how or why and I don't know from where!

Bright side, I was planning on doing my brakes today, so now I would also be looking for the leak and I cant get a view of where it is coming from. When the car is running obviously it leaks more as it is dripping faster. When off, it slows down to 80% drip rate compared to when running.

So, what I did find out, the leak is coming from the front of the engine, in the area behind the oil filter but obviously above the oil pan. The leak comes down the front of the oil pan and down the bottom of it, essentially the middle of the pan, so the location I assume is somewhere down the middle of the front of the block.

Anyone experience something similar? Is it the pump? Thermostat?

Thank ya for any insight! and ill try and get the pics up later!

 

Have a peek in here? There are two known weaknesses on the front side of the B48 block.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...periences.html

Cheers,

Charlie

 

Nice, thank ya!

Is anyone using the OEM blue coolant?

I am going to buy some today and see if that will help locate it . Oh and 30 bucks on amazon gets you a endoscope camera that arrived this morning and seems to work really nice, but its raining out, go figure!

 

Charlie nailed my exact response, just replaced my failed housing a few months ago. Not a horrible job, just takes a bit of time to access the unit.

I use the Pentofrost NF coolant (i.e.- blueberry juice), seems to work great. Even better is that my local Napa carries it for virtually the same price as online retailers...support your local businesses!!

 

Found this video with a nice break down, definitely seems pretty easy to be honest.


I did find the same part on amazon for under 100, which seems pretty dang cheap!

Have most people bought from ecs, fcp. partsgeek? I have bought varying parts from all those companies but nothing off amazon except for oil filter.

 

I’m having the same isssue

 

I’m using the OEM blue coolant

 

My car is at the workshop

 

So, as you can see from the dates, I posted this back in may, the leak was light and it seems like after leaking a certain amount, it would stop leaking. I was insanely busy and figured, I'll deal with it when it gets worse. Well, 1.5 weeks ago it got worse, nothing "major" but definitely leaking more. So, I was going to buy the piece from ECS, it was $117, I found the piece per manufacture number on amazon for $78, ECS doesn't price match amazon but the day after I talked to ECS, the price was down to $100. I still bought it off of amazon, being that there are no moving pieces, electronics, etc, so I was more comfortable with getting the it for cheaper on amazon. None the less, it matched up perfectly to the stock piece, fit in perfectly and no leak. the surprising part, only 1 gasket was damaged but even more than that, was the damage done to the plastic pieces as you will see in the pictures. I find it weird how the gasket almost looks "cut" or "torn" and then the damage to the inside part of the gasket. anyone experience just this one gasket, or multiple gaskets, the actual plastic piece being damaged like that?

 

oh and this "opening" at the top of the part? I assume it is for "breathing" but it gets so gumped up, that it cant breathe. and I took this picture after cleaning it a little bit, so it was actually totally covered and not visible,

 

(1) the "Opening" at the top of the part -- yeah that's stock, gets gunked up like a lot of things when the oil filter housing fails. Obviously the failure messes up a lot of things, so you can presume it should be kept clean and normally would not be in such unclean shape (well, all things eventually get dirty and it's under the intake manifold so it doesn't get cleanings, but you get the idea).

(2) The failure of the material in the oil filter housing itself, in that location, is typical. Design issue, whether BMW/MINI or Mahle (the OEM manufacturer) or anyone else wants to call it one or not -- it's far too common and well-known. Have seen lots of photos of that damage, including on my own. I don't even work on MINIs other than my own and I have seen at least six -- well, with yours, seven -- have materials fail not only in that exact spot, but in the same shape.

See photos in the thread at this link for comparisons.

 

Yeah, I dont know how they would expect it to get cleaned in that location, or they actually thought "its hidden, it'll stay clean" lol

I thought removing the intake manifold would be easier and less work, but after examining it, I went the way they showed in the ecs video and I think it ended up being less work.I did take my time, and it took me 2.5 hours from the moment I started to the moment I finished and closed the hood and put tools away. so, not too bad, not sure what the the "required" dealer time is for this job.

its really interesting to see its that 1 port that gets damaged and the way it gets damaged and that they either didnt care or just figured, the percentages of failure are below their "threshold" to care, lol ugh

 

I had not seen the ECS video before -- I used BMW TIS instructions, which were about the same except for (1) TIS says to remove the intake manifold, so you have additional steps there, and (2) TiS has you remove the alternator which... yeah I didn't do that, that wasn't necessary. I could figure out some of the why but with the intake manifold out of the way, definitely not necessary.

That said, removing the alternator is its own timesink, and that would add the most to by-the-book dealer service time.

It's interesting to me that the ECS video's approach is identical to what I did, excepting the intake manifold removal. Removal is not hard or time consuming at all, nor is replacement -- except for the human business of "am I doing this right" which will probably add about 15 extra minutes on top of the 15 it would take to pop the thing: disconnect various cables and whatnots in the way of the intake manifold and throttle body. Disconnect the throttle body from the charge/intake pipe (do not detach the throttle body from the intake manifold -- not necessary). Not necessary to disconnect the electrical from the throttle body but you can if you want to / if it is worth your trouble. Pop five bolts holding the manifold itself. Swing the whole intake+throttle body up and to the right out of the way, or if the electrical is disconnected, remove the intake+throttle body from the engine bay.

It's not hard and it doesn't take long. At this point I can actually pop the manifold and put it back on in 15. Which slightly frightens me.

Anyway, I mention all that for a few reasons.

(1) Even though the intake manifold gaskets (one per cylinder) are not part of the oil filter housing repair, those gaskets shrink and flatten and should be replaced after a certain point. If you are at 70K miles or more the original gaskets will definitely be worth replacing. And it's a piece of cake to do. Pop old gaskets out, pop new gaskets in. But the manifold has to come off of the crankcase to do that.

(2) Worth getting in the "engine valley" aka a bunch of unreachable area where you get dirt and gunk and yadda, especially when the oil filter housing goes bad.

(3) Though it's not part of this repair proper, the flange that that main coolant hose attaches to on the crankcase is also made of plastic. I'm not hearing a ton about people having it fail, but you can do the longevity math here. At some point, all of us are probably going to wind up replacing that part. Mine is still original as I sit just under 140K miles, so I'm not dead yet, but, well, yino.

(4) The aux coolant pump may not require service, but again worth getting a look at what is going on in/around there.

Yeah, this is a part that is going to fail. And all of these plastic oil filter housings on BMWs fail. And all of these plastic oil filter housings on Euro cars fail. And all of these plastic oil filter housings on American cars that have Euro engine design (coughdodgechryslerformerlydaimlercough) have discussions about failures. You get the idea.

I haven't figured out when I'm going to re-replace my oil filter housing but I'll be replacing it with a metal one. When I did my replacement a metal option was fairly new to the market in general, and ECS' offering was months-backordered. So I got the plastic Bremmen Parts version, which was economical and it works fine. I don't specifically expect it to fail anytime soon -- too new -- so when I get around to swapping it, it will be a preventative move.

One thing about these engine bays and about the BMW/MINI experience in particular: the materials choices stink. If it's plastic or rubber it's not there for longevity. it's there to make it to the end of the warranty period (if even that). So be assertive in assessing condition of underhood things, replace any seals or gaskets that you expose, and if you plan to keep the car for a REALLY long time, figure out what bits of plastic and rubber may need proactive swapping. Me, I'm already planning to do as close to a full coolant plastic/rubber swap-out as I can get, based on seeing how "BMW plastic" cooling system components fared on a 141K-mile R56 a ways back. It was not pretty and I was lucky that what broke did so while I was doing an oil change on that R56, rather than while I was on the road.

 

I didnt eve remove that small water pump, didnt seem necessary.

It's like the passenger side engine mount behind the headlight. I had that go on me a few years back, local shop I use when I truly cant figure something out, quoted me at 1600, dealer quoted me at 2800 , both said it was a 6 hour job. after watching 3 videos on youtube, where all 3 people did it in 3 hours without having to undo the ac hose and discharging and recharging the ac.
Would removing the ac hose of helped, I really dont think so, I would even be surprised if the dealers were actually spending 6 hours when you dont have to and a experienced mechanic would know it is not needed, but sure they will charge the 6 hours of labor as that is what Mini says is the "right procedure".

Always more than 1 way to do anything, not all will be the most efficient.


But yeah, no way I would of removed the alternator and not even sure why that is required lol

Clearly you have a better view with the manifold out of the way and a little easier to get to the last screw on the right side.

most importantly, no more leaking haha

 

Yep, same failure on my F54, exact same spot and split gasket. Certainly a design flaw that has been around long enough that it should have been addressed by now, but apparently not. During my repair, I torqued the mounting screws down to the factory spec, called if for the night, then in the morning I stepped back into the garage to finish and decided to re-check the mounting screws with my torque wrench. Good thing I did, (4) of the (5) screws simply clicked at the original torque, the 5th screw...closest to the original failure...turned another 1/4-3/8 turn before clicking!?! I followed the torque sequence of the housing both times I went around, so it was very odd and suspicious that the fastener closest to the failure point required some additional tightening after allowing the new gasket to 'rest' overnight. Not sure if that same phenomenon happened at the factory build and contributed to the failure, but caused me to raise an eyebrow. Would be interesting to take a brand new MINI and see if any of the filter housing screws would take any additional rotation.