Hello fellow Mini owners! I am in need of your advice! I’m am on my 2nd Mini convertible S. It’s a 2014 R57. It’s first buyer was in Aug 2014 and had 2 owners prior to my purchase in Dec 2015. It had 14k miles on it and in great shape when I purchased it. So now I currently have 39,500 miles. I have ALWAYS taken extra care of both of my Minis. I always get an oil change at 5K miles. I have either taken it to the dealer or 1 mechanic here in Dallas and they specialise in Euro cars. June 30th my indicator light came on stating “Reduced Engine Power” and I took it in to my mechanic that same day. The following is per their notes: “ Found 2 faults when performing vehicle test. 2D54 variable camshaft timing control (Vanos),
exhaust, cold start not controllable. 2C58 charging pressure control, switch off: pressure build up blocked. Fault codes are not current and am able to preform Vanos adjustment via scan tool. The vehicle has low mileage and oil level is almost 1 quart low. It is likely the fault set during cold start after the car had been sitting for some time; once it built proper oil pressure the Vanos is functioning normally.
Recommend R+I both camshaft solenoids, clean and swap to opposite cam. Oil change as well.” They recommended I drive it 1K miles and have them check the oil level again. I took the car back in after 1K miles and again, it was a quart low. At that time they informed me that this is a KNOWN MINI problem... that the rings will wear out and the car will continue to burn more oil, resulting in a broken timing chain and failed engine. Suggestions please!!!

 

I'm gonna say that's not a common issue to be burning 1qt in 1k miles, especially at that mileage. I'm sitting at 130k miles and will go through .5-1qt over 5-6k miles and my PCV is even letting a bit of oil through. But at the rate you're going through, should be pretty easy to find out where it's going. External leak should be obvious once someone starts looking around. Pull your intake pipe off that goes between the turbo and air filter housing and look for oil, that could indicate the PCV needing to be replaced, but if there's a ton of oil in the compressor side of the turbo it could be oil seals in the turbo. If both of those are clean, pull your plugs and look for high amounts of oil deposits to see if it's getting into the cylinders by other means (valve stem seals or rings).

 

Very informative reply. To follow up, what constitutes “a ton of oil” in the compressor side pipe? And if it is the turbo oil seals, what’s the remedy? Is the turbo on the way out?

 

thank you so much for your suggestions!

 

Lots to worry about. If it was my Mini, I may consider avoiding all of this and get away from this Mini ASAP if an answer cannot be found quickly.

I know its a hard to think you are giving up on your Mini but the future repairs sound very expensive.

Maybe spend that money on a newer model Mini, with less problems in the future.

 

Honestly you'll see a little bit of oil in the compressor side of the turbo in a routinely driven car with miles on it, like droplets or if you were to wipe it with a rag it would show some oil. But if you see oil pooling like attached there's an issue.

 

...Well ... Because of the intake side of the turbo has so much oil in it, I would think the the PCV system may be incorrectly routed. I'm wondering if there is or has been a Oil Catch Can to the car. If one has been added and no one knows about it it will eventually fill and the pressure blowing into it from the crankcase would just act as an oil pump into your intake.

Oil Catch Can, is a common modification (MOD). The catch can is located between the PCV output and the engine air intake. The purpose is to allow the oil vapor blowing out of the crankcase the opportunity to cool and collect so that it reduces the amount of oil being ingested into your engine. This reduces the amount of buildup that would develop on the manifold side of the intake valves (this will reduce the the requirement to need to have your head walnut blasted to clean this crud off).

So ... if there is a Oil Catch Can (and it has not been emptied and is full) or the PCV system has been modified to the point where the PCV system is dumping oil into the intake this is the type of thing you would see.

If a Catch Can has been installed (they are normally located inside the fresh air intake on the passenger side area under the hood) the solution is empty it out then continue to do so whenever you have the engine oil changed.

If the issue is that the PCV hoses have been misrouted, correct that and that should take care of the problem. Less likely is that this could be the Turbo Bearing Seal being faulty (or is failing). But because the oil residue stain on the turbo intake venturi the oil can be leaking out of the bearing/seal and is traveling down the shaft then dripping down and collecting where it is. BUT this would only happen when when the oil system is under pressure (like when the engine is turned off and the turbo is no longer spinning).

If this is the issue, then replacing the turbo would sort it out.

Either way something else you want to check is the rest of the intake system. With the engine running and the turbo is spinning the oil will be combined with the compressed air and will be transported through the rest of the intake including the intercooler (the heat exchanger) and then into the intake manifold. So if you pull the intercooler off does it have the same sort of oil residue in it?

If you are not mechanically inclined to do this sort of repair yourself, and you don't have a reliable Independent Shop you can trust with it, contact your local MINI club and get some information and feedback from the members as to where they get their cars serviced.

No matter what you do, Best of luck and ...

​​​​​​​Motor On!