I've been searching for weeks regarding an oil leak on my fiance's 2007 Cooper S, but I'm having a heck of a time finding anything at all.

Here's the deal - Every day when my fiance leaves, her car leaves two dots of oil on the garage floor - or, rather, the bib we've placed under her car. It's the exact same two dots of oil, in the exact same pattern, every single morning. She has about 70k on the car, and it's been doing this since we got it.

So far on this thing, I've replaced the tensioner, the water pump, which started leaking and making noise shortly after she got the car, installed an intake, a turbo inlet pipe, as the stock one kept popping off, (turned out it had torn anyway), the valve cover gasket, and the rear breather hose, since it was cracked. I've washed the underbody very thoroughly, and the drops reappear a few days later.

Here's a list of the pertinent info relating to the leak, hopefully making it easy will fetch some good replies and suggestions!

1 - Two dots of oil, every morning. These dots are on the passenger side, either off of the crossmember bolts, or two oil pan bolts.

2 - Timing chain tensioner has been replaced, as it was leaking.

3 - Valve cover gasket has been replaced, as it was pretty moist around the edges with oil.

3 - Rear crankcase breather hose was cracked, so it has been replaced as well. There was a bit of oil on the power line for the starter motor from this dripping oil.

4 - Upon initial inspection under the car, it looks to be the oil pan that is leaking, but I'm not quite convinced that's what it is. The oil pan bolts are where I see the majority of the oil gathering, but I THINK I see oil on the block above the oil pan.

Interestingly, it looks like there may be a bit of oil on the helper pulley for the water pump, too, if that helps narrow down where the problem is. It's entirely possible that I got a bit of oil or something on the housing for that pulley when I did the water pump, though. It's pretty tough to see up there when I can only get the car 8" or so off of the ground, though.

So, I'm at a loss here. I've seen it mentioned that the oil pump could leak, or that it could be a Vanos solenoid, etc, but there's absolutely no solid information that I can find on these conditions. Any google search for oil leaks turns up tons of information for R53's, but minimal info for R56's past the valve cover gasket. Any search on any of the big-3 forums (here, MA and Mini2) are pretty worthless, but that could just be my search terms.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly welcomed!

Thanks!

 

If you're tracing it, you're only that much closer to find the solution.
Since you know it's on the passenger side (front or rear of engine?), keep working with a flashlight and your hands.
Yes, you will need to remove some of the intake piping to see but it's the next move to do.

If your able to safely lift and support the vehicle, slide underneath with a good work light and begin the hunt.
It helps if you wash down the engine bay first with a friendly degreaser (like Simple Green) and then inspect the fresh trail the next day or so after.

- Erik

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I love this thing, but I hate how tight it is in the engine bay. haha

Been trying to trace this for months now.

 

Try looking at the crank pulley oil seal. It's part of your serpentine belt system.
I looked for months thinking it was the oil pan drain until the belt came off.

 

If you've had the timing chain cover off, there's a high probability the crank pulley oil seal is leaking. Dealer replaced mine, and even using proper tools, they tore up a new seal - twice. A different dealer replaced it correctly by VERY careful use of the seal installation tool - it's design needs to be improved (dealer tech opinion).
Check for oil in the center of the pulley by pulling the wheel and moving the mud shield around. Only way for oil to get there is thru a leaky seal.

 

Interesting you should mention this DarkSi08

I have a 2011 non-S and I have been noticing the exact same thing lately. Original owner. Car has 32k miles on it now. Do not recall having this when the car was new. No mods, I'm all stock. I see two shiny drops on my epoxy garage floor. It has to be my Mini that's leaving this. I told myself "good luck" trying to explain this to the dealership.

We're you able to locate where it's coming from? Reason why I ask is because there's a chance we have the same kind of leak. Atleast, it feels that way.

 

I have an 07 non-s with 65k miles. I bought it used with around 45k. When bringing the car in for service, the dealership keeps warning me that the oil pan gasket is weeping but is not dropping oil on the ground yet. They tell me it is unfortunately a common issue. I have an extended warranty that will cover it so I have been putting it off. I was quoted almost 800.00 for a non-warranty repair.