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Hello. I'm new to this site and a proud 2nd-owner of a 1-owner 65K mile '06 R52/Cooper S. Car was purchased by the sole owner back in late 2005. I've already had the car rejuvenated/fixed for 7.5K by my local Mini and she runs like a champ. However for about 3 times now during the last few days, I've been noticing some weird-looking fluid leak under the car. Just turning to here cuz I need help ID'ing this mysterious fluid leak coming from somewhere behind the engine bay, essentially slightly to the left under the driver side. It feels slippery, slightly viscous and is clear maybe looking like some diluted honey in color/clarity. I can't tell the smell as I still don't have my smelling sense back due to long-covid, among others. I've already taken the car to my local MINI and they couldn't be bothered looking further after determining that the only leak they noticed was from overfilling the wiper fluid reservoir which I told them is on the right side of the vehicle lol and advised me instead to keep monitoring for any more leaks. Also, this seems to happen more like overnight as opposed to whenever and wherever I drive to and park at. I don't use a/c let alone the heater. No warning lamps have gone off so far and OBD shows nothing. Also the car is a CVT and I use manu-matic mode almost exclusively, if these info help. Please enlighten me all you MINI experts🙏🙏🙏.
My guess is brake or power steering fluid. The PS hoses often leak on the 1st generations and can sometimes be fixed with new hose clamps. You can run your VIN here at the following MINI web page to see if your car is subject to the power steering or other recalls. If so, sometimes they’ll replace the hoses with the pump for free, but most times they make you pay for the new hoses.
Also, your car should have an Aisin regular automatic transmission. CVT’s were only available on non-supercharged 1st gen ‘02-‘06 hatches or ‘05-‘08 cabrio’s. The Aisin’s were first available starting with January ‘05 supercharged builds.
Another thing you need to do is find a German motor independent shop. There's a term on this site for where you've been taking it. They're called "stealerships". Your local MINI enthusiasts can point you in the right direction. A shop that would miss identify a leak and dismiss you like that does not have 'customer service' in it's business plan.
I actually have a leak almost identical that I just had diagnosed. It was the Power Steering Return Hose. Fortunately, it is actually pretty "cheap" to do yourself. RockAuto has the two hoses and the reservoir, shipped, for around 50 bucks. You could do one hose, but, I figured it was easier to replace the unit as a whole than mess with one hose.
