I have a 2003 Cooper S with just over 30K miles on it. I was experiencing an oil leak after having my coolant and oil replaced by a technician at the dealership I work at (non-MINI dealer, tech has worked on MINI's before).

The technician concluded the issue was the oil cooler. The oil filter, plug, and gasket are dry, and the only leak can be found coming from the oil cooler. So, last week he replaced the 2 O-rings in the oil cooler. He said the existing O-rings were a bit crusty and cracked, and were likely the issue.

Unfortunately, I pulled into my driveway tonight to notice two oil spots about 4 inches in diameter- the issue appears to have not been fixed yet. I haven't crawled underneath yet to check it out... any ideas or input??

 

Did the technician used dyes to determine where the oil was leaking from?

Use a chalk to mark where your car was parked and determine where it was in ur engine bay. I used this method to find that my filter was leaky.

 

It could also be oil left over from the leak if the tech didn't clean up any place where oil might have run to while it was leaking.

 

From what I've seen technicians at my dealership do, the usually spray down anything they worked on with a cleaner to avoid problems like the appearance of fluids leaking, etc.

We have narrowed the problem down to the oil cooler (or so we think!)... anything else that it could be?