Took the good old '05 MCS to P&W foreign cars in PGH today to find out that the oil leak I have at 12k miles is a bad Crank Seal. The SA seemed to be calm as if it was no deal. To me it is. He said it takes all day 8-10 hours to fix and the way the blocks are assembled, I am curious to know if they have to take the bottom half off of the block to fix the problem. I am glad that is all it is, it is under warranty and the oil drops are minimal at best. it is not going to be fixed for 3-4 weeks and I am not even getting a loaner car when it is being serviced. Anybody have any ideas about this? Anybody ever have this problem and is this a common occurrence on the '06 and earlier MINI's

 

It is a common problem with our cars. My leak was so small and did not make me worry at all so I never took it in. I knew for a fact that if I took it in that they would mess up 2 things up and repair one. Past screw ups stopped me from taking my car in.

 

ahhh ... wait a min

Crank seal on the pass / belt side is done from the outside ... just behind the pully....

It is an hour MAX job.

the seal on the other side (you proably wouldnt see as it is behind the clutch) ???

 

COR BLMY raises a good point...

 

A good point, but a bad hot link.
Nonetheless, pull tire, pull fender liner, remove belt, pull crankpulley: looky there! Seal.
Somebody may be jerkin' your string JDUR.

 

I could care less how long it takes because it is warranty work and they will probably make more money the longer it takes. And I thought when I did 2 Civic Si Frankenstein engine swaps before and rebuilt the motors that the crank seal comes right out with a flat head screw driver, I just wanted to make sure they did not have to take the engine apart. The fact of the matter is that it is leaking on my garage floor and it drives me nuts. Thanks for the info! Hopefully it gets fixed and does not leak any more!

 

"because it is warranty work and they will probably make more money the longer it takes."

actually,..warranty work is paid by the manufacturer by times listed in MINI's warranty flat rate labor time guide........these times usually are less then flat rate times that are listed in mitchell or chilton books that are used for customer pay times.
so yes,...dealer technicians that get paid flat-rate based on labor times,...can and do get burned w/ warranty work.

as far as the oil leak here,...if it is a rear main seal, it would be a long job...if it was the front seal, as in picture,....a much shorter job.

a leak from the rear could also be hard to say for sure,...as to whether it was the crank seal, or back edge of oil pan gasket, leaking into the same area as crank seal,...and coming out the same place on bottem.
leaking oil pan gaskets do seem to be common on our cars....I havent noticed many references to bad oil seals,...but they could be somewhat common too..?...

Steve
'05 MC

 

Back in April, my '06 MCS with 14,500 miles had an oil leak. Took it to the dealer....it was the crankshaft seal. I was there for 2 hours...from check in to check out. No problem since.

 

a bit off topic ... howcome some of you can see the link and others cant ??

 

Bad karma? I insulted the gods of geekery? I once tried left foot braking?
Dunno.
"Hotlinking to realoem.com images is not allowed
Please visit www.realoem.com to see the diagrams."
So it's not on my (firewall, ad/popup blockers) side.

 

As mentioned, the front seal will require less time to replace than the rear. To access the rear seal, the gear case and flywheel must be removed.


My rear main seal was stuck big time and didn’t want to come out; here’s hoping yours is less obstinate.

 

Did you do the work yourself ? How long did it take you ?