Excellent post JoanieB!
Just want to add, sometimes parents think they taught the lesson, but it doesn't always "take." I haven't built up the nerve to go check the oil in Son #2's Corolla. I'm thinking of just calling our mechanic for an appointment ASAP and forbidding driving until it's been serviced, checked out, and son understands the responsibilities that come with the privilege of driving a car.
I am sorry that the OP learned the lesson in such a dramatic and expensive way.

 

Of course even the stealerships and tire stores tend to overlook some things in their "120 point" inpections. Just bought a one owner 2005 Mazda3 hatchback for the returning Peace Corps vounteer Son who will only have a few short weeks before he drives 2,700 miles off to graduate school. It was always dealer serviced every 3,000 or 3 mo. very old school and came with the inch thick stack of receipts to prove it. The two tire set receipts showed he always had 4-way alignments done when buying new tires. Yet I went over it and find 15psi in the space saver spare that should have 60psi. Probably never looked at since it was new.

That's something I always check - In 1979 helped my Dad move across the country towing all his worldly things in a U-haul trailer behind a '66 Buick Riviera. Found ourselves in the middle of nowhere Wyoming at o'dark:30 with a flat and a spare with no air - never again.

 

Sadly, this is the same situation I found myself in a few months after picking up my 02 R53. I ended up biting the bullet and getting a remanufactured engine from MINI. Never actually got a straight answer on what happened. The first dealership said it was just timing chain tensioner failure, but the engine was still knocking after that. The final verdict was loss of oil pressure. The whole ordeal was a bit of a nightmare.

I suppose on the plus side, I've learned a lot about internal combustion engines. Hoping your situation isn't as rough, but it seems like it might be.

 

but why would there be a loss of oil pressure? That's the question...
How much did it cost you at last?
Sounds like a similar issue that not much people have encountered...

 

I never got a straight answer about the root cause. Most of the communication about the car had to be remote as I was working out of state at the time. You probably don't want to know the final total. I'm sure looking up the price of a crate engine will give you an idea.

 

Loss of oil preasure is most commonly caused by lack of volume....
If the engine is shutdown within a few seconds of the red oil light comming on, the engine is usually ok...not good for it, but not castorphric....if it is run a bit more...then lack of oil can burn bearings, etc, destroying the motor. Sometimes a massive leak causes the lack of volume......a mechanical failure can cause the loss of psi...the oil pump can fail (rare), but again, the light turns on, you shut it off in a few seconds....
sometimes determining what is the cause vs the effect in a failure can be hard without a good bit of info about how the car was running and the sounds it was making in the last few moments of running, or with some owners, minutes or miles....the quicker it is shut down when a sound changes or a light comes on, the less the dammage, and the lower the $$. Since some items can be destroyed in a bit of a chain reaction, that is why somerimes it is best to not throw more $$ at a seriously hurt motor, and start fresh with a new/used transplant....a new/rebuilt motor on a mini is usually such a large percentage of the value, a used motor makes more sense....and the donor motor may have less miles than the blown one......

 

The red oil light never came on... At least not that I've noticed...
The car was running totally ok before I parked it. Went back after an hour of dinner then I couldn't start the car...

 

And I have never saw any leaking/smoke from the car... I'm so curious at the root cause~_~

 

The cause is it didnt have any OIL in it, because nobody ever bothered to check it.

Never take somebody's "word" that they have just done all the maintanence when you are buying a new used car. Always get the car checked over by somebody with experiance with that type of vehicle, you would be surprised at the shine you can get when polishing a turd.

 

My 05 MCS ate through 3L in 6 months. I didn't know at the time that anything could consume such a volume without obvious signs (no burn, no drips). I spun a rod bearing and my $7000 lesson has been learned.

Before purchasing the car I had my mini dealer do a full inspection and pull the full history (turned out it was maintained at that location). They said it was in excellent shape. It was a lemon from day one and even the experts couldn't tell there were problems.


I had the engine rebuilt and the guy mentioned that the (check valve?) control valve was seized. I wonder if that fails on other people's mini's as well. I never had a oil pressure light warning, just a death rattle at all RPM (the rod rattling against the crank)


I've owned the car longer not working than working.


I'm reinstalling the engine in 2 days.



I believe he was talking about part #6 on this page:
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...97&hg=11&fg=30

 

I have an 03 R53 bought a new battery, parked at home and it never started or crank.
send it to the shop , mechanic found starter burned out, replace starter engine cranks very slow.( brand new battery for Mini fully charged) mechanic told me I need a new engine becuse the engine is even hard to turn over by hand. any suggestions.

 

Lol what?? You shouldn't be able to turn your engine by hand... If you do, the plugs would have to be off and you'll need a decent size breaker bar. Are you having a slow cranking problem or an extended crank?

 

Dude. You didnt take 30 seconds to pull the dipstick out before shelling out thousands of dollars on a car?
I'd rip into you, but i guess theres No need for me to be a jerk, sounds like youve got enough issues....

 

it apparently is a slow crank and he said that is what it burn the solenoid

 

When I bought my Mini, dealer (used car dealer, not BMW) threw in a new battery among other things, it wasn't a genuine BMW battery, so the terminal didn't match up properly with positive connector. So the engine would crank half way, stop, then the windows would drop down a bit, then do nothing. Took me a while to figure out the problem.

 

I was pretty stupid when I bought my Mini, didn't get burned as bad for it, but pretty close.

I checked the oil, via dip stick and the lid on the valve cover for bubbles/condensation. Coolant was fine. Pulled the spark plug boots, all were clean. Everything looked good in the engine bay.

Didn't know how to drive standard but I wanted a standard Mini, so i asked the sales guy to take me for a ride. Car sounded great, suspension felt tight, nothing squeaked, clicked, or rattled. This was my car.
Got back to the dealer, got on my hands and knees, and checked out everything underneath. Noticed that the oil pan was "wet" on the front. Asked if we could put it on the lift, he said "ummm can't do that today, we have a few cars lined up and the mechanics are busy."

I looked over the car. checked the oil again, it was all ok up top, down low, I was unsure. Tried driving it myself in the lot, almost got the hang of it, and then went in and signed for the car before I burned out the clutch and/or embarrassed myself.

Picked up the car a few days later with all the safety done and certified. Drove it home 40 km, right as i thought I was getting the hang of the clutch, I was having trouble with it off the highway and stalling. Looked over at the giant center mount speedo where all the warning lights are and noticed that the temperature needle was maxed out and the itty bitty red light was on. If it was day light, I never would have seen this.

Popped the hood, the coolant reservoir was empty, I opened the main coolant cap - the one you're not supposed to when the engine was hot, let alone over heating - and nothing shot me in the face, thing was bone dry. Ran to the nearest Esso, bought a jug of over priced $22 coolant, and a $4 bottle of water. Felt like an idiot pouring a few drops of coolant into the engine, and then a few drops of water, then coolant, then water, cus I had nothing to mix or measure them with.

Got it home, checked the coolant, empty again. topped it off. drove it to work, had to pull over and top it off. went out to lunch... topped it off. Guess they flushed the system, but never bled it out properly.

After 2 days of this, I took it to BMW, asked them to inspect the car, run a compression test, and replace my thermostat for the trouble it's been through. the service manager came back and said my thermostat was fine, compression test was solid, the coolant looked good, couldn't tell I mixed it on the side of the road. Asked what I wanted to do. I said ummm, oil and filter?

He came back 10 minutes later, and asked if I got a good deal on the car, cus it need's about $1,100 worth of work. every seal that oil touches is leaking. I said, to just do the oil change and went and sat on one of their leather chairs and almost pulled my hair out.

To this day it leaks a bit of oil, you see it on the side of the oil pan, it comes out of teh O ring, you smell it on heavy acceleration, but I check the dip stick regularly, and I don't see a drop in between my 7,000 km oil changes. I went 15,000km once because I was so busy, didn't loose enough to show up on the stick. I changed the valve cover seal, and that's all.

Sorry for the life story... and good luck.

 

So, coolwong, did you fix it and if so how? Smith's Industries made an after market Oil Level gauge in the 70's but it would only read if the car was stationary and would not show sudden oil loss (IE drain plug out). Low oil pressure could be low oil level or NO OIL - basic checks for the win!! BTW I didn't buy a Corvette for the same reason as one of the posters above. Shy car yards make me walk!!

Battery fitting - there are two (don't ask me why) DIN55 batteries, tall and (you've guessed it) short. There is a nylon/plastic mat that bring up the battery to the correct height and then the terminals line up.

 

Resistance can cause the starter to work harder as well as major damage to your electrical system. If you can, perform a voltage drop test to your battery. This is where you want to start, you can't assume the engine is junk because the starter is making more effort than ussual to crank it over! This is crazy talk.

You're more likely to have electrical issues than mechanical.. Perhaps poor grounding around the car. Not being able to turn the engine by hand is completely normal.

Let us know how it goes