Hey guys,
Need your opinion. 2006 Cooper S. I have an oil leak from the valve cover. Oil is seeping from two bolts behind the engine and it slowly filled up where the bolt heads cavity are. Once it filled up and started to drip down I can smell the burning oil. I replaced two new bolts, gasket and still persist. Bad cover need to replace? Any thought is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

Inspect it for cracks, but AFAIK, it's really just gaskets. Double check your work.

I seem to remember individual o-rings around bolts. Did you check/replace those? If I'm remembering wrong, please disregard and call me a dolt.

 

Thanks for the response. The leaks occurred before I changed the valve cover gasket. I thought the gasket need to be changed. After a new gasket it still leak at the two bolts. I than changed the two bolts ordered from dealer with o-rings. Still the same. I have an extra valve cover from an 04 Coopers. Will try that next.

 

Technically the top of the bolt hole is above the gasket so if the bolt hole is filling up with oil then there could be a crack in the cover.

 

Just changed the cover with an 04 valve cover and transferred the gasket over from my leaked cover and the leaks stop. Funny thing is that I did not see any crack on the cover. The condition looks exactly the same as the 04 cover.

 

Always good to have a closure, thanks.