Daughter has had the clubbie at school. When she got home yesterday I smelled something. Checked wheels and all were cool. This morning I see oil spots on the driveway. Pull it into the garage and open the hood to this.




the back side is dry as is the driver side. Is this the valve cover gasket? I don’t really see a point source of the leak but will need to dig deeper later today.

thanks!

 

The oil leak is possibly from a bad PCV gasket in the valve cover. Check that first.

 

The dip stick is missing...

 

Haha...I missed that!

 

I had just pulled the clubbie into the garage and removed the dipstick to check the oil level. Since I had just shut it off I left the dipstick out to get a better reading after a few hours. Oil level is good and dipstick is back in place so that is not the issue. I changed the oil and filter a little over a month ago.

Can you give me some clarification on the location of the PCV gasket in the valve cover? Unfortunately I don't know my way around this engine very well yet.

 

This pictures the location of the PCV cover and diaphragm. Be aware that the Amazon PCV cover/diaphragm is an aftermarket product and that Mini and many NAM members recommend replacing the entire valve cover when the PCV is bad. That's probably the best thing to do if your PCV is bad. With that said, I opted for an aftermarket PCV replacement for my wife's base model N16 Mini, and it seems to be fine.

 

Based on the location and pattern, blow out from the dipstick would be my best guess. PCV is on the backside of the valve cover. Is the car running OK otherwise?

I'd be tempted to clean it up really good, then go drive around town for a bit, and see if the leak has re-manifested.

 

Not long ago, there was a thread where a member was experiencing oil spray on the underside of the hood directly above the dipstick. In this case, the fix was to replace the dipstick O-ring.

Oil leaking past the oil fill cap might be something else to consider.

 

If I did my research correctly the PCV gasket/diaphragm is the somewhat circular piece in the upper right of my photos. As a quick stop-gap I've ordered one from Scamazon. Should be here Sunday.

 

The dipstick does not seat tightly into the tube so the O-ring is a possibility. I also thought about the cap not sealing well too so that's another possibility. Will clean it well and take it for a drive to see if that helps.

Thanks for the ideas. Keep them coming.

 

Check the oil filler cap. There's a seal under it that may have come off or rolled. It's not an o-ring but more square-cut. Mine came loose a while back and let oil drip down over the valve cover, making me think that I had a valve cover gasket leak. Good luck!

 

I've cleaned everything up on top and as much as I could from underneath. It's amazing how big of a mess a little oil leak can cause.

I initially thought it was the PCV so I cleaned that area up very well and took it for a drive today. I couldn't see any oil on the top of the engine so the verdict is still out on that.

I put the OE dipstick back in which has a better O-ring seal.

I cleaned up the oil filler cap and will check that area a little later when the engine cools.

I'm still getting a few drips from the underside but I can't tell if that's active leakage or just residual. I will keep after it and hopefully find the source. It's unbelievable how little room there is on the right side of the engine to even see from the top to the bottom.

 

You can see a bit more by raising front end on stands and removing both the right wheel and the wheel liner.

 

The car is back in Morgantown and I didn't totally convince myself I found the leak. I cleaned the area around the PCV diaphragm and didn't notice any leakage in that area. I made sure the oil fill cap was tight. I reinstalled the OE dipstick as the aftermarket dipstick sealed poorly. Based on the spray pattern on the underside of the hood "I think" I've eliminated the leak but won't be sure for another few weeks.

 

Time for an update. My daughter had the car at school about 3 hours away. On the trip home mid-December it went into limp mode a little over two hours from home. She was able to get off the interstate at a close exit and my wife and I piled into the 4Runner and took off. I grabbed my Foxwell, some spare ignition coils and some tools. I thought it would be an ignition coil. I was wrong.

I got a bunch of codes once I hooked up the scanner, but none were ignition coil related. I cleared everything, fired it up and drove it the 2 hours, 15 minutes home. It didn't miss a beat. Before you ask I stupidly didn't take a picture of the codes. Still beating myself up for that. There was a high pressure fuel pump code as well as a couple of other codes indicating a brief drop in oil pressure. I put what I could remember of the codes, as well as the conditions when the car went into failsafe into ChatGPT and got several recommendations. The first thing it said to check was the intake/exhaust VVT solenoids. If those are leaking that can fool the engine computer into thinking low oil pressure and put the car in limp mode. The VVT solenoid on the front (can't recall if that's the intake or exhaust) is leaking badly so that's up for replacement. I think that's the only source of my oil leak so hopefully this will resolve it. I'll update once I install the new solenoid and drive it a bit to ensure the oil leak is resolved.

 

The front one is the exhaust solenoid. The intake and exhaust solenoids are identical, so you can swap them for diagnostic purposes, if necessary.

Maybe just a new O-ring and cleaning oil from the connector would fix the problem?

 

Lots of good information.


I’ll be removing, inspecting, and whatever preventative maintenance need done.

remember to always use black RTV properly when reinstalling the cover. You need to also put a healthy dap in each corner of the gasket to help prevent leaks.