It looks like I have motor oil coming out around where the fist spark plug on the left is, it's not a small amount but it's not a flood either. I had my oil changed a few days ago and I thought the guy spilled some at first but when I looked at it some more and spillage just wouldn't make sense. I'm bringing in the car for service tomorrow. The car seemed to be running normal in the morning now I can't tell 'cause I'm paranoid. Any ideas on what the problem can be?

 

Sorry, I can't offer any answers to your problem BUT I am curious as to what is going on. Could you keep us informed? Thanks!

 

If the spark plug thread is stripped from the factory the only fix would be a new valve cover, IMHO.

 

It is most probably some spillage into that thread of the spark plug, it happens somtimes, no big deal.

It can not be comming out of the cylinder, you would have horible shaking in the motor from the loss of compressiono in that cylinder, also it is not a 2 stroke so there is not oil in the combustion chamber aside from the walls.

 

I got my MINI back today, they said they didn't find any problems but they replaced the valve gasket just to be sure.

 

That had to be scary. Thanks for the update. Glad it was a non-issue.
Smile for miles!

 

That had to be scary. Thanks for the update. Glad it was a non-issue.
Smile for miles!

 

A stripped spark plug would not cause oil leakage.
Replaceing the valve cover would do nothing to fix a stripped spark plug.

 

Oops, my bad. It's been a while since I took the engine apart on my e30.
The spark plugs are screwed into the cylinder head. The valve cover sits on top of the cylinder head keeping the oil in. The spark plugs just go through the holes in the valve cover and the oil will leak if the gasket between the valve cover and the spark plug is bad. That's right. Thanks for waking me up. So...the gasket was replaced.. Good.

 

+1