The past few months i have had serious issues with my R56.

I bought this car in February 2012 with about 48,000 miles and drove the car up to about 75,000 miles with zero issues. It was a dream.

I woke up one morning and started to get the normal cold start issues. First it started once a week, then became daily. It would spurt and sputter throw a misfire code i would shut it off then refire, and it worked perfectly the rest of the day.

Then, I managed to blow the clutch. The car set for a month while the clutch was being done, and when i recieved it back it was in the same condition but with a fixed clutch. About a week after getting it back i noticed that the coolant tank was dry. The heater blew cold so this is what made me check the coolant. I filled it back up and it ran fine (except for the cold starts).

I was driving home one friday (Im stationed at Ft. Campbell, home is West Virginia...500 miles one way) i got about 40 miles into my trip, and the red engine overheat light came on. No yellow, just red. I figured i would stop at the next exit, and then check it. I had never had serious issues before so i figured it would be fine for a few miles. Then i lost a large amount of power and looked in the rearview to get off the road and saw smoke. I popped the hood, and it had melted the valve cover some and leaked oil. The coolant tank was dry as well. I had my car towed back to Ft. Campbell.

I then fixed the valve cover so that it sealed, and filled the coolant with the proper coolant and it drove fine, except i could not feel the boost. What i mean by this is that the turbo would spool, My boost gauge would show above 10 but i felt like i was only getting 2-3 pounds of boost. I noticed the coolant kept dropping and found a leak on the water pump side. I then changed the water pump. It fixed the leak, and the car again ran the same. I felt i probably had a vacumm leak somewhere at the point. The heater blew hot at this time.

A few hundred miles later i decided to drive home again. It made the 500 miles perfectly...again minus the boost which i felt was a vacumm leak. I drove it for three days while at home just fine, and when i took off from home back to base here i made it four miles and the red light showed up again. I took it back to my wifes house and we drove her car back to base. I then changed the thermostat, but since then have not got the car to blow hot air, and run more than ten miles without showing up red.

I have seen some oil unde the car, on the passenger side.
Coolant is not going down now.

When i try to fire the car, it acts like it is not getting fire, so i pump the pedal, it will sputter and fire up. Once why doing this it made a crazy clunking noise and then blew white smoke the rest of the trip. (About four miles). It did not get hot. The next day it fired right up, I let it run without smoke for about 15 mins drove it around the block and still no turbo pressure, but it ran fine. (Note: I checked the oil, and it has a hint of the smell of gas, and the cap has a milky yogurt like substance on the bottom. )


Im thinking head gasket, what are yall thinking?

 

If the residue on the oil cap looks like chocolate milk, you have coolant in the oil, most likely the result of a blown head gasket. There is a test that can be performed that can diagnose this rather quickly. You must then get to the cause of the issue as well as repairing the result of the problem or its just going to happen again. Btw, if there's coolant in the oil, pray its only a blown head gasket and not somthing more serious like warped head or cracked block.

 

Perhaps the smoke you see is actually steam from burning off coolant in the exhaust. Bummer. I'm gonna guess you had water leaks which led to the red light hot and you blew the head gasket as a result. Good Luck!

 

OP, just curious... How often did you check the fluids? Oil and coolant? How often do you change your oil?

 

Every 3000

 

Yes, I am thinking HG also. I don't think I'd continue filling, driving, overheating, filling again, etc. until I got everything sorted out.

When you drive an overheating car, all sorts of really bad things begin to happen. At the end of the day, it becomes impossible to sort out what caused the overheating in the first place and all the follow-on effects that overheating causes.

It could be a bad thermo which leads to overheating, which warps the head and damages the head gasket. Or it could be a failed water pump that toasts the thermo and warps the head and melts the valve cover(!).

I'm not trying to beat up on you, you've suffered enough but these cars have small engines that produce a lot of power and, consequently, a ton of heat. Heat will kill an engine faster than just about anything (except complete loss of oil pressure.) particularly one with an aluminium block and heads.

Good luck with your MINI, I hope it's not as expensive to fix as it sounds!

 

Yup....more than one or two overheats...and things can start to warp and fail....Turns a $50 issue into a possible $5000 problem. Good Luck!

 

you can go to a garage that has an emissions meter and they can wave it over the oil fill and coolant fill usually it will read exhaust emissions coming out of either or both showing the head gasket is cooked, or just turn the heat on and smell, usually it starts getting sweet and leaving a film on the glass. Head gasket most likely.

 

Yeah i havent drove it except for those first few miles the first time with the overheating light. I have a temp gauge on it now and it seems to read correctly. Luckily i have another car so i have time to work on it. Would the head gasket cause all those boost issues? im thinking maybe since it has to hold pressure. I am used to building naturally aspirated engines so i am brand new to how many issues one vacumm leak can cause lol. My wife absolutly hates the car now but i refuse to sell it. Too damn fun to drive.

 

Same things just happened to me a couple months ago. By now you may have a warped head and possibly even engine block. I had to replace my whole motor which I did with a used one at $3k. Wish you best of luck and hope yours isn't as bad as mine got. I am however eventually taking my old motor and getting the block worked and possibly bored and putting a better performance head and all kinds of goodies. Few year project.

 

I'm getting what appears to be exhaust fumes from the oil cap while running

 

Blow-by... Worn rings/cylinder walls.. Combustion gasses are seeping past, down into the oil pan... Up via the oil return ports... Out of the cap to atmosphere..

Run a compression test, or/and cylinder leak down test.

 

Update*****

The head is off. Along the way we found vacuum lines unplugged. Found some cracks in the head gasket. Sent the head for testing. It is not cracked, but it is warped and the guy told me its 17 thousands off. Now i have to wait to see if he can fix it.

 

17...?! Woah...