I have a 2009 Cooper base. My check engine light came on so i took it into the dealer and they told me that i had by intake and exhaust Vanos that were bad and i was leaking oil from my vacuum pump. I could see the oil along the bottom of the vacuum pump. I went ahead and changed out both Vanos and the vacuum pump and the check engine light went out, however i am still losing oil and i cannot figure out from where because the vacuum pump and surroundings are still clean. Suggestions?

 

How much oil we talking about here and what's the mileage? If you see no visible signs of oil leaking you might perform a leak down or compression test to see if you're burning it. Notice any blue smoke out of the tail pipe, you might have someone have a look when you first start your Mini in the morning.

 

I am losing about 15-30% of the dipstick over the course of 2-4 days. She is sitting at 102200 as of today, this has been happening for maybe the past 1000-3000 miles. There is no signs of leak near the oil pump or the Vanos on the front and i am not getting any smoke out of the tail pipe

 

Watch when you first start the car in the AM. If you get a puff of blue smoke, that's a clue.

What it boils down to - if it's not leaking out on the exterior of the engine (check top and bottom, removing undercarriage panels to look) then it's burning it.

CRITICAL information: please state precisely how many miles per quart. Record keeping in a notebook is needed, and "I use a quart in X days" is meaningless. Miles per quart matters.

 

On my 08 MCS the oil consumption went down significantly when I replaced the valve cover. The PCV system is in the valve cover. I don't know if this is the same setup on the non-turbo car. Maybe the PCV is not operating properly?

Just fishing here...

Mike

 

Most common leak on the n14 motor, and many BMW cars as well is the oil filter stand-adapter. On a non turbo car the repair should be no problem. It's held on by 4 bolts on the side facing away from the transmission side of the engine compartment. I just did this repair for the same reason. It's real easy job once you put the car into service position and remove your heat shields and catylist. I resealed my oil cooler st the same time(my car is a turbo) all oil leakage stopped after that. If you smell oil at stop lights or on start up this is probably the issue. You can't see the leak from up top but on the bottom the oil drops down the block and boils off of the exhaust.

 

Here a picture of a removed engine the holes next to the transmission are from the oil filter adapter.

 

No picture.....

 

Thread resurrected!

Still got the pic?

 

Here is a picture of the bare block showing where the oil filter housing attaches.

http://thumbs.picclick.com/00/s/NzY4WDEwMjM=/z/b-wAAOSwdzVXpjy6/$/2007-2011-Mini-Cooper-Engine-Block-Assembly-R56-R55-_1.jpg