Engine Light, Valve cover gasket and vent hose?
 

I have a 2010 Mini Cooper S. I haven't noticed any issue (smell or noticeable puddles or running low on oil) with leaking oil, but I had an engine light coming on and off. I also noticed at the time that when the light was on my car was sputtering a little bit when idle. I brought it into the Mini dealer and was told that the issue is the valve cover gasket and vent hose (and on the invoice it was noted "air leak in valve cover and intake hose") and that it would run me around $700-800, but more importantly they also found my radiator hose was cracking. I could not afford both at the time and they strongly encouraged me to replace the radiator hose as the valve cover gasket was basically just causing the car to feel bad when running but doing no damage and that I could get that replaced at a later time.

I haven't given it much though since I have only been driving a few miles for work daily. Now, though, the engine light is on constantly. When starting the car the engine takes awhile to actually start (turns over much longer than it normally does) and sputters quite a bit when idle. Also I am hearing the engine get quite loud and make a noise I cant easily describe when in lower gears sometimes.
Is this all symptomatic of the valve cover gasket? I can easily order and replace that myself now but want another opinion as I do not know exactly what the part is doing or how that would be effecting the engine sputtering, starting and the noise.

Valve cover contains the PCV system which is connected directly to the intake manifold. A leaky gasket / vent hose will seriously affect the manifold vacuum / pressure, which the ECU will compensate for by changing AFR, timing, and who knows what else. Don't know about the noise you're hearing.

A new VC is $300 - $400 for parts. If you change it yourself, or plan to do your own repairs / maintenance, you'll need a Bentley Service manual. It has torque specs, tightening sequences, special tool ID, lets you know which bolts are TTY (or stretch), etc. --- it's an invaluable aid!

There are several videos and written step by step instructions on replacing the Valve Cover. One mechanic I spoke to said that I may just need to replace the gasket and not the entire valve cover, but he wasn't very familiar with the Mini. If I buy the VC, does the gasket come with it? If not I may try to replace just the gasket first, and the vent hose.

Now I am getting a bit worried. The error code I was getting before was P1497 and that was it. I just took another look now that things seem to have escalated and I am getting 3 codes.

P1497
P1338
P2188

I did a quick search and found someone with 2 of those codes. He had similar issues as I have described and changed out the Valve Cover. That did not fix the issue for him. He ended up spending $3500 and had to have the timing belt replaced to fix it.

THAT would be some serious ********. 3 years and 20k miles ago (I put very few miles on my car) when I was still under warranty, the timing belt was replaced in my car already. How the hell could that have issues already?

New gaskets are included with the VC.

OBD codes listed in the Bentley manual include ---
P1497 (0x2B64) - Downstream throttle air leak
P1338 (0x296A) - Camshaft position sensor rationality check (inlet - outlet)
P1338 (0x2DA0) - Intake camshaft: Angular offset to crankshaft is outside tolerance range
P2188 (0x2786) - System too rich at idle (bank 1)

Note there's 2 P1338's --- both indicate camshaft issues. The other 2 codes could be from a leaky gasket / damaged hose, or possibly timing issues.

Best of luck ---

Is the top of your valve cover soaked in oil? Do you smell burned oil after you drive? There are only 2 PVC hoses attached to the valve cover, so Make sure they are tight. If you see oil, I would seriously consider replacing the valve cover. It's a simple job, just did it on my 2010. Takes NO more than 30 or so minutes. It will take you longer to get the tools together!

How often and how much oil do you add to your engine? These Mini's can get expensive real fast and is a common occurrence, the dealers aren't that much better than the car often taking owners for a real expensive ride!

I had the same issues with my 2007 mini S changed valve cover engine light still came on>

Bite the bullet and replace the VC. It is a plastic part with a defined lifetime (and yours is past it!).

If an N14 2010, replace the PCV vent hose between the VC and the throttle body (they age and crack).

Inspect the VC bolts and order new ones as they have a tendency to become corroded rather badly if you live in locale where road salt is used.

There are lots of options for good VCs on the aftermarket at a fraction of the OE cost.

- So true

To add in regards to the oil burning passing along advice I was given advice recently from JMTC
"If your car is consuming oil it is caused by one of 4 items and if they are not all addressed just having one will recreate the other 3.
1.Bad valve guide seals
2. Clogged cat
3. Failed turbo pressure seals
All are all created by using the wrong spec of oil or a failed or end of life. If you use “full synthetic” oils that are really conventional oil the oil vaporizes in you engine and clogs the car which in turn damages the turbo and valve guides seals.
If you replace you guide seals without cleaning the catalyst than the clog damages the turbo and guide seals.I
If you replace you turbo without cleaning the catalyst the clog damages the turbo and guide seals. If you clean the catalyst without using the correct spec of oil, replacing the turbo, or fixing leaky guide seals the oil contaminates the catalyst and the issues start all over again. My guess is that when you changed the engine you didn’t clean the catalyst and change the turbo at the same time or you are using a oil that says it is “fully synthetic” but doesn’t have a spec to back it up.