Either I've had the absolute worst luck with Mini or these cars are just built terribly. I see people driving their R56 Minis around, so I guess it may just be my luck. Here's the full story and history with this car. Please read and help if you can.

First Engine Replacement

Bought a 2007 Mini Cooper S about over 3 years ago. It's been nothing but problems for me both financially and mentally. After about 6 months of owning and maybe 10,000 miles or so the car overheated on me. I won't get into too much details here but it turns out the overheating lead to a warped head that was beyond repair and also a warped block. I bought used engine in good condition (about 46k miles). Swapped it in and everything was good for about another 6-8 months.


Head Gasket and Oil Filter housing Gasket Replacement on new Engine

One day in after the swap, I was looking around my engine bay and noticed oil around my coolant reservoir cap. The car was driving absolutely fine, no smoking, no hesitations, nothing. The oil in my coolant made me nervous and so I began to do some research. After researching, I decided to have the oil filter housing and gasket replaced. Everything seemed fine once again until the oil in the coolant returned.

After that I decided to have the head gasket replaced along with all other gaskets in the head, valve seals, thermostat etc.

What's next? - Another Engine replacement!?

I thought everything was good once again, but NO. The car now has plenty of oil in the coolant reservoir, it boils and bubbles out past the coolant reservoir cap.

The car also had a bit of smoking but only under certain conditions. It only smoked on deceleration or when moving from a slow speed in a low gear. (i.e. moving from the stoplight in 1st gear)

Last night the car the started to backfire heavily. I lost all heat in the car. And there was strong smell of oil burning.


Things to note:

- Seems to be no coolant in Oil (drained oil from oil pan) - only oil in coolant reservoir
- No smoking on startup or cruising, Smokes only on deceleration or moving off from a low gear (1st or 2nd gear)
- Red oil light came on for a brief second (only during turns)
- Car backfires pretty loudly
- Lost heat
- OBD gauge does not indicate overheating temps (doesn't go past 230 Farenheit)


Overview of symptoms:

- Coolant in oil (boils and bubbles out past the cap)
- Oil burning (only on decel or moving off from low gear)
- Heavy Backfiring
- No heat
- Red Oil light (only in turns)

WTF is going on, please help.

Thanks,
Drew

 

Who did the work? Sounds like a monkey got in there. What brand headgasket did u use? I got a Cometic everyone says they hold up... Sounds like a headgasket fusho

 

I have a friend who is a technician at Mini Dealer, he did the work so I don't think anything went crazy there

The headgasket was from "Victor Reinz"

 

Head gaskets/main seals/etc are a good one to go to OEM, even though the price may suck. You're describing a head gasket failure pretty much exactly for any motor. I don't know how long that duration between it being replaced and your failure was, either it died of natural causes 100k+ miles later, or the HG was defective, or the installer botched the install.

Typically one bets on #3, with #2 happening but being pretty rare.

You could also have issues with the cooling system - say your tstat isn't functioning, and you overheat, you'll ruin the HG and potentially warp the head as you had happen before. So the question becomes chicken/egg - did your HG go and cause it, or did something in the cooling system fail and kill the HG?

 

I hope you get it fixed soon and it doesn't cost too much.

I doubt that its a case of build quality, .....you have no knowledge of any abuse prior to your ownership, .....and similarly the second used engine.

 

Thanks for reply. I'll start the teardown/diagnosis either sometime this week or next week and keep you guys updated on what I find.

Hopefully able to resolve soon. I really loved driving the car, I just need it stay healthy.

 

Very true. I will keep you guys updated on my progress.

 

Another possibility --- oil and coolant are both present in the turbo. A cracked housing could cause your symptoms --- not likely, but possible. Maybe a pressure test would help find the problem.

 

Even though you mention the oil housing gaskets, did that include the oil cooler gaskets as well? Totally different. same result.