I went out of town this past weekend and came back to find oil under my car. Just a little bit, but still noticeable. What are some common areas that leak on the MINI? I checked the oil filter and its on tight

 

do you have a Alta CAI? check under the filter and see if you have
a puddle of oil. if so, that's the root cause.

 

nope everything is stock.

 

Check the oil filter housings oil cooler. It has three O rings that mount the cooler to the housing. I'd changed mine a few months ago after discovering a oil trail in my driveway and no oil in the engine after comming home from work. (4miles). /Took about 2 1/2 hours to fix. I have a 03 MCS too.

 

had a dealership pinch and compromise the oil filter ring... took 2k miles to show up, but man did it leak after that. The broken ends of the o-ring were overlapping, but I guess with multiple heat cycles it opened up.

 

What color is it? Are you certain it is oil? Many MINIs (mine included) have an isse with the thermostat cover leaking a little bit of coolant, which feels oily and can look a littel like clean oil in color.

 

I'll check the o-rings. And yes it is oil, I know the difference between oil and coolant.

 

Could be the motor mounts (Design defect). Common on the 05's. Dealer fixed mine with no problem.

 

If it is below the filter when looking under the car, then it could be a oil pan gasket. Hopefully, this is not the case with you. In Cleveland, the dealer quote me $700, for this job. AH!

 

03's didn't have oil filled mounts.

If you have some jack stands, put the car up and crawl under to look around. I think based on your car's age, it might start to leak in a few places. My car leaks a bit on the oil pan gasket, but then again, I've removed my oil pan before and reused the stock gasket. Bad, I know.

 

I had some oil leaks on my car, just prior to the warranty running out.

The dealer replaced the valve cover gasket and the oil pan gasket. They claim both are fairly common items to fail.

 

Yep,

I too had a dealer damage the O ring on reinstall. Within 2 days she had NO OIL showing on the stick. When I pulled off the filter cover the O ring was almost cut all the way through........lost a bunch of Mobil 1 and could have lost the engine. Thes oil filters are a lousy design

 

Oil pan Gasket. Replaced twice.

 

Speaking of lousy filter designs, I have been searching everywhere for a Cobalt oil filter adapter that MossMini used to sell. No luck sofar. Is anyone out there aware of a source? Thanks.

 

My local BMW mechanic quoted me $383 to replace Lucy's oil pan (and also change the oil and filter). Is that a fair price? Lucy is a 2003 stock MCS.

He also said oil leaks are very difficult to diagnose. I'll have to take the car back after he replaces the oil pan, so he can check for any further leaks; i.e., he doesn't really know that the oil pan is the problem, he just thinks the oil pan is the most likely problem. Does this sound reasonable? Or should he be able to figure out where the oil is leaking from? He said the next thing he'll check is the crankshaft seal, if there's still oil leaking.

Fortunately it appears to be a very slow leak and it seems to have started only within the last several weeks.

 

That replaces the OEM filter on a MINI ?

 

It did. They no longer sell it.

 

Another alternative to the OEM filter is the WIX filter (Item# 57303) by Amsoil... I've been really happy with their oil, especially since I'm a former Redline user, and their oil filter is top notch.

GotMINI

 

Odd, seems this would be a HUGE seller

 

I agree on Wix filters, they are very high quality use them on all my cars

No need to pay Amsoil prices for Wix filters.
Try rockauto.com
WIX Part # 57303 Oil Filter $5.19

I buy them by the case

 

I know - I'm really puzzled by Cobalt's discontinuation of the adapter as well. It would be one thing if the company went out of business, but I think Cobalt is still around.

I know there aren't a lot of MINIs running around compared to other makes/models, but Cobalt has already sunk the time & money into R&D (and tooling costs, if they make the part themselves), so it's strange that they wouldn't continue to sell them to try to recoup their investment.

I'm wondering if they had some problems with them that lead to their decision to discontinue making them. There was one that came up for sale here a few months ago, but I decided against it, since my personal experiences with the factory oil filter have been pretty painless so far.

 

Actually, I beleive that was a catalog screw up. I too have been looking hard for something like that and jumped when I saw that in the catalog because it was exactly the same as what's available for the Miata (where it is handy to move the filter out from under the exhaust manifold)

Too exact .... it was never available for MINI as far as I can tell. I tried going direct to Cobalt and they said 'no'.

 

My 2003 MCS has a similar leak. Tech replaced the O-rings and it is still leaking from the oil cooler. I'm taking it back next Wednesday to have the oil cooler replaced. This had BETTER take care of it.