Hey guys...i was taking my favorite onramp after work (Zinfandel to Bus 50 in Rancho Cordova) and was going pretty fast (scared my co-worker riding shotgun )...and then my oil light came on. First time its ever done that.

I've never heard of an oil starvation issue with the MINI before...any one else have something like this? Maybe just an anomoly...or maybe I just need oil.

 

Your car is low on oil. Open the hood pull the dipstick & add the oil. Fixed. You are on the way to killing your engine.

 

Two points could be made here that may explain what you experienced:

1. Any engine that is not equipped with something like a dry sump oil supply system can experience temporary oil starvation when the vehicle is subjected to sustained, heavy cornering.

2. It's been documented that the MINI engines have a tendency to consume oil. The oil level needs to be checked regularly between oil changes to ensure that the oil level remains within the correct operating range.

When you put "1" and "2" together, you could have experienced a situation where your oil level was low, and under some significant lateral g's, the oil light was triggered.

 

I might suggest a system knows as "Acu-Sump" Not only will it prevent this problem, but it adds about a quart of oil and serves as a pre-oiler too. Simple and cheap. Of course, where to put one in a Mini is an issue.

 

I've had various lights come one in a hard turn .

 

Had accusump on my other retired car (track Lotus) and it worked well. You might be right, I think on the Mini there is not much space in the hood even for the one quart model.

Not sure you really need this for a street car. Just put 0.25 QT more oil above top level and it is generally fine. I do this on my track Mini and the light does not come on.

 

An extra cup. Most excellent tip.

 

My R53 has never experienced an oil light due to hard cornering even on track at very high speeds. I think the R53 has a windage tray that keeps the oil pickup from sucking air. On one of our old race cars I had to put an extra quart in to keep the oil light off.

I wonder if the Prince engine has no windage tray, but my thoughts are the OP had a very low amount of oil in his MINI & that is what caused the oil light to come on. Of all the R56 MINI's that are out there this is the first time I've heard of oil lights coming on in corners. I know several people who track them without problem.

 

I have seen various lights flash while cornering and hitting bumps. I am always too busy looking at the road to know what. Yellow I think. Only a flash.

 

I'm thinking a yellow light would be the DSC nanny telling you it was trying to keep you from having fun.

 

Side question, what is the "OFMC" ?

 

See Crashton's sigline in the post above yours - it's the "Old Fart Motoring Club".

 

Errr, it may seem a bit obvious, but I got that much. I found merchandise, but no information if this is an organization or just an attitude. I was hoping Crashton would reply.

 

Thanks for the responses...but my oil level is fine. I will be monitoring it closely from now on.

 

Don't you find it the least bit odd that all the exit/entrance ramps to freeways in CA are curvy and not straight into feeder roads?

 

We don't have the wide open spaces out here like you have in Texas.
On the plus side we can pass practically anything else in the 90degree ON Ramps.

 

Personally I find it thrilling

What's terrible is that older onramps to the freeway have no runway to get to speed I have to stay in the utility lane till traffic clears up.