After taking my 2002 MCS to have her oil changed I noticed that it had seemingly developed a "new" oil leak. She had a small leak, which I believe to be from the oil pan gasket for some time. This new leak is much more significant and dripping on a different spot on the garage floor. I took her back to the shop where I had the work done, and they checked that the filter housing was on securely, and didn't appear to be any leaks from that area. 2 questions: What might this new leak be? and how much would the MINI dealer charge to locate the problem?

 

At worst you should have a diagnostic fee (ours I think runs around $120). Leaks could be just about anything from a seal needing changed to something worse. Some shops are nice and throw the diagnostic fee in for free if you go ahead and do the repair with them (of course that diagnostic is covered in the repair fees).

 

Check the crank angle sensor, they are a common cause of oil leaks.

 

If it just started dripping after the oil change I'd bet on someone spilling a little oil as they filed the engine back up, and it's just worked it's way down to drip off the engine.

If you have a leak, the crank angle sensor is the most likely culprit - my personal opinion is that 99% of the pan gaskets that have been changed were unnecesssary. The way the pan and that gasket are made it just doesn't make sense to me that they're leaking, I'm convinced it's oil running down from the crank sensor (which has been proven to be a leak source) and along the split between the pan and block, not the pan itself leaking.

There have been a few valve cover gaskets leak, and re-filling the crankcase could have caused it to leak more than normal just while being refilled.

If you're going to do some repairs, do the obvious ones first - crank sensor and maybe valve cover gasket, then clean the engine off and watch to see if you still get drips.

Oh, and make sure your drain plug isn't leaking, since they have a plastic gasket built in (on?) it could have gotten damaged or just old and cracked. a drain plug is inexpensive and your dealer will have them in stock.

 

I will certainly check the crank angle sensor. I think my first step at this point is to get it up on some jack stands and try to clean things up under there. Hopefully this will accomplish two things, if it is just a matter of extra oil being spilled, that will hopefully become evident. It should also make it somewhat easier to locate the issue. Thanks for the tips, I'll let you know what I find.

 

Thank you MINIdave, I'm glad I read this! Took my '06 MCS to a Mini dealership yesterday for an oil change (I have 53K on the car) and had the service guy ask me to come out and look at the engine while up on the lift. They pointed out oil along the oil pan/engine seam, recommending a pan gasket replacement at approx. $750.00 Previous to yesterday, never noticed any oil on the garage floor...I'll proceed with the least expensive repair and hope that is the problem!