My 2007 Cooper developed significant oil consumption problem where a quart of oil had to be added every 500 miles or less. A mechanic installed a new valve cover thinking the breather valve might be leaking oil. My consumption is now at 1 quart every 1,000 miles. There are no oil leaks anywhere on the engine block. Other than do an engine teardown to determine cause of oil consumption, my mechanic is out of ideas.

Any thoughts how to fix this without doing an engine replacement?

 

I think you're out of luck. You have a fairly high post count, I assume you've seen the threads about oil consumption on the n14 engine?

Opps, just saw that you have a non-S. My comment is not correct, if I had to make a guess, valve guides. How many miles?

 

117,500 miles

 

I would start with a compression check. That will give you an idea of the condition of the piston rings and is not expensive to do. If the compression checks out good, you do have enough miles for valve guides. I could be wrong, but I think the only way to check the valve guides is to remove the head then change them out.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. Will look into it.

 

Some engines respond to high mileage oils or just a change of type. Easily the cheapest fix if it works. As one mechanic suggested to me, a quart of oil every thousand miles is cheaper than fixing the car unless you plan to drive and keep it very long term. He was right in my case and 10,000 miles later I traded it in.

 

0w40 mobile one european formula helped slow down the oil usage on my 09 mcs. On the bright side you never have to do an oil change just throw a new filter on now and then.

 

Thank you for a suggestion about switching oil type. I drive about 20K miles a year, so I'd need 20 quarts of oil at current rate of consumption, which would cost me about $150 a year, or under $15 a month. I guess I could live with this until 2018, when I plan to get another car.