My 2005 R53 has an oil leak somewhere above the right hand driveshaft CV joint I think. At first I feared it was a power steering leak but the colour of the fluid looks like engine oil to me. So then I thought it was the oil filter housing gasket so changed it yesterday but if anything the leak has got worse!

What is it likly to be? Is there a gasket between oil filter housing and oil to water heat exchanger that might leak oil?

 

Common leaks are gonna be valve cover gasket,cam sensor oil cooler and the housing which you already replaced.

 

Thanks for your help!

After cleaning up (yet again) and looking for the leak (again) I have now located it to this area.



How can I go about fixing this? I tried tightening up those torx bolts to no affect.

Also are there more than one housing / heat exchanger design? I've seen some differnt gasket pictures.

 

There are 2 brings in there. But they are square in cross section. You need to order 2 of those.

 

Yes there is one (actually three) between the exchanger and the housing. Plug your VIN into realoem to get the correct gaskets.

They'll be under Engine > Lubrication system

For my post-FL it's 1x 11427509211 and 2x 11427509261.

 

Are your looking for the seal ring pair?

http://new.minimania.com/part/NME770...52-53-Cooper-S





Drive Hard. Drive Safe. Keep Grinning.

 

Ah, right you are MM - I misread the drawing. 11427509211 is the main seal, 11427509261 are the exchanger ones.

 

Thanks everyone!

I think what I need are those 2x o-rings then. Mini Mania unfortunatly I am in the UK so need to find another supplier. I asked the seller who supplied the filter housing gasket for me and he said he has them.

Importiant question - Are these o-rings the only ones it could be on my 2005 cooper s? I've also seen this picture which Google Images classified as 'OEM Gen1 R53'.

 

Those are the same seals - they fit in the oval recess on the housing.

 

Oh really, thanks for letting me know!

So the oil cooler has round holes (looking at the image furtehr up) and the housing has oval holes? How odd.

 

Order up some assembly lube or some other grease to get the oil seals in there. The seals when you get them will be round and will not want to stay in the recesses for them. If they shift (easily) they will tear and you will get an instant and massive oil bath upon start up.

A 2005 Mini Cooper S is an r53 per your other post

 

Hello all, thanks for your help with this issue.

I now have the new seals and I already have some 'liquid gasket' suitable for permanent oil exposure to help make an extra good seal.

How can I best go about getting the oil cooler off?

When I tried to tighten up the torx bolts earlier it was very tricky to get access on some of the bolts. Should I remove the filter housing from the engine block first? Alternativly I have a flexible screwdriver on order that might help.

 

Having the car on a hoist makes a world of difference. You'll want to get the wheel liner out of the way as it'll open up a bit more room for you, but from there it's just 4 T30 screws and a deep cleaning.

 

Well I've spent today doing the job. I simply parked on the curb and jacked up the side to get more clearance under the car. By laying in the 'gutter' of the road you can get under the car easily enough on your back. I didn't take the road wheel off, nor the arch liner.

3 of 4 torx-30 bolts can be accessed with a 5" socket wrench and a 3" extension. The other one needed a longer extension I think 8" aimed between the two water hoses. I had to wrap my arm around the susnesion bits in a few differnt ways.

It droped a lot of oil when the cooler came off so have a catch pan on your chest to colelct it!

I actually did this job twice. Grrrr!! Even though the first time I got the new seales located well and gave them a smear of Loctite SI 5980 'black silicon' so seal it, the thing leaked when I ran it!

I took it to bits again and could see there was a silicon pattern in the shape of the seals on the cooler face near the top but not near the bottom. So clearly it hadn't contacted at the bottom of the seals. Perhaps the cooler face has warped with heat?

I have just finished re-assembling again, this time with a far more copious amount of silicon and tightening the nuts up from the bottom of the cooler first to pull that side in tight. I'm waiting for the silicon to set and then I'll run it again. Cross your fingers for me!

...also the first time I had loosened the filter t help the oil drain down to the sump before I took the bits apart. I only went and ran it without doing the filter back up again didn't I!! What a mess of oil on the floor!




Socket wrench that allowed access for 3 of the 4 torx30 bolts.




Jacked the car quite a long way to the side hoping to prevent oil dripping out the filter housing. It kept dripping anyway.




Oil cooler after removal from filter housing. Needs a clean!




Generous smear of Locktite SI5980. This is the second attempt.




Filter housing with new seals and another generous dose of Locktite SI5980

 

It worked!

I also changed the oil filter to get a new o-ring for the filter cover / container. I had read that sometimes this leaks and I had un-done it a couple of times. One thing to note - the 'Crosland' oil filter supplied by Euro Car Parts was not the right one and I had to awap it for a Mann one.

 

Good to hear, sorting out oil leaks is always good piece of mind.

 

Another picture just for interest.



2005 Mini Cooper S R53 Oil Filter Housing Receptacle

 

Wow! Just the info I was looking for as I believe that is the primary source of my elusive oil leaks for my 05 R52. Looks like you left the filter assembly attached when you first removed the heat exchanger, but then it looks to be off the block when you re-installed the heat exchanger the second time. Did that work better? Thanks ever so much for posting, and for including pictures.
Jim

 

I think the oil filter housing was on the block the whole time I worked on the heat exchanger. It was a whike since I did it. However there is also a seal between the filter housing and the block that sometimes causes leaks and I had changed it before doing the heat exchanger seals. Additionaly there is a seal in the filter cup / cover that holds the actual filter and it can leak too.


It's very difficult to tell which of the above is leaking since it all just dips down over the heat exchanger area anyway then splashes everywhere once it hits the driveshaft.

 

Appears that the prudent approach would be to change all the seals whilst working on the oil filter assembly. Well, one of the reasons I purchased a first gen was that they looked to be fun to work on. I've currently got most of the front end stuff off to service the supercharger so I might as well continue onward with taking care of all possible leaks.
Cheers,

 

If you have the front off then hit the crankshaft sensor on the front of the block with a new seal (9) too. Its very common to leak there and tricky to reach otherwise.

I need to do my supercharger oil on the tricky to reach end. Does the radiator and water pump need to come off fully or is it possible just pushing the radiator assy forwards for access?