Car has multiple issues. The driver overheated the engine due to bad thermo housing. She says the temp light never went red but I'm having my doubts. The other issue appears to be the chain, chain tensioner and guides. I will get a closer look today. These two issues I can fix no problem, but I am concerned about the massive oil leak. I does not hold oil for very long. I'm having a tough time finding the leak. Oil is everywhere. It's collecting on the plastic splash guard for the belts, but belts are clean. Oil collecting on the transmission housing. Oil is covering everything on both sides under engine. I've looked at the culprits. The vacuum pump looks good, no oil there. The oil filter is dry on the outside all the way around. Valve cover looks good too. I think there could be multiple leaks. Right now engine has no oil it it. I'm afraid to put oil in it an run the engine to see where it's coming from. Engine sounds like a bucket of bolts (timing chain). I've never heard one this bad. The only code is p0599 for thermo. What else can I check?

 

one step at a time...get the chain looked at and verify the timing. clean everything and add oil. turn the engine by hand few times for the oil to circulate and that should be enough to spot leaks. then you move to the next step...

Do you have pix?

 

Lets take this slowly, front oil leak, that is the left hand side looking into the bay is usually the crank shaft oil seal if it is making such a mess, less likely candidate is the sump seal but unless it has been botched or hit, I doubt it. right hand side, oil filter housing seal. First check is the rocker cover gasket of course, but your going to change that anyway when you go in to look at your timing chain and guides which sound like they are knackered. You could be going down a rabbit hole of expense if you dont have the tools or the skill to do this yourself but NAM will be your helper. Search and cross your fingers. Also, when you say belts, that makes no sense, there is one belt.

 

I have experience working on my own mini which is an S. I've done the timing chain job, and a bunch of other stuff. I've worked on other cars. I've done heard gaskets, complete valve jobs, I ground the valve seats myself. I've done all kinds of work over the years. I've got all the tools, but I'm just a backyard mechanic.
I took off the oil filter housing, and didn't see anything wrong with the seal but perhaps they didn't change this in the last oil change. I mean it's just so much damn oil. I did however notice the oil is brownish and gooey which means water in oil and blown head gasket. Woo hoo!!

 

Okay so it appears there is water in the oil which means blown head gasket. See pics. Brownish oil that's a bit gooey. However, I also noticed water being sucked into the throttle body. I took off intake connector from air box to throttle body and saw water pooling inside. Tough to see in pics, but it's there. Also, wiped out entry to throttle body and a fair amount of residue with water came off. So, I'm wondering 1)how the hell is water getting in the air intake post air filter? 2)If water is making it's way into the throttle body it's getting into the engine which could explain the water/coolant in the oil? So maybe it doesn't have a blown head gasket? Next I wanted to check the timing chain so I was going to measure the slack with special tool in timing tool kit, but the intake design is different than my S. The throttle body is blocking the chain tensioner bolt. I didn't want to remove the throttle body. Just not enough time, also wanted to check with you guys. So I decided to just take off the valve cover but, I couldn't get a socket on the two bolts in the middle. This was also very strange. It's like the bolts were surrounded by melted plastic and tiny bits of hard black plastic were coming out. So I stopped there. See pics.

 

Right bolt inside valve cover. Cant get socket on bolt because of what appears to be melted plastic around the bolt.
Left side. There's hard black plastic surrounding the bolt head do i cant get a socket on it.

 

This was inside throttle body before flapper valve. Looks like oil but its actually mostly water and dirt.
Water was collecting inside this guy. Connector from airbox to throttle body

 

Brownish oil on filter. Uh oh...
Not looking good.

 

See the oil pooling on the transmission housing. Lots of oil.

 

Passenger side back of oil pan. Im thinking this is the dried up coolant. Didnt get a picture but oil was pooled on plastic belt cover adjacent to this.
More whitish residue

Same pic as above zoomed out. This driver side. Oil collecting at bottom of transmission.

 

It is obvious you need a new engine....... Good Luck.

 

Taking valve cover off to get a look a chain and guides. The two bolts heads in the middle of the valve cover are surrounded by what looks to be melted plastic. I can't get the socket on it. I've seen melted valve covers but that's in turbo cars and it melts the front part, but on a non-turbo? What is going on here? Do I need to chisel out the plastic so I can get to the bolts? See pics.

 

The oil puddle: It seems the oil filter cap was not tight enough and oil was shooting that way or vacuum pump or oil pressure sensor loose.

Coolant residue: They must've replace either the water pump, thermostat, or the middle plastic pipe. the white residue is consistent with these connections.

Valve cover, Heat up a 10mm deep socket and let it melt the plastic so it catches to the bolt. then take it out. The car must have ran hot for the valve cover to melt like that.

 

Sounds like a plan! I like your idea heating up the socket. Any idea about water getting into the air tube post air filter and into the throttle body? I was hoping that might explain the water in the oil and that it's not a blown head gasket. I mean, it probably doesn't matter as I'm going to have to pull the cylinder head anyway. Just curious on your thought because I've never seen this before. Thanks again for your input.

 

it could be condensation! but start with the easy inexpensive repairs first.

if the car spins by hand, I would spin it while you have a piece of paper towel on the spark plug holes to see if they move...(quick check of compression)

also, pressurize the cooling system to test for head gasket issues.

 

shanksamillion, did you get to the bottom of the issues with this car? This is exactly what has happened to my mini, I suspect overheat due to coolant loss..., N12 JUSTA too, but no coolant or temperature light, oil light did come on and I pulled over, no coolant in reservoir after filling it up that AM, center two valve cover bolts melted just like yours, massive oil leak just like yours, oil everywhere, I'm just beginning to investigate this issue, doing a compression test this evening....see my post here... curious how this ended up for you? REAL CURIOUS HOW THIS ENDED UP FOR YOU? I bet the damage to this car will be similar to mine...
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