2011 Mini Cooper S, R56, N18 engine, Nov 2010 manufacture. 143K miles at purchase. Crank seal leaking. New to the vehicle, had this leak when I bought it. I've done the research on replacing the seal, pretty much know what I need to do here.

However, a question I have not been able to answer through research: how often should I expect to have to do the exercise? Seems like having this seal go bad is "discussed a lot."

Thanks for any input.

 

i think as soon as it leaks. or every 143k miles

 

Bahahaha!

 

I think our 13 is leaking there as well. Havent totally pinpointed it, but I had thought it was just a bad crush washer on the drain since its always wettish there. I think its actually coming from just above that point.

Nothing on the ground, so I will likely leave it until that happens.

Just sucks I get whiffs of oil with the heat/ac on.

 

If you have a crank seal leak it's going to be from behind the crankshaft pulley.

I got mine taken care of and found out there's a major consequence to letting it leak away (as the prior owner did):



Oil-damaged crankshaft pulley, back



Oil-damaged crankshaft pulley, front

The crankshaft pulley is in three pieces: center pulley (all metal), ring surrounding the center pulley (all rubber), ring surrounding the rubber ring (all metal). What you're looking at is my severely compromised crankshaft pulley. The rubber is swollen badly due to exposure to engine oil and it is actually missing sections -- but you can only see the missing sections from the rear, meaning the only way anyone would have known about them would be to take the pulley off (which is part of the seal replacement op).

The genuine Mini crankshaft pulley will run you just shy of $400. That's the part cost. Add more $$ for labor unless you're doing the work yourself.

I had this happen on a different vehicle (not a Mini) some time ago. It is referred to as having the crankshaft pulley "slip." If the pulley is a harmonic balancer (on the Mini I understand it is), you have the issue of your balancing going wonky and whatever that ultimately does to your engine.

Separate from that, however -- and this happened to my not-Mini vehicle whose pulley was not a harmonic balancer, but was identically constructed (all-metal center surrounded by a rubber ring surrounded by a metal ring) -- the outer ring will get out of alignment with the rest of the crank pulley, and you'll end up with a wobble. That wobble will put strain on your accessory belt, which will itself be wobbling, out of direct alignment with whatever other pulleys it is driving.

On my not-Mini other vehicle, this issue damaged my alternator (mysteriously damaged pulley bearings) and my power steering pump (mysterious leaking), which in turn led to damage to my power steering rack (more leaking due to whatever the pump was doing in the context of *its* leak). The alternator was rebuilt and replaced, and the steering components were ultimately replaced, totaling maybe $2000-$2500 over and above the parts and labor of replacing the crank pulley itself.

The thing is, it took going through all those side-effects to figure out that root cause was the slipping crankshaft pulley -- it had done its damage and been replaced well before (as in years) the damage done to the other components was obvious and understood.

So with all that in mind, I'd recommend staying on top of this. It's one of those stealthy kind of things that can set you up for all manner of trouble and you'll never know it's going on (who the heck yanks their crankshaft pulley for inspection?). I'm replacing mine in a few days (going to install it myself), with an aftermarket pulley trusted by a vendor who I trust in turn.

Who knew, right?

 

duly noted! Need to verify the actual source I guess and go from there. Sooner than later! I have also heard about some solenoid or sensor that can leak on these

 

I'm guessing there are a few places that can leak given all the discussion we're having right now.

I also have an engine oil leak from the seal between the engine and the oil filter housing assembly ("engine oil filter housing gaskets" on the dealer service doc) so going to take care of that as well, though that's on the side of the engine (front of the vehicle) rather than the front. In the end it all heads down to ground so the fewer of these buggers the better!!!

 

I have a crankseal leak i found today not to bad but wana fix it asap. Do they sell a upgraded harmonic ballencer like the ati one for the r53s i saw online or is stock the only way to go? also on install can i just use a piece of pvc pipe the size of the gasket to tap in place or do i need the special tools? I read u can go in to far and damage the new seal.

 

When I did the job on a MCS 2009, i believe the aftermarket one I used was FEBI.

No problems, as of 2,000 miles.