I have put about 300miles on a 2008 MCS, and have put 3/4 quart of oil into it. The PO gave me a new turbo with the car because he was under the impression the turbo was leaking. I don't see any signs of a leak, no oil in the floor when parked, and no oil in the coolant. The oil level only goes down when I drive the car. My next step is to pull off some of the turbo hoses, and exhaust pipe to see if I can see any oil. Also only have black smoke out of the exhaust. I would love to find this leak, anyone every have something similar happen?

 

That's because it's probably burning the oil, not leaking it. Common problem in that year..

 

Wow, that's a lot of oil

 

Yep, the most common is around 1k miles per quart. The early second gen (07-10) are known oil burners. Explains why you see a loss only after driving the vehicle..

 

How many miles? Check the rear of your transmission - seen several that have a bad rear main seal and this will flow to the rear of the transmission, sometimes on the exhaust as well. Compression check? leak down? at least you will know if you are getting a decent seal or if you oil rings are gone. Do a good cleaning of the engine - cold of course, then dye it. See if you have any leaks that have escaped attention!

 

Leak down/compression needed.

if the oil was vaping out through the turbo, you would see a lot of white/blue smoke at idle and under acceleration.

 

About a quart a fill up. Compression and leak down this weekend for sure. I should mention it is a rebuilt engine with less than 3k miles on it. I am trying to take it easy and follow the break in according to the owners manual. Anything I can do there, specific to mini, that would seal little engine leaks and seat the rings better?

 

Sorry for the long delay. Between snail mail parts and a day job it's been a slow process. I dyed it and found a few leaks around the oil filter housing and also the front crankshaft seal. Nothing that looked like it should cause the amount of oil I was losing. I have it back together and am frustrated that a new crankshaft seal is still leaking a little even after double checking it wasn't rolled on install, it seems to be leaking around the outside of the seal. I'm still needing to do a compression test. Tomorrow I'm going to drive it to work to test it out. I have low expectations because there is no sure sign of a leak and the car runs great otherwise.

 

N14 engines are known for losing oil through the PCV system in the valve cover, and the bearings in the turbo. Oil getting burned up in the engine gets cleaned up by the catalytic coverter, so you don't see the smoke until your cat is completely fouled by all the oil.

Disconnect the hose from the passenger side rear of the valve cover to the throttle body, and the the hose from the driver side front of the valve cover to the turbo air inlet. Check for oil in both. If there's anything more than just a slight film of oil then you are losing oil through the PCV system in the valve cover and it needs to be replaced.

While you're at it, check for lots of oil in the throttle body , and for any play in the turbo bearings. A compression test wouldn't be a bad idea either.

 

I think you nailed it SkiBum. I pulled the tube off the passenger side valve cover and there was a good coating of fresh oil. This is the first sign of a leak that could account for the amount of oil I'm losing. Sounds like a new valve cover should do it. Is there any other hoses or gaskets (besides the valve cover gasket) that I should look at replacing while at it?

 

I replaced the valve cover yesterday and drove to work today about 80 miles round trip. I hate to say but I'm still losing oil. I was having the smell of burning oil in the cabin, so I'm glad to have replaced the pcv. My biggest issue is the oil loss. So far I've replace:
oil filter housing gasket and heat exchanger gasket
oil lines on turbo
front crankshaft seal
valve cover
I lose oil only when driving and there is No sign of an oil leak and losing about a quart of oil every tank of gas. What am I missing.

 

It is easy to check the turbocharger, take the inlet hose off and grasp the center of the compressor wheel and try to move it around, there should be no play axially or radially.

Our MINIs turbochargers do not have oil seals in them, oil is kept in the pedestal bearing by close tolerances, so if you can wiggle the turbine wheel, that's where your oil is going.

 

My oil loss problems turned out to be a leaking turbo oil feed line, leaking turbo oil return line, leaking oil filter housing gasket, and bad valve guides and seals.

 

Thanks for all the input. I did a compression test, did 10 rotations of the engine on each cylinder and have 125 psi on each cylinder. Some of the plugs had scale on them, so I'll be replacing those for sure. Is that good compression? (I really hope it is, new ring job is the last thing I want to do).

About that turbo. It seems to have some play in it. Thankfully I have a new turbo that came with the car. There was some oil when I took off the intake to look at the spool. Is that normal? I didn' expect to see it there.

 

You've already done the easy stuff - remaining possibilities are the turbo, rings, or valve guides. Compression is low compared to new, so rings and valve guides are suspect. Next step is a leakdown test.

How many miles on the car?

 

I'll start with the turbo because I have it right here and have a lot of good practice getting into that spot on the car.
Not sure about the engine. It is the second engine in the car, and it was said to be "rebuilt". Turns out that is subjective. All the gaskets have been toasted and needed done, so it's
Not wasted time just frustrating.
overall, the Engine is clean and the performance is really good. That keeps me optimistic here.

 

125 psi is not bad. What is bad is when there is more than 10% differential in pressure readings between cylinders.

 

I switched the guts out of the turbo yesterday and took it to work today. Still losing oil.
What has got me curious is the smell of burning oil is strong at stop lights even after replacing the valve cover. It seems like I'm burning the oil but where? Frustrated!

 

So I'm an idiot. My valve cover had the plugs in it just loose and I didn't know what they were for until yesterday. I drove it to work and back today with no to minimal oil loss. I'l post again in a week or so, but i think a properly installed new valve cover solved it.

 

Hoping that solves your oil problem. Yeah, I have done a lot of idiot things too

 

I drove the car all last week, 400 miles all together. Sad to say it's still burning oil. Seems to be slightly better but still about 1 qt a tank. I had the local import mechanic look at it thinking he would tell me the valve seals or rings are bad. What he told me (speaking through his shop help) was that the burning oil is normal for that age of an engine, and the only fix is a new engine. Hmmm?? Good news is they are not charging me to look it over.

They quotes the line of 1qt per 700miles that I've seen throughout this forum as the N14 engine baseline quote from mini. I pointed out it was burning about twice that fast and they still didn't seem concerned. Any input good or bad?

 

I had my head rebuilt in October 2017. The bottom end has 93k miles on it. Since then I drove 5000 miles and burned enough oil for the light to come on in hard right turn. I believe that's a quart of oil. My mechanic said that's better than most Mini's he's seen, also adding to the fact that I'm hard on my car.


1 quart every 700 miles is bad and means something is wrong. My car passed leak down tests and smoke tests but still went through oil. When we tore it down it needed valve seals, guides and a thorough cleaning.

 

Just to note the consumption is stabilized at 1 litre for 4000 kms, which is not bad..., but burnt oil smell is on again. I think the replaced PCV must be stuck or something, old one looked good when I replaced it and I tend to think its spring is not hard enough although not sure what collateral effect could have if replacing for a harder one...

 

I guess you do not have to change the oil anymore as you are refilling it every few thousand miles : ) Just change the filter and you're set! Keep running her and have fun.