After 38000 miles and a long road trip I have discovered an oil drip. It is about the size of a quarter on the left side of the car (of course on the floor). I also notice there is a small drip drip drip leading into the garage from the driveway. I have checked the oil level and it is about 3.4 full after sitting for a couple of days.

Should I call my service advisor immediately and not drive it? Or is this a necessary evil of the Minis of old I need to learn to live with? Help!

 

Try to determine where your oil is coming from. This will require hands and knees action combined with a flashlight and your best CSI instincts. In all probability it is most likely not a cause of major concern, but it is important to locate the source (engine, gearbox, etc.). Do this first and report back with your findings. Remember, leaks rarely cure themselves, so don't procrastinate hoping it will go away. Hopefully it will be something very minor requiring only a turn or two of a wrench to resolve.

 

Thank you! I am going out to garage with flashlight now. Will report back soon!

 

If it is on the left,in line with the bonnet latch,it could be a bad axle seal,leaking tranny oil.This happened on my 03 MC,because of extreme cold,but I have heard of this happening in warmer conditions.

MINI CA. knew of this problem,but rather than do a recall for newer seals that cost $30 and takes less than 1/2 an hour to intall,they seem to have decided to let folks have a seal failure,then replace the tranny,which costs $3000+and takes 5-6 hours to replace

So now I have a MINI with 50K miles and a tranny with 15K miles.

 

was it oil? or was it some dirty condensation from the AC system?

 

Someone else obviously had another car parked there while you were away!

 

Hmmm .... on my second MINI since May 2002 (52000+ on first; 10,000+ on second) ... no oil spots on the garage floor.

However, on the side of the garage where the '74 MG Midget is parked ....

 

It's on the left side. I'm inclined to go with Lot15's suggestion. It's a strange couple of drips though. The oil dripped as we arrived home from a long trip across the Nevada desert. 4 drips in all, with a trailing of small drips into the garage. Since then no more drips. ??? I am very puzzled at this point.

This afternoon we will take the car on another jaunt and see what happens.

Thank you all for the suggestions. I will keep you notified.

 

I had a similar problem where after a long trip my MINI leaked some oil. Not too much just enough to worry about. So i took it in and it turned out to be a bad gasket on the oil filter, so maybe you can try and replace the oil filter.

 

When the brilliant folks at Global Imports in Atlanta attempted to do my first oil change, they broke the rubber gasket and left me with an intermittent small oil leak that took me several months to actually pinpoint even though it was the obvious place to look.

 

You have to love these dealers.. they screw up and cause the problem, then they can't find them. Or maybe they are waiting for your warranty to expire so they can charge you..
I hate dealer visits.. I do all my own maint when I can...

 

I know what you mean, when i got the satisfaction survey from my dealer on the comments section i talked about what kind of mechanics do they have that they dont inspect their parts before installing them, and how he should have seen a defective gasket. It made me feel better to vent my anger.