I took my MINI in for 25,000 mile service and they changed the oil pan gasket. said it was starting to weep.
Two weeks before I spent about 30 min. under there studying the back of the engine and other componets. It was dry as a bone from the back ( header side ) and no sign at the front bottom of the pan.
Who else has had this done ??

 

Anyone really know what an oil pan on this engine does?

 

mine was replaced at 30,000 miles. My car leaked oil, they said it was due to the extra boost from performance mods but covered it under warranty anyway. Habberstad rocks, great service dep.
:smile:

 

My original oil pan gasket was replaced (under warranty) in early March 2006 at 29,500 miles. About 14,000 miles and seven months later, the leak is back. Have just e-mailed service advisor about the issue. Car is 2004 MCS, no engine mods. Anybody else having repeat or premature problems with leaking oil pan gaskets?

 

Just had my oil pan gasket replaced too. Is this a common problem? Thinking back to the head/block and the gasket there... metalic with (teflon?) supposed to allow the to differing metals to expand/contract at thier differing rates w/o leaking. FINE... but is the oil pan gasket ineffective at performing its similar but less stressful job?

 

Mine lasted up until 125k miles. And then, it was 'starting to seep and should be replaced when you can get to it'. So.. Unlike ya'll, I haven't had a problem with it. (I mean,. 125k miles on a gasket.. okay, I can see that..)

 

I appreciate what you're saying, that seems like a long service period. Aside from its basic function, there's probably the odd bump or hit... possibly shortening the lifespan.

But I know of a few Toyota Celicas from the 70's, each with 300,000+ miles... several made it 200,000+ before needing a rebuild, in which case the gasket was replaced. My point: These are just the examples I know of - old technology engines where oil-pan gaskets lasted quite well. Our engines are supposedly higher toloranced, newer 'better' designs, materials & mnfr. processes.

Most folks relating this failure are in warranty, or just beyond. IMO a short service life, and implied: poorly wearing part/interface.

 

Just had mine done under warranty, 04' MCS, 42k miles. It was leaking out the back where it joins the block, front was dry. Jeff

 

i've seen and replaced about 15 in the past month seems to be a comon problem mini us already knows about it

 

Thank you for posting

Both Cooper and S... ratio? TSB?

My local technician was under the car fixing mine and said it was a common occurance. 5 minutes later the foreman walked by and claimed that it was unusual. I wasn't soliciting the first comment, and figure the tech had no reason to lie... the foreman's comment OTOH... well lets just say I have a new found mistrust regarding anything the foreman tells me

 

chances are the foreman was try to save face for the car which is thier job the tech has no need to lie to u most of the time if u ask they will show u what they see before they do anything so that u will be happy and give them a good score on the survey which yes we do get and yes it counts and yes the tech at most dealerships get paid a bonus on.... so don't kill us on the survey plz

 

Mine has been replaced at least 3 times in the last year! It's going in again tomorrow for the same thing with 49560 miles on it!

 

OK Is it just me, or is this issue sounding like we need a poll? ... possibly a sticky?

 

Add me to the list.
04 MCS with 23,000 when the gasket was changed. The dealer did it with no problem.

 

for further refence most dealers have been asked to not fix the leaks so your gonna have to say that u think you have an leak at time of write up even if u don't have a leak so that we can fix the leaks as they come in

 

OK This issue is SCREAMING poll/sticky. Is there a moderator in the house?

 

holy crap. you've got to be kidding me. i'm a honda tech and we would never do something like this. we have issues with the new civics leaking oil from the block and from the power steering pump, and as soon as the problem was figured out, a service bulletin was issued. honda would NEVER say "ignore it unless the customer complains about it". that's a load of ***** . btw, i'm not mad at the techs, he's trying to let us know. i'm mad at BMW for issuing such an order. oh yeah, mine has been leaking too...

 

You're absolutely right... And I don't think any of us want to shoot the messenger. I read BMW's lack of proactive measures to mean they think thier $h!t doesn't stink. A fault is something to be worked around, or lived with... a loveable quirk from a quirky little car.

BMW made a boatload on the new MINI - sold far more than they expected. Knowing this it would seem both prudent and appropriate to reinvest into the fledgeling customer base... ensuring retention. But the message has always been mixed. Sell one image, support another.

Don't get me wrong... this is a fun car to drive, something that I didn't get from HONDA or other cars. But that's hardly enough to overlook glaring & fixable problems.

Customer experience and relationship is no longer the significant focus it once was for manufacturers... They now expect the dealer to fill that void - typically on his own.

 

yeah this seems like an issue, i also had mine replaced at my second inspection at about 30K miles.

 

bmw has what is called a "warranty index", the less warranty itmes you repair/replace the better. if you do more warranty repair than other shops bmw gets mad about it and starts coming down on the service manager to "not repair if not complained about".

so if you do not say i think i have a leak and the tech sees the leak, he really gets in trouble with the service manager for bringin the "warranty index" up and repairing somethin on a car that the customer did not complaint about. really shitty in my opinion!

 

Normally oil pan gaskets on just about anything don't leak at this low mileage.
By the way I also had oil weeping into a spark plug well and on the back side of my valve cover. The gasket was replaced under warranty after I brought it to the SA’s attention.

This is really disappointing;


and now I'm totally disappointed;


So what about John and Jane Doe who know nothing about cars is MINI/BMW going to let their cars leak and other repairs slide?
With this attitude who knows what’s next to be ignored.
Does the Corp. mission statement say it all?
One way to interpret this is that the BMW bean counters have the BMW car guys by the ***** i.e. successful = $$$ and who cares about quality service or the customer.

BMW Group worldwide mission statement is:
"To be the most successful premium manufacturer in the industry."

 

I doubt the sharholders measure of success would be ours.

Anyone else with this failure? Seems like folks ought to check underneath in the spring when having tires rotated or snow's removed/summer's installed. Anyone with photo's showing leaks? Where to look & what to look for would be useful.

 

I'm not digital, so no photos to share. However, it's not all that hard to see mine when the car is on a lift - just look at the back of the pan and there's oil accumulating on a couple of the pan bolt heads and a slight film down the pan but none above the line where the gasket meets the bottom of the block. In my case it's all on the back side of the engine - the front is dry. Plus there's some oil slick down the underside of the car behind those bolt heads, from where oil drops have blown off and smeared against the underside.

As a followup to my post of Oct 23, (several above this one), I've e-mailed the SA at Motorwerks MINI in Minneapolis twice about this issue and have not received any response. I'd planned to have them change the serpentine belt in about seven or eight weeks (at my expense - I'm getting close to 50,000 miles and have a couple of long trips planned for the summer) and at the same time address the pan gasket issue as well as a couple of other minor issues. However, lack of even the courtesy of a response has me looking at the possibility of giving the new dealer to be opening soon (I hope) over in Omaha a shot at doing the job right.

 

Agreed 100%. I recently sold my truly loved 04 MC S w/ only 20k miles due to the numerous expensive problems cropping up and BMW's high handed approach. I truly loved to drive it but the potential repairs with a year left on warranty were staring me in the face. Granted I only had a few issues, but if it were out of warranty, they would have cost a boatload!

Unfortunately I will not be able to experience the joy of Mini ownership again since I will not deal with BMW ever again (not my 1st BMW experience) I must add that the dealership was great...It is BMW/Mini that my gripe is with....flawed designs, components that fail way too often etc. Got tired of hearing "it is normal in a Mini"!!!...I will sorely miss it this spring/summer. Heck, I can't even bring myself to stop reading NAM...I HOPE IT GETS BETTER FOR ALL OF YOU!!!

IMHO, BMW/Mini need a few class action suits to bring them around!

 

the reasoning behind us not fixing the rpoblems we see as they come in is because the warrinty index, and your preception of the vehicle, if u came in and we found all this stuff wrong every time u would think your car is a p.o.s. or lemon or something of that nature. if your leak gets bad enough that it is dripping on the floor. then it would get fix but no intill it hits the floor has to be a large active leak if the customer (you guys) doesn't complain about it