Hi motorers,

My MINI is sick... There is a huge leak in the oil filter housing. My garage thinks is might be the seals inside.

Anyone else ever had this problem? Any idea of the cost of the whole job (parts + labor)?

Thanks

 

Update...

The oil cooler was leaking and had to be replaced. I got the gaskets to be changed at the same time...

A $600 job including labor, parts and oil change.

 

I suspected the oil cooler...ouch! $600.00! how many miles?

 

I'm beginning to think having a spare oil cooler is not a bad thing. :impatient

 

Why, is this a common problem?

 

Details? Was it structural failure, or was the cooler physically damaged?
Bummer - that was perfectly good mod money.

 

I am starting to hear about two problems with the cooler, external oil leaking, and oil getting into the coolant via an internal leak.The cooler is not difficult to replace, but having it fail in either scenario is not pretty.

 

Hmmm, never had oil get into coolant. But might this cause an overheating problem? Actually, if oil can flow one way, is it possible that water can flow the other? A few folks are complaining about sudden high oil temps during track events and I wonder if this is part of the cause...

 

Since the oil pressure can run 50psi or above, and the most you would see as far as water pressure would be about 15psi, the oil would tend to do the most migrating. As far as high track oil temps, I've had my oil temps as high as 250-255 wringing the engine hard in 2nd and 3rd. The water temps increased as well, to 215-220 (I have independent, separate oil and water temp gauges). With the water temps high, the oil temps will tend to follow. These are not truly excessive temps, as long as good synthetic oil is used, A air-to-oil cooler would probably be more effective, as it is not affected by the water temp rise (or contribute to it).