Hey guys. So when I purchased my r50 last summer (its a 2004) I took it into a private mini mechanic to have a once over done so I knew what to expect. It was in great shape considering it only had 53k miles. The only thing really wrong with it was a few corrosion issues because it lived in a beach town. In particular a terminal on the coil pack had some significant corrosion. The mechanic said I should replace it in the next one to two years. So fast forward to today and I went down to my local parts store to get the coil pack, a new set of wires and some plugs (ngk iridium). After pulling my hair out over the stupid design of the stock coil pack (the bolts have the sleeve integrated so the stock bolts won't fit into an aftermarket coil pack) I decided to just replace the plugs/wires while I waited for a new coil pack to get special ordered. While I was replacing the plugs I discovered that one of them (2nd from the left) had oil residue covering the plug boot. The plug also had residue down to about half way down the threads but it didn't penitrate into the electrode itself. What does this mean? It was running fine before with no smoke or funny smells. Should I be worried? Thanks for the input guys!

 

Sounds like it is just the valve cover.
Because of the design there are gaskets on all of the spark plug tubes.
Just buy a new valve cover gasket and the 4 spark plug gaskets as well. They are not very expensive and doing the cover is fairly easy if you are good with a wrench.

 

Doing it all at once will make things simple. The spark plug tubes round gaskets sound like to be the problem. Since you are pulling the valve cover off its easy just to replace the main outer gasket also.


http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/SiteSearch/11121485838KIT/




#5 is the tubes and #2 is the main outside gasket. They are together in the kit above.




And it might be a good time to check the hardware , they can get pretty rusted and make it hard to take off the valve cover. Talked about here:


https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...er-screws.html


Thanks and hope that helps.

 

TYVM, it helped immensely Especially linking the part number. I'm hoping this also fixes my slow oil leak...I'm not sure where its coming from but my oil pan always has a nice slick on it when I change my oil. It's probably something annoying like the oil pan gasket or the filter housing but here's hoping for the easy solution Thanks again for the help guys, I'll let you know how it goes.

 

You are welcome ,
once you get the valve cover replaced or determine is the outside gasket is leaking down to the oil pan, check the oil pan gasket also.

Oil Pan Gasket


http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/SiteSearch/11131487221/



# 3 in the diagram.





&

If you get a leak from the back corner only and right below the oil filter housing.




up to 7/2004 production R50 MINIs # 3 in the diagram


http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/SiteSearch/11421486687/

or

From 7/2004 production on R50 MINIs


http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/SiteSearch/11427509211/



Thanks and good luck. Nice to see a Solid Gold , one of the rare old school color from Gen 1 MINIs.

 

Well hopefully it's not the pan or oil filter housing. I don't have a good setup for really tearing apart the car at my house. If this is where the leaks are coming from I may just have to wait till I can get the car over to my buddies place on a nice day.Thanks again for all the great diagrams! Also, I hear the Solid Gold is rare but I've spotted TWO in my town so far (Vancouver, wa). lol

 

Also check the crank position sensor o-ring on the front of the motor.
This is a very common oil leak and makes it look like it could be the pan gasket. Fairly easy fix once the car is in service mode.

 

Does anyone have a diagram of where the CPS is? Or even better a link to a DIY repair/replacement?

 

You can find diagrams here:
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/select.do

Just select your model, year, etc; then Browse Parts at the bottom.

Lots of good DIY in the stickies here on NAM, also pelican parts is known to have all sorts of good write ups for lots of different DIY jobs on MINIs

Edit: it's on the pulley side of the engine