I have reposted to the Stock Problems/Issues Forum where it should have been to start with. Sorry.


I have a 2007 R56 with 22K miles on it. I have kept up on all the maintenance getting the oil changed at least once per year and keeping the oil topped up, adding a quart when necessary. The oil consumption seems to be getting worse and worse. I am now at the point where I am adding a quart every 700 - 1000 miles. Lately my R56 has developed a miss when started cold that does not go away until I have driven about 20 - 30 miles. The miss is prevalent when it idles cold and when I put a load on the engine to accelerate. It feels like the plugs are fouled. I have noticed recently that it smokes upon first start up, I think this does go away once it is warm. In addition there is caked greasy black soot in the tail pipes. I do not mean the tail pipe is coated, this stuff is caked in there. When I put my finger in I can pull out a lot of soot.

I took it to the dealer today. They changed the timing chain tensioner since I had the cold start rattle problem, they did not change the whole assembly. The service advisor said there was no fault stored in the memory indicating the engine had misfired but I can hear the missing when it idles cold and I can feel it when I put it under power before it has been driven 20 miles so I know it is missing. He also said that the oil consumption is normal and that all Minis use that much oil even new ones. I don't think I had to add a quart in the entire 1st year (about 7000 miles). And lastly he said that it is normal for all Minis to have caked greasy black soot in their tail pipes.

Any ideas out there what could be going on? Does anyone else have caked greasy soot in their tail pipes? It is still under warrantee, how do I get Mini (BMW) to take care of this?

Thanks in advance for your help,
David

 

I have a 2007 R56 with 22K miles on it. I have kept up on all the maintenance getting the oil changed at least once per year and keeping the oil topped up, adding a quart when necessary. The oil consumption seems to be getting worse and worse. I am now at the point where I am adding a quart every 700 - 1000 miles. Lately my R56 has developed a miss when started cold that does not go away until I have driven about 20 - 30 miles. The miss is prevalent when it idles cold and when I put a load on the engine to accelerate. It feels like the plugs are fouled. I have noticed recently that it smokes upon first start up, I think this does go away once it is warm. In addition there is caked greasy black soot in the tail pipes. I do not mean the tail pipe is coated, this stuff is caked in there. When I put my finger in I can pull out a lot of soot.

I took it to the dealer today. They changed the timing chain tensioner since I had the cold start rattle problem, they did not change the whole assembly. The service advisor said there was no fault stored in the memory indicating the engine had misfired but I can hear the missing when it idles cold and I can feel it when I put it under power before it has been driven 20 miles so I know it is missing. He also said that the oil consumption is normal and that all Minis use that much oil even new ones. I don't think I had to add a quart in the entire 1st year (about 7000 miles). And lastly he said that it is normal for all Minis to have caked greasy black soot in their tail pipes.

Any ideas out there what could be going on? Does anyone else have caked greasy soot in their tail pipes? It is still under warrantee, how do I get Mini (BMW) to take care of this?

Thanks in advance for your help,
David

 

Go back to the Dealer...there is definately something wrong here if you are using a qt every 700 miles and seeing oil in the exhaust pipes. I have an '07 like yours with 32k miles and I track my car and don't use any oil. No oil consumption between changes.

Also, search NAM. I know this has been discussed in other threads. Good luck with it.

 

Thanks for the advice. Actually the car is still at the dealer since they requested to keep it over night after replacing the chain tensioner to test it cold in the morning. I will not be able to pick it up until Monday. I am searching through NAM to find out how others have made out on this issue. I found 1 thread where a few people commented that their valve cover had been warped due to excessive heat. Replacement of the cover then fixed the consumption problem. There is hope.

 

My instinct from your description about smoke at start up, oil consumption, sense of fouled plugs when cold, and crud in pipe all says oil consumption issue caused by internal engine problem, and most likely rings.

My 8500 mile 2010 S burns effectively zero oil. None added outside of the oil changes so far. My 11 1/2 year old, 115,000 mile Audi 4.2 liter V8 at almost 3x the displacement and 2x the cylinders burns what yours burns, and I pretty much now know it has a piston ring problem in one specific cylinder from plug fouling and prior head removal.

 

I know you're probably right but I'm hoping not. I was thinking that it could be oil leaking down through the valves when cooling. Hence the smoke at start up. The thing that has me really convinced is the caked soot in the tail pipe. According to the dealer all Minis have this. There are a few other MCS owners where I work and I will be checking their tail pipes (with permission of course) on Monday. I should have checked the plugs before I took it in.

 

Have them do a compression test and a leakdown test. If they won't....do it yourself or find someone that will.

My vote is your have ring and/or piston issues.

 

If you can document oil consumption of a qt in 700 miles, this is well above spec and you shouldn't have any issue getting warranty to cover necessary repairs to fix. Escalate to a zone rep if the dealer pushes back.

- Mark

 

That's too much oil consumption. I've pushed two vehicles past 300,000 miles( one a turbo charged Saab) and two other past 200,000 miles and none ever used that much oil.

"Some" black soot is normal at the tail pipes, but it should be a thin, uniform, more or less dry film that can be easily wiped clean.

Have that dealer do a "cold" compression check, as previously advised. You may have a sticking valve ( hopefully), but it sounds like a ring/oil wiper seal.

 

I too have an 07 R56S and it just clocked over 52,000 miles and its eating synthetic at the rate of 1 qt every 1000 mi or so. The car has been maintained by the book, well, BMW/MINIs book, and I've even had an oil change performed between the scheduled oil changes, because I feel 10,000 miles is just too long between their scheduled oil changes.

Over 2 years ago, I thought it would be a good measure to check my oil just to see where the oil level was at, and I found it difficult to read the dipstick, so I took it to my dealer to be educated on the dip stick. Well, come to find out the car was 4 quarts down!! The MINI tech showed me how to read the dip stick and informed me at that time the R56S consumes oil, and I need to check it often. He even offered to stop by and he would top it off for free if needed because I was still under warranty. My concern at that time was the fact the I almost ran the engine out of oil without knowing it! Nor does the MINI sales staff tell new owners of the R56S to watch their oil level. WHY MINI why?

I contacted my MINI dealer about the oil consumption, and of course, got the same answer that "they all do this". I thought to myself, NO...they shouldn't ALL be doing this! No modern engineered car, turbo or not, should be consuming this much oil. My dealer has offered to do an inspection for $125 dollars to check for oil leaks, but I KNOW there is no oil leaking. No way! I'm not spending money repairing anything on this car, out of warranty or not. Especially if its for something that is inherent problem MINI won't own up to. It's not even my car, it's MINI's car and they will get it back to deal with. All I know at this point is I'll be turning this MINI in after the lease in 5 months, and I'm seriously considering not leasing another one. I just feel reliablility of these Mark II Coopers is a huge disappointment. This sucks for me as this is my second Cooper and I'm a BIG fan. It will not be the same without a MINI in my life.

 

The only way you're going to get them to act is by logging a CEL for your misfire that you're supposedly hearing. I agree that a quart every 1000 miles is totally insane and a sign that something is totally jacked inside the engine. At least you're under warranty so if something goes FUBAR it's on BMW's tab.

 

I was able to speak to the SA about compression and leak down tests. They said they would keep it a few days and put a couple hundred miles on it and document the oil consumption first. If they notice high oil consumption then they will go the next step with the compression and leak down tests.

One thing I have not mentioned is that during the week I am mostly just driving the Mini to and from work, about 3 miles each way. I wonder if that would somehow increase oil consumption and possibly foul the plugs. i usually let it warm up for a couple of minutes before i take off but I am not able to really wind it up between home and work. Any further thoughts on this?

I have come across several past threads where owners indicate that the soot is normal but I am still going to check a few tail pipes and make sure mine is not thicker than others. Mine is pretty thick and a greasy.

By the way everyone, thanks for all the help here. This sight is has an amazing volume of info, I don't know why I was not using this earlier.

 

Hope they gave you a loaner. What brand and octane gas do you always run?

 

No loaner, they said all loaners had been reserved. I had to rent at $30 per day. I will probably take this up with Mini USA or BMW or whoever.

I use Chevron 91 or occasionally Mobil 91, it is the highest I can get here.

 

Sadly, it seems that we're seeing more and more posts all the time of originally well behaved N14 engines with varying levels of mileage on them quickly morphing into ravenous oil eaters**. It irks me to no end that the same air-headed SAs who gave literally hundreds (maybe thousands) of people the song and dance that the death rattle was "normal" are now telling people that burning a quart of oil in 700 miles is supposed to be "normal" for a modern turbo-powered engine. That's clearly a pile of BS.

I'd say we have a smouldering gun on our hands here. I'm willing to bet there's a common root cause behind the increasing reports of massive oil consumption that is systemic in the N14. A few have mentioned a linkage to warping of the valve cover. Could that be it, or is it something else?

I have a vision of this thread becoming a sticky, right along side the death rattle and throttle body freeze threads. And that is just sad.


**This includes not only the posts from folks who've recognized the oil consumption but also those who were suddenly surprised to discover extremely low oil levels in their sump (tipped off by rattling noises to engine failure) and have been beating themselves up for not checking their oil more frequently

 

Your usage pattern isn't doing your engine any favors, but by itself, this shouldn't be causing high oil consumption. I would ditch the "let it warm up a couple minutes" protocol though - start it up, let it idle for 10-secs or so, then drive off , warming it up by driving gently, not idling. These few minute warmup periods could certainly be contributing to plug fouling.

If you're a very conservative driver and put a lot of miles on the machine without ever reaching full temp or ever using full power, its possible that you may have simply glazed the cylinder walls and lost effective oil control. It takes heat and combustion pressure to press the piston rings against the cylinder walls and establish the working clearances that provide for effective oil control. It's a remote possibility that you are one hard day of driving at the track (with the engine up near redline all day) away from being back to nominal/normal oil consumption.

- Mark

 

I wonder on what other forums this engine might be attracting attention? Peugeot?

 

Good point. How was the car driven during the 1,200 mile break-in period? If it was the same 3 mile trips, break-in may never have fully occured.

Here's an article I always direct new diesel truck owners too. The theory is the same for a gas engine. It subscribes to NO short trips to the corner store, and a good hard pull with weight behind the truck at 1,000 miles. I followed it and my truck has never needed oil added even with 10,000 mile OCI's.

http://www.thedieselstop.com/content...iesel%20Engine

 

Well that soot, is normal in these cars so don't be afraid by that. Your car should smoke during old because it is probably water evaporation from the condensation created from the exhaust going from cold to hot. But my mini only uses half a quart of oil in 4k miles. And they are hard effin miles =]

 

Mark - If you are right I could be in heaven. A day on the track with the Mini and correct the oil consumption problem at the same time. I am going to show your post to my wife as proof this is just proper maintenance on the car, nothing more. Hah ha .... She is not going to buy that one...

I picked up the car in mid to late July 2007 and had 1200 miles on it by the time of the Monterey historics in mid August 2007. During the break in period I took 3 long trips. I remember this because I could not wait to through break-in. 1 trip to San Diego about 360 miles round trip, 2 trips to Laguna Seca, 560 miles round trip each (total of 1120 miles). I hit the 1200 mark after I reached Laguna on the 2nd trip. The rest of the driving during that time was my ususal back and forth to work with maybe some longer 20 mile trips in there.

I have not had the car on the track yet but I wind it up when I have the chance.

 

Hi Dave,

Sounds to me like the SA did not take the time to explain thoroughly the issues with the timing chain tensioner bolts.

In many cases, the tensioner bolt replaced was backed out some, LOSING oil not necessarily "consuming" it. My guess is that you were seeping oil there which would explain the purported consumption.

Get an oil catch can, and a new PCV valve so you don't start blowing seals, O-rings and gaskets and motor on . ( You won't find changing the PCV valves every 25-30K miles in any MINI maintenance plan which is why the earlier models were such damn OIL LEAKERS.....)

 

I also have been losing about a quart every 700 miles for the last 6 months, during this time I had been getting the dealer to check out a chain slack rattle that occurs at 2,000RPM in my 2008 MCS. Both the tensioner and later a chain guide were replaced about 6 months ago as well but neither stopped the rattle.

Just last week, Mini Richmond looked at my car and found an oil leakage in the oil pan and repaired it. They fully topped off the oil to the top marker on the dipstick. When I got my MCS back it was completely quiet, no more rattle at any RPM. Now I always kept the oil level between the 2 marks on the dipstick, but their explanation was the additional oil pressure resulting from the extra quart of oil made the tensioner apply more pressure on the timing chain which stopped it from rattling. Not saying this will solve all the chain rattling issues but just wanted to share my experience with everyone.

 

By "extra qt of oil", you mean: By topping off the oil to where it is supposed to be - that is, instead of running a qt low correct ?

 

gRay - Mini having a PVC valve is news...Old Chevys used to clog those up and the car would run like crap...I know it is a little off topic, but can you explain where it is or is there a NAM link for changing it out?

 

Yes, I meant to top it off to where it is supposed to be.