Hey all - woke up today noticed a small puddle of oil under on my garage floor. Looks like engine oil (see pic). I took some pics from under the car and it looks to be coming from the cylinder part (power steering pump?) near the power steering fan (see pics).


I also checked underneath the hood and found another possible leak but i'm pretty sure I know what the deal is there. Looks like my coolant resivoir gave out at the seam (as i know they do). There is greenish stains on the heat shield (see pics).

FYI, I detailed the car last week and briefly looked under the hood then, didn't notice either leak.

Thanks in advance for your help!

-Matt

 

What year is your car? An S or a Justa? How many miles?

The power steering system has three hoses. Two connect to the filler reservoir. The larger of two is the most common one to leak. The oil filter housing is to the picture left of ps pump. There is also the $5 crank sensor o-ring that is on the engine, about dead center of the radiator and about 3" above the oil pan.

 

It's an '04 r53 w/ 57k miles

 

Chances are that you still have the original hoses on the car. If yes, those power steering hoses are pushing 13 years. Have you marked the level of the power steering fluid?

 

Qq what makes you think it's the hoses? The leaked fluid looks more like engine oil doesn't it?

 

The hoses are about directly above the power steering pump and old ps fluid is going to be brown as the Mini fluid is more mineral based and not red like the american car fluid.

If its oil, and on that side, could be the valve cover gasket but then I would think you would smell oil on the exhaust manifold. Have you looked at the back side of the engine to see if the oil is running down the side of the motor? The valve cover gasket is rubber and they last pretty long.

Last, there are dyes you can put in the fluids and then under blacklight see what is leaking.

 

MINI has a Recall for power steering pump and cooling fan. Click the link for a read on that.

And while your PS Pump may be working fine, depending on the pump's serial number you may be entitled for a new one. It also applies if the pump was replaced since new....I write this because I have seen where MINI Corporate recommends replacing certain PS lines/banjo bolts/O-rings and wiring harness as well, and all completed under same recall notice w/o cost to owner.

The coolant tank is definitely seeping at the mold seam...you can see the chalky residue dripping down from there. A new black pressure cap comes with a new tank. ( Your original equipment coolant tank is not a warranty item ) New ones are white opaque but eventually will turn brown like yours in 30K miles.

You probably have an oil pan gasket leak too, coupled with PS line leaks. Symptoms of both typically show up in area of the PS fan assembly resulting in some engine oil/PS fluid loss and failure of the PS fan as the oil attracts dust and dirt to form seizing it.

Test function of PS Fan: When PS fan is not working, PS pump failure is not far down the road. Important to check at every oil change. With engine off, give the fan a spin with your finger to see if it free spins and / or feels "gritty" ....if it free spins, get back into the car, start the engine and turn on the A/C. Within the next 30 seconds both the PS fan and the Low Speed engine cooling fan for radiator should come on. The PS fan has a higher pitched sound to it, but difficult to detect. So you have to look under there and verify the PS fan blade is moving.

If you go to the dealer for these repairs, the oil pan gasket can only be replaced by dropping front sub-frame so somewhat labor intensive / co$t. If you go this route, THIS is the time to replace both front control arm bushings and front sway bar bushings...And may as well upgrade to something which is inexpensive and provides longevity of parts and awesome handling gains....Purchase Powerflex purple color control arm bushing inserts and purple sway bar bushing kit. The OEM control arm bushings typically last about 50K miles, and sway bar bushings about 60-70K miles.[/B]...I've had the PowerFlex versions for over 150K miles and still working as designed. And doing these while sub-frame is already down will save you money for parts needing to be done now or down the road next 10K miles....

Hopefully approaching these leaks in this manner will afford you some cost savings while putting monkey on back of MINI to carry most of the labor costs. So first step for now, give your MINI dealer a call, provide VIN and check status of any recalls performed/not performed and go from there.

GL!

 

The whole bottom of your oil pan, in front of the p/s pump, is wet too, so it's my opinion that a lot of that moisture you're seeing on the p/s pump is blow-back from what might be a variety of oil leaks from the myriad of usual suspects on these cars... Because there is oil on the forward portion of the pan as well as the bottom of the gearbox, it's likely that your crankshaft position sensor o-ring (on the front of the block, just above the oil pan) is leaking. You probably also have a leaking valve cover gasket.

Best thing to do is get the car up on stands, remove the plastic cover under the engine, and have a good look at the underside of the entire engine to see where the oil is coming from. After you've studied it, and taken note of your observations (taking pictures is useful), wipe it down as best you can, then check back after a few days to look for fresh oil seepage.

Here's a list of items, top to bottom, prone to leaking oil on an R53:

• Valve Cover Gasket
• Spark Plug Tube Seals (4)
• Camshaft Position Sensor o-ring
• Crankshaft Position Sensor o-ring
• Timing Cover Gasket
• Timing Cover Crankshaft Seal
• Oil Housing Gasket
• Oil Cooler/Exchanger o-rings (2)
• Oil Pan Gasket

Absolutely... Put in your VIN# at THIS link to see if your vehicle qualifies.

Not sure why the dealers would have to drop the sub-frame to perform an oil pan gasket change (might account for the exorbitant service charges though...), but one certainly does NOT need to drop the sub-frame to perform that task. The lower engine mount and the a/c compressor do need to come off, but not the sub-frame.

 

+1 check the pump first, then go for the lines. Mine leaked on the one line right down to the pump.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...hose-pics.html


Expansion tank on the first part has failed.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...endations.html