Oil Leak advice

[Glorious]

Not a petrol head by any stretch so any advice is welcome!

Noticed some fluid on my driveway under my 08 Dooper so called up my Staff car scheme where I bought it - they wanted a garage to investigate before they told me if I was covered by their warranty (used car - 3yo - 12 mth warranty).

Took it into a guy I know today and after removing the lower engine tray and cleaning down the lower engine, he suspects it is a leak at the rear crankshaft seal. Advised me to run it for a few weeks then it take back so he can have a look properly as today there was "oil everywhere" so he couldn't accurately pinpoint the root cause.

I asked if the fix would be pricey and he reckoned there's no point replacing the seal as the leak could still be there so it would mean taking the gearbox out and that sounds like £££ to me.

Anyone had this before? As I say, I don't know much about this sort of thing so any help is greatly appreciated!

[AndyP & Lenore]

I'm even less of an expert on this and I may be completely off the mark but.... Could it have been air conditioning condensation dripping off the air conditioning thing in the engine bay? We often notice drips from all our cars after a run, especially in warmer weather and it's the air con unit dripping condensation. Just a suggestion.

A.

[ianking]

I'm even less of an expert on this and I may be completely off the mark but.... Could it have been air conditioning condensation dripping off the air conditioning thing in the engine bay? We often notice drips from all our cars after a run, especially in warmer weather and it's the air con unit dripping condensation. Just a suggestion.

A.

In a word 'NO' The liquid you see from the air con is moisture (condensation) from the air con condensor caused by the cold air hitting the hot.

Crankshaft oil seal is a big job and if its not loosing big amounts and you dont plan on keeping it forever then I wouldnt bother. If you can get it under waranty or even say 50% towards the cost then get it done.

[Glorious]

Thanks guys - Ian, that sounds good to me - I don't plan on keeping this Mini past the 3 years I have to pay it up. Hopefully I'll be covered under warranty, but the amounts of fluid I'm seeing aren't huge so if not I don't think I'll bother.

Cheers.