2004 Cooper drinking a little oil
 

Hello all,

Very new to the mini world, and must say I love the little sucker. My new girlfriend comes with a 2004 Cooper, generally ok condition, but to me it seems a bit down on power (although I haven't driven any others) and it uses a bit of oil. Regularly serviced, but just ticked over 100k. I swear my old 205 DTurbo has more straightline acceleration, the mini really does seem to labour over it but will do 90 on the motorway no problem.

I haven't jacked it up yet, but climbing over the engine bay there were no obvious leaks. Tonight I'll try letting it overrun down a hill and boot it to see if I can make it smoke.

Any tips or suggestions please? It's using way too much oil, even my old landrover was more frugal :)

Also what MPG should we expect with reasonable driving? It seems thirsty...

Cheers

With it being down on power I'd run a compression check first low compression = leaking rings and a likely cause of oil consumption

Cool, I have a leak down tester I'll put it on tonight. I was being lazy and thought I'd see if there were any common leaks to check for.

Thanks, I'll let you know the results.

Hiya,

Ok whipped the plugs out finally yesterday and cylinder 2 is pretty oily! :(

I tried running my leak down test but I need cylinder 2 at TDC. Is there an easy way to do this? Currently my best idea is to put something in the cylinder so I can feel where it is, disconnect the plugs and turn it over until I luckily have it stop at the right place?

Once it's there I can prove it's leaky rings (e.g. whistling sound coming from dipstick tube when it's under pressure).

What is the fix? I'm pretty competent, but it's my gfs car and I don't want to take it apart and end up trailering it to a garage. I guess if I can get it up in the air I can have the head off, sump off, split the big end and push the piston out through the top? Then new set of rings (oversized??) provided the bore is ok, new head gasket, and voila???

Thanks for your help!

Looks like a new engine is the best option, ~£500 for something with half the miles and just chuck it in.