Hi all. First time on a forum since I first bought my Mini back in 2009. And I need a little guidance. With my Mini 10 years old now and having been through all the fantastic times and the bad times together, I guess I’m at a tipping point. See I LOVE my mini, can’t imagine driving another type of car. BUT, i’ve Gone through the timing chain issues, the expense of a bead blasting of the valves, a new clutch...so I know it can be expensive. I’ve got 110K on this engine and it’s starting to smoke somewhat heavily in the heat in stop and go traffic. Living in Phoenix, Az I can’t change either of those things. But other than the smoke which I’m sure is oil leaking onto something hot in there, it runs like new! My question is, do I invest money on trying to find and fix the oil leak, which might be a couple thousand. Or do I spring for a new engine? I won’t buy one of the new cars. So any advise would be greatly appreciated. TIA.

So I first tried posting this in the newbie area and got zero responses. Thought I’d try posting it here. Any advise?

 

Welcome,

where do you see the leak, can you post a pic?

 

Well that’s what I’m not sure of. It’s been suggested that it is a leak from the turbo charger that is dropping down onto the engine. But I’m not sure that would cause it to smoke from the exhaust? I’ve just moved and don’t have a regular mechanic anymore so I’m leary of just taking it in somewhere. But it seems that is going to be my only option. Thanks for your reply.

 

is the smoke coming from the engine bay while you're in stop and go traffic, or the actual exhaust pipe? It sounded like from your first post it was the former, but the second post the latter. what color is the smoke? can you start it, let it idle for a while, and see the smoke coming out of anywhere in particular?

you should be able to see the smoke (relatively) easily under the hood if it's dripping onto the exhaust manifold.

 

Sorry, from the exhaust pipe and primarily on accelerating. It looks plain white to me. So maybe it’s just something with the exhaust? I’ll try letting it idle for awhile. It’s over100 degrees here now so it should warm up pretty fast. Thank you for the input.

 

No problem if it's white and happening on acceleration, that could be coolant burning off. Does it happen if you're in neutral and press on the gas? Any smell to it? Might be worth getting a compression test to make sure the head gasket is good.