I'm 1500 miles out of warranty and I noticed a burning oil smell coming from under the bonnet. I traced it to the oil feed line at the turbo. Will Mini have any mercy on me and repair this fairly common problem free of charge since I'm so close to being out of warranty? Or am I hosed with an $800 repair bill? Any advice on getting Mini to help me out with this issue would be much appreciated. I'm seriously short on cash at the moment.

 

Depends on the dealer, as well as the Service Manager and General Manager of your local Mini Dealership. They may "good will" it, but don't get your hopes up on it. They may also agree to split parts and labor with you, or just tell you sorry...should have bought the extended warranty.

Now that we got that out of the way, this repair isn't as difficult as it may seem and if you have time, some minor tools, you could do it yourself and really save yourself some dough. The oil feed line isn't too much from pelican or mini directly. if you have any questions on the job, lmk.

 

If the dealer won't play nice, just by the Detroit Tuned turbo oil line kit. Very affordable and you can do it yourself at home.

 

I didn't make it 5 miles down the road this morning on the way to MINI before smoke came pouring out of the engine compartment. Ugh! I guess now I'll call the dealer and see what they say before I spend $100 on a tow bill. I'd rather spend the $100 on new lines from Detroit Tuned and fix it myself if MINI says to bad so sad.

 

I spoke with MINI and they said to bring it in and let them confirm that the supply line did indeed fail. Afterwards, they would ask corporate for a good faith repair. He said they may decide to cover all, some or none of the repair.

I also spoke to the parts desk and he quoted me $201 for a supply and return line (without new banjo bolts). I'm seriously thinking of just ordering aftermarket parts and doing this myself. I figure if I pay a tow bill to carry it to MINI to let them poke and prod for an hour to tell me what's wrong before we petition MINI for help, I'm into this for $200. If they won't cover the repair and I decide to carry it back home to do the repair myself, it's another $200 for tow and new parts.

Do I gamble at MINI or fix it myself?

 

One more point of interest. When I asked the parts guy if the parts were different for a Cooper S and JCW he said no and they keep them in stock. I asked if this is a common repair and he said they do a lot of line replacements. I said this sound like it might be a design flaw and he chuckled a second but never said a word. I took this as a yes to a well know problem.

 

I am going to guess that you do not have the small add-on heat shield that MINI has come up with to protect the line from the heat of the turbo? If not, I would suggest you discuss this with the dealer.

My understanding is that the shield is a result of the fact that the heat from the turbo is cooking the connections on the turbo lines causing the seal to leak.

I may be wrong, but I thought there was a TSB that called for the shield to be installed if the turbo line was showing signs of fatigue. (?)

Does anyone else recall this?

 

I am in the middle of this repair and ordered my feed line through Detroit tuned. It isn't the easiest repair but definitately worth the savings. Total cost like $55 for the banjo and feed line and you will need a downpipe to turbo gasket. My only recommendation is to locate the service mode procedure (moving front grill/radiator forward) so you can to add more clearance to remove front heat shield bolts. I saved over $700 in labor. Give yourself at least 5 hours to do the job. Do not put the stock feed line back in, you will see failures again.

 

My Detroit Tuned box was on the porch tonight. I already had the heat shield off once when I was trying to figure out what was leaking. If I can get me hands in there, any one can.

HEEP

 

Nice...how do you like the feed line?

 

There is a registered NHTSA filling for this failure on their site. Please add your complaint with NHTSA. If enough people register a complaint and NHTSA rules in favor of MINi owners, some sort of reimbursement may come sometime in the future. The design of the crimp joint is questionable and MINI's addition of a line heat shield beginning in 2010 supports the fact that the crimp joint is weak. Please register with NHTSA.

 

It is exactly what I was expecting.I probably would have never gotten the length right. Glad DT did all the engineering work. It's still in the plastic at this point. I will install in a couple of days. Mine is just barely seeping right now. I've got a little time and another vehicle.

HEEP

 

Done. Thanks for the tip.

 

I have the same problem and am leaning towards doing it myself. How long did it take you? I read the Detroit Tuned's howto and it sounds like the banjo bolt on the turbo might be a little difficult to remove and the guide said it might even require cutting, did you have to do that? Any other tips you would like to share about the repair would be much appreciated!

 

I'm right in the middle of the repair today. So far the biggest PITA has been the 2 of the 3 screws holding the upper head shield on and getting the top Oxygen sensor out. I had to borrow O2 sensor sockets from Advance. I'll let you know how the rest goes when I'm finished. I've moved the banjo bolt on the top of the turbo so I know it's not stuck if that helps any.

 

It's great!. Nice quality part and very satisfied so far.

 

Sweet thanks for the update. Good luck on the rest of the install! Looking forward to hearing how it went!

 

Well, I’m almost done. All that remains is securing the lower heat shield and re-installing the upper heat shield followed by a good engine cleaning. Let’s just say this project hasn’t been easy and it didn’t take me 5 hours as many have said it could. I’ve got closer to 10 invested in this project. I’m a novice shadetree mechanic and prefer to take my time. I’ve found that speeding through any repair only leads to frustration and headaches so I’ve learned to take my time. The more experienced mechanic would surly finish this in 5 hours or less.

I’ll overview my experience below to coincide with other write-ups that have previously been done. Every car is different and each present its own set of challenges so I figure sharing these will only help pay it forward. I’m sure more of these repairs will be attempted by MINI owners as this OEM part is clearly flawed by design and waiting to fail.

First, I wouldn’t recommend buying the OEM replacement and risk doing this again. Get a good aftermarket stainless steel braided line from any one of the companies mentioned above. I went with Detroit Tuned and was happy with the line I received. It was more expensive than custom ordering a line to fit but less expensive than the OEM. And it took the risk and guesswork out of getting the part right the first time.

Second, get a new exhaust gasket to go between the turbo and downpipe. $10 from the dealer is worth the peace of mind knowing an exhaust leak won’t happen from reusing the old.

Before you begin, make sure you have the proper tools handy. This prevents chasing down tools and dragging this project out longer than necessary. This is based on first hand experience

You’ll need:

Metric wrenches (the longer the better)
Metric Sockets (Regular and Deep Wall)
Ratchet with various size extensions
Reversible ratcheting metric wrenches (not a requirement but it would have been REALLY nice to have)
Oxygen Sensor Socket (I borrowed mine from Advance Auto)
Long Breaker Bar (My car was assembled by a Gorilla!)
Torque Wrench
PB Blaster (penetrating solvent)
Brake Cleaner
Lots of elbow grease and patience
Other common tools

1. Top heat shield comes off.
a. The top 3 10mm screws are easy but the front 3 screws are a completely different story. I had to tape my short wrench to a 12” ratchet extension to reach the middle and drivers side screws. The torque on these wasn’t much so the masking tape held up fine. I had to remove the drivers side screw from below but the middle and passenger side I was able to remove from above. TIP: Loosen the bracket holding the O2 sensor wire and rotate it up slightly to fully extract the passenger side screw.

b. Use the O2 sensor socket and breaker bar to remove the top O2 sensor from the downpipe. Give it a shot of PB Blaster if necessary. I tried an adjustable wrench but I couldn’t get the right angle to get a good bite. I don’t think it would have done any good anyways. This sensor wasn’t coming out without some serious leverage.

c. Now work the heat shield free the grips of the engine and move on.

2. Use the O2 sensor socket again to remove the lower sensor from the downpipe.

3. Remove the V-Band Clamp connecting the downpipe from the rest of the exhaust. The bolt on mine had a good coat of rust. A wire brush and a little PB Blaster cleaned it up before I cracked it loose using a deep wall socket and a breaker bar. Did I mention a gorilla assembled my car? Use whatever method you can to expand the clamp enough to slide it towards the rear. This is a crappy design in my opinion. I used two screwdrivers and inserted them through the bolt holes in a crossing pattern and pried it open that way. Once you mess with it a bit, you’ll get the idea. This didn’t work so well getting it back on. I had to use some channel locks and strong muscles to work it back into place.

4. On to the lower heat shield now. Not quite as bad as the upper. From below the car, remove the 4 screws holding it to the other heat shield that is mounted to the engine. It has 2 screws on each side that are identical to the ones from above. Don’t try and remove the heat shield just yet. Let it hand there for a bit longer.

5. The downpipe has a bracket welded to it that secures it to the engine. Remove the two nuts that secure this bracket to the engine. They’re in a vertical position. Once those are off, just above it are two copper nuts that hold two more brackets to the engine block in a horizontal position (these brackets are what the downpipe bracket was attached to). Loosen these brackets by removing the copper nuts halfway. You’ll need a deep wall socket.

5. Time to separate the downpipe from the turbo. Here again I used a deep wall socket and breaker bar. For me, two of the three studs came out. The top stud stayed in while the nut came off. For others, the studs stayed in place and just the nuts came off.

6. Work the downpipe off the stud(s). Since you’re no longer attached from below, you have the ability maneuver the downpipe quite a bit to get it free. Just maneuver the heat shield around to give you enough clearance to move the downpipe to the left. Once free, remove the downpipe from below the car and set it aside. TIP: Pay attention to which direction the gasket is facing and which stud the oval shaped hole is on for a worry free gasket re-install.

7. Remove the lower heat shield from below the car as well. This can be done without having to flex it or bend it in any way. I was able to maneuver it past hoses and other obstacles pretty easily.

8. Time to remove the last heat shield.
a. You’ll first have to swing the turbo support bracket that’s attached to the engine out of the way. Remove the bolt that attaches the bracket to the engine block. If you can, loosen the other end of the bracket but don’t remove it. Again, the gorilla that built my car really didn’t want this bracket to go anywhere. I couldn’t get a socket on this bolt and I couldn’t get a wrench to budge it either so I grabbed hold of the bracket and pulled with everything I had. After several pulls, I was able to get it to move over about 4 inches.

b. Finish removing the copper nuts from earlier and the two screws holding the top of the shield and it’ll fall right out.

9. At this point I removed the OEM feed line from below the car and followed the directions provided by Detroit Tuned to install their aftermarket line.

10. Use brake cleaner to remove any dirt and oil on the heat shields and wipe down any areas in the engine compartment that have oil on them. Mine was heavily covered with oil so I spent quite a bit of time cleaning up.

11. Put it all back together in reverse order.

Happy Motoring

 

I took some pictures to remember all the fun I had all the while keeping $900 bucks in my pocket.

 

More of what I uncovered

 

More

 

Last two.

 

Here are some pictures of the offending part.

 

I had 51,500 miles when mine failed.

 

Does anyone know or have an opinion on whether an M7 heat shield makes this problem more likely or less likely? As you can see the line is under the shield maybe being exposed to more heat...