7 replies to this topic

[Dave_F]

Hello all,

I'm a first time poster on this forum and, I'll admit it straight away, very new to DIY car care. It would probably be best to assume that I know nothing about cars (not quite true, but close enough).

I have a 1993 Rover Mini Sprite Automatic. It has been leaking oil for some time. Until recently, the leak was fairly slow, and I got by by regularly checking and topping up the oil level. Recently the leak has got a lot worse. When driving longer distances, the oil level seems to drop dramatically, and when it does, it seems the automatic gearbox starts playing up, loosing traction between gear changes (causing the engine to rev suddenly).

I'm assuming these two issues are related, because when I top up the oil, the gearbox seems to behave itself.

Last night I had a go at identifying the location of the leak. The front of the engine is coated in oil from the leak, so I had assumed that it might be the head gasket. I couldn't see any obvious damage, so I tried to clean it up (a bit), and ran the engine for a while to see if I could see any leakage.

I couldn't see anything from the head gasket, but I did notice oil oozing out of one part of the engine. The problem is, I have no idea what this part is... It's some kind of tube that goes into the engine below the head gasket, on the front of the engine on the left. It comes out at 45 degrees upwards.

Are there detailed engine diagrams available online? I've found a Mini Workshop Manual online but not only is it the wrong model, the engine diagram doesn't actually show this part...

Unfortunately, I haven't got a photo of the part in question (I will take one this evening). I found a couple of photos of other minis online, which might help identify the part. The top photo looks a lot like my engine, but has the splash screen on. The bottom photo looks quite different, but I've included it to point to the location of this tube.

Any help/advice much appreciated!

Attached Files

•  engine.JPG   51.43K   55 downloads

[david@skeggyminis]

it looks like the tube that goes from the block to the oil filter housing if so this can be replaced with a braided hose kit with being a 1993 i think that your engine will be a 12A engine and not a 12H

http://www.minispeed...ipe-12a-engines

[mayhem13]

You could just try getting a socket on it and do it up and or try replacing the copper washers. Cheaper than a new pipe.

[Dave_F]

Thanks very much for your help. The oil is oozing out around the connection with the engine, not from the pipe itself, so replacing washers/seals sounds sufficient.

The thing that worries me slightly is that I only saw a small amount of oil oozing from this point after a while running the engine. This may be a difficult thing to judge, but it doesn't seem to me that that small leak would be enough to reduce my oil level so quickly. I guess I should fix it anyway, clean up the whole thing and look for other potential leaks.

Knowing what to search for helped me find this thread:
http://www.theminifo...feed-pipe-leak/

And this bit of information in particular seems useful:

There are 2 types of oil transfer pipe, the early type uses a large banjo fitting at the block sealed with 2 copper washers. The later type uses an olive and tube nut to fix to the block. This type is used on engines with an engine number starting 12A. If yours is an earlier engine with the banjo fitting, simply tightening it or replacing the copper washers should solve the problem. The later olive sealed type is a disasterous piece of Rover penny pinching, it often leaks and fairly frequently pops out of the block completely causing a catastrophic and very messy loss of oil. The best answer is to replace the entire thing with a properly sealed braided pipe as shown above by Kam.

PS, seeing the photo in the above thread, I can confirm that it is the oil transfer pipe that I'm talking about.

Edited by Dave_F, 19 July 2012 - 01:14 PM.

[tiger99]

You have probably got this fixed by now, but for future reference there are excellent parts lists with exploded diagrams on the Somerford Mini web site, if you can't see what you want in the manual.

[Skortchio]

Chances are you have the olive type fitment on your engine, mine is an auto 1 year newer and I've just had to replace mine.
I bought a replacement braided line off ebay, which was about half the cost of the Minispeed one. Easy enough to install but you might find it easier as I did to remove the oil filter mounting to unbolt the lower fitting of the pipe.

As it's an olive fitment, it's not as far as I understand a replacable part.

http://www.ebay.co.u...=item3378c1e8d2

Be sure to mention It's an auto.

[Stevie W]

Hi,

You would be surprised how a leak at this joint could affacet your oil level.
The oil leaking is under 60 -70 psi of pressure and it wouldn't take long with a seeping washer to drop your oil level alarmingly!

Cheers, Steve.

[Dave_F]

Thanks for the link Skortchio, unfortunately I've already bought a replacement part (at twice the cost!). I'm waiting for it to be delivered.

Thanks for the info Stevie, I'm reassured, but I'm not counting my chickens...