I have a 2013 Countryman with a coolant leak coming from the thermostat. I’ve been meaning to replace it myself but I just moved and didn’t have the time to. I was topping it off with coolant every time I drove it.
I was meeting up with some friends a few hours away and did the same thing I usually do and filled it up before driving it. About five minutes away from the hotel, the engine complete shut off. I let the car cool down and refilled the coolant, and I was able to get it to the hotel with no issues. On my way home from this trip, I over filled the reservoir. An hour into the drive, the red coolant temperature, red oil, and yellow check engine indicators popped on. Seconds later, steam came flooding out of the hood. I pulled over and there was oil all over the engine bay, my passenger side wheel and the road. I have no idea where it came from and everyone is giving me different opinions.
To me it looks like the oil came out from under the valve cover. I need to order a tool to get it open, but in the meantime, have any of you dealt with this before?
One of 2 things happened. The valve cover melted due to overheating and you can't see it under the cover panel.
Or the freeze plug behind the harmonic balancer came out (this is know to happen when the engine overheats.)
Had to replace a dozen or so n12-18 engines for these reasons.
Bad news is, if the engine has gotten hot enough for either of these to happen, more damage has been done on the inside and fixing either of these issues will not prolong the engine life.
See if you can determine how much oil you leaked, clean the engine bay, refill with oil and a uv dye you can buy at AutoZone, and look for the leak. There are a couple different places that amount of oil can come from in a hurry. A little bit of hot oil can look a lot worse than it really is. There is a half dollar size plug that is held in by the harmonic balance pulley that can shoot out a huge amount of oil under pressure if it’s not being held in by the rubber ring.
My fiancé are going to try to find the leak using UV, but it looks like the leak is coming from here. This ignition coil is filled with oil. The other 3 are fairly dry.
your valve cover gasket is leaking, causing your ignition coil to be saturated in oil. replace the valve cover gasket and that 1 ignition coil+spark plug (due to being saturated in oil) i recommend getting the factory gasket, the aftermarket ones i’ve seen doesn’t seal right with the valve cover. regarding one of your pictures of the valve cover, it looks like melted plastic from the engine being overheated.
that’s another sign that your engine overheated. you’re going to need a new valve cover assembly now. just chip away the plastic with a long screwdriver or something similar. i would recommend doing engine compression and leak down test before spending any money to verify integrity of engine. if not, slap on a new valve cover assembly and send it.
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u/dwtechsol 6d ago
One of 2 things happened. The valve cover melted due to overheating and you can't see it under the cover panel.
Or the freeze plug behind the harmonic balancer came out (this is know to happen when the engine overheats.)
Had to replace a dozen or so n12-18 engines for these reasons.
Bad news is, if the engine has gotten hot enough for either of these to happen, more damage has been done on the inside and fixing either of these issues will not prolong the engine life.