There Is Water

I went to work today and discovered that the lesser traveled roads that I must navigate were covered by a sheet of ice, and that was fine. The MINI did an amazing job. ("Go little MINI! Go!") Unfortunately, by 5:00PM today that ice had turned into about four to six inches of snowyish ice. Needless to say, my drive home was quite an adventure. I managed to get stuck several times. (Thankfully, I was also able to get unstuck several times as well...admittedly, one of those times it had me wondering if I'd be spending the night out in the middle of nowhere, but after about 10 - 15 minutes of rocking, my car sliding off in a ditch, and a passer by giving me a couple of shoves, I was free to find another place to get stuck!) Once home, I decided to check my car over, since getting stuck over and over probably wasn't the best thing for it. While I was at it, I decided to go ahead and check the oil. I knew it was close to needing a quart. (Rewind about a week. I was on my way to Tulsa when I noticed that my car was running a little hot. It wasn't overheating...just running warmer than normal. Granted, I was driving pretty fast, because I was running late. Driving Fast = Supercharger Being Used. ...but I'd driven that fast before with no issues...and the intercooler should be keeping the engine cool. I decided to pull off and check the oil. It was either the coolant or the intercooler. If there's not enough oil, it seems that the intercooler would have a hard time doing its job. Anyway, it was about half a quart above the fill line, and I drove on...just slower than before. Not using the supercharger seemed to remedy the problem.) Fast forward to now. I pulled the dipstick out and immediately noticed my oil didn't smell quite right. (Not that I make a habit of smelling my oil, but the oder was fairly obvious to me.) Upon closer inspection, I noticed my oil didn't look normal either. ...and I'm thinking, "Please God don't let that be coolant I'm smelling." (That's what it smelled like though) "...and please don't let that be coolant I see in my oil." Coolant in the Engine = Blown Head Gasket or a Cracked Block...or maybe a cracked oil cooler...or possibly something else really bad. I usually use European Castrol. This is MINI brand oil, so maybe the oil just smells funny and looks funny for no reason...oh man, am I hoping that's the case. Here's to funny acting MINI oil! I just hope my warranty covers this.