Sorry for the wall of text, but I thought I should do a recap after absorbing all the info I could from this forum and spending a lot of time on a successful DIY Mini engine ticking fix. No pictures here but hope this can save someone else some time / money down the road. The gist of this story is if your Gen 2 2007,2008,2009,2010,2011 Cooper/Clubman is ticking, clattering or rattling or sounds like a sewing machine - and it's not an S or JCW - don't focus your energy on the timing chain!

I spent the last few months helping my friend solve an engine 'clicking/clattering' problem with his 2010 Mini Cooper base model. It was making an ugly noise from the passenger side of the engine. It varied by engine RPM very consistently regardless of temp of engine (not just a cold start issue) and seemed to be getting worse. I had my wedding coming up and he was in it and he is between jobs, so not much for available funds to drop at dealer or shop to have someone else tackle it. And he and his wife share the car as their daily driver and had just paid $800 at a local shop for brakes, oil, and some sensor swaps to fix a check engine light (likely overcharged but regardless they were tapped out). I am pretty advanced as a shade tree mechanic and wanted to be sure it was working through the wedding weekend for him and wasn't about to throw a timing chain. I jumped to think was a timing chain or timing chain guide problem because of all the pages like this (http://www.promini.com/technical/coo...ath_rattle.php) that come up when searching this year of this car. There are a half dozen lawyers with pages on a class action suit against MINI for timing chain issues on Gen2s, and tons of reports of the timing chain tensioner updates. If you're thinking 'but it's not an S' ... yeah, stay tuned. Also, he had been pushing the oil change interval to 15k per the minder and noted that it was 'using' a lot of oil but no drips to be seen. So possibly oil problems going on like stuck rings. And if the rings are pissed then the chain could well be shot ... So as a quick look I took off the valve cover and I was expecting (almost hoping) to find a broken top guide piece or a floppy chain. We did not; things generally looked good and tight. Not much crud from what we could see. But we did throw in a new tensioner since there's a ton of info on the old vs new. (Interestingly the Mini dealer parts guy gave us what I later learned was the extended / stretch tensioner - the ...51.) The car drove a few weeks this way but still had a bad tick. Hand on cover where timing chain was definately felt like chain could be bouncing around.

Just before the wedding my mind flipped to think it could have been one or more stuck hydraulic valve lifters. I did an oil change with Mobil 1 0w-40 (yes, I dug the forums) since he had been using a Moly 10w-40 to top off with. Think he got it from the last mechanic. I also added some Kreen to the crankcase as it seemed a more potent cleaner than a seafoam and was reported with unsticking lifters on BMWs. Ran great but still clicking bad; decided to give it some time.

So then a few weeks after wedding settled down it was getting worse and worse and consuming lots of oil. Then he reported it 'sounds like the chain is eating itself'. But car generally had power! And throwing no codes. So fun! Told him to call around for timing chain swap quotes. $2300 at dealer, $2000 at specialist shop. Not going to happen on their budget any time soon.

So I told him to park it, and let him borrow my extra car. A ton of online digging goes on with a focus on timing chain overhaul steps. Bentley manual arrives. Cam lock tool kit arrives. New crank seal, valve cover seal and spark plugs and crank and cam bolts. Then a timing chain kit. Also got the expensive accessory belt loosening tool and decided to make the crank holder tool out of angle iron. Towed car to my house with a uhaul dolly out of fear it was about to explode internally (sounded like it).

Two evenings of disassembly and cam and flywheel locking occurs - take off valve cover, hood lock bar, headlights, airbox, throttle body, coilpacks, plugs, vanos sprockets. As I get the passenger fender cover off needed to get to crank pulley and side of engine, I notice the clips and fender felt are in perfect shape; has this been touched since the factory? (68k on the car). I get the accessory belt off with the special tool and notice the belt is shot, chunks out of it on both sides. I call it a night since it was getting dark. Next day was last Saturday and our big day to hopefully wrap up the job.

Get up saturday and support the engine from the bottom and start pulling engine mounts. Now I can see the water pump pulley - looks real rough and pieces of plastic stringy material wrapped around its shaft. Painfully working for an hour (due to inability to get air tools into the 1" cavity on the left side of engine) I am able to pull the water pump pulley. It is shot - 2/3 of the rubber 'grip' on it is gone, metal rubbed like it was hit by a grinder. Then I notice that the electrical harness that's been in my way the last hour is cracked on one end - where it mounts to the engine mount bracket! Seems this one foot long plastic piece used to hold up the wiring harness to the top of the engine has been bouncing and eating the water pump pulley.

Also noticed that there was what seemed to be a fine oil mist coming from the crank seal - meaning it was being flung outwards.

My theory is that somehow the plastic wire harness mount cracked and hung down, maybe from the MAP sensor swap by last mech? I don't know. It proceeded to grind and eat the water pump pulley. That then caused the bouncing friction wheel to eat up the already old and very likely overdue-to-change belt. Then the belt with chunks of width missing from it, or the bouncing friction wheel, caused such a pulsing along the crank pulley that it was flexing the crank seal and letting spits of oil by. These were then flung uniformly enough to not be noticed as a drip.

We ended up running to mini dealership for new water pump pulley. I had ordered a belt so used it. Since I already had all the parts and was ready to do the timing chain I swapped it and guides and tensioner out as well. Good thing I used the new tensioner from the kit (with the center divot) since the dealer we asked for a timing chain tensioner weeks before by VIN number gave us the extened one which I'm glad is no longer in there. (anyone want it?) The old vs new chain were the same length as far as I could tell. Guides barely warn; but still somehow felt good to get a new one in at 70k miles even though probably unnecessary.

A half day of reassembly later and fingers crossed we started it up and it hummed along nicely!! As I learned later the Justa (base) Coopers are not known for the timing chain death rattle - just the S or Supercharged Minis. If I would have known that I would have focused elsewhere far sooner. If anyone has questions about any of the chain removal or any of the steps feel free to ask.

TLDR: If your 2007-2011 Gen 2 Mini Cooper is not a turbo - and has a clicking/clattering and you think it's the timing chain - look at the external drive belt and pulleys and not the timing chain!!

Fun sidenote: my new wife and I likely picking up a 2010 Clubman S we're looking at this weekend (Yes the timing chain has been done ) since our Civic Hybrid is dying

 

Well, glad you got the issue figured out and things are much better for you. Good luck with the purchase of the Clubman. Hope all goes well and everything else on it has been well maintained. If you have any questions about it, be sure to ask!

 

Well, she survived a 500km drive. I just got back from a few weeks holidays and swapped for a new amazon ordered part. Very careful to snug tight only this time by hand

part was 11127577568 - URO was manufacturer $23 US + shipping