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Anyway, there is no doubt that the noise you all are hearing is likely the water pump problem. In fact, according to the dealer near Albany (great people there), the cause might be an unevenly torqued down water pump pulley doing the deed. It's not long before it wobbles and beats the hell out of anything it's attached to.
*Update day 3 Friday
I phoned and left a voicemail for Mike the service advisor to give him the extra information if he needed regarding the water pump.
30 Seconds later he called me back and said I was spot on with the diagnosis and his technician said we need to order X parts. My car *should be ready Monday. I'm impressed with New Country's service. I hope it remains fixed. Thanks Crumbolst
I phoned and left a voicemail for Mike the service advisor to give him the extra information if he needed regarding the water pump.
30 Seconds later he called me back and said I was spot on with the diagnosis and his technician said we need to order X parts. My car *should be ready Monday. I'm impressed with New Country's service. I hope it remains fixed. Thanks Crumbolst
Great! Glad I could help. I think it was Ian who first brought up the water pump/pulley problem. I was just adding to his wisdom.
Nice thing is that they'll order your parts from a New Jersey warehouse, so they will get there fast. One great advantage to being in the New York tri-state area is that we have 6 Mini dealers within 100 miles. So we get parts relatively fast.
There are three counter rotating pulleys involved in the operation of the electric water pump and access to them is quite restricted making proper torquing a difficult task. This may in turn result in the generation of the noise plaguing us.
The lack of a service manual for the R56 is not doing us any favors but I will take mine in and work with the dealer to have all three pulleys loosened and then torqued in the proper sequence and to the middle value of the torque spec. I think that the correct tightening sequence may be critical to provide the correct alignment of the pulleys to each other.
Forgot to state that one or more of the pulleys are friction driven allowing the water pump to be activated only after the engine has reached normal operating temperature. Good engineering to keep parasitic losses to a minimum.
Friction equals squeaking noises if improperly aligned and torqued. It also explains the intermittent nature of the oftentimes phantom noise since it is only audible when the engine has reached the temperature that requires the water pump to be activated. Same applies to that last squeak when turning the engine off.
Well that is at least the theory, now lets see if we can make it work in practice.
Last edited by Ian Venieri : 07-19-2008 at 08:47 AM.
Rich called me this morning to let me know that the parts have been ordered and should be in today. Once they receive they'll try to get it done ASAP.
I hope everything goes smoothly and I can get driving again! He mentioned a 'friction wheel' (may not be exact wording)- which is most probable has a connection to Ian Venieri's last post.
So I'll have to wait and see if all the parts ordered are the correct ones and installed properly.
At idle there is a loud whine but gone when engine is revved. I read that an R53 member found it was a bad gasket from the intake manifold? Though it's not consistent. Sometimes it whines when engine is turned on, or has been driven and is parked. Sometimes nothing.
Hey folks, this issue is not over! Towards the end of last night I started to hear the same squeak, whine but not as strong. This morning the same but more apparent. I voicemailed Rich and he called me right back and suggested driving it for the rest of the week to see how it turns out - if it's still there then we'll set something up.
So now my engine is making a howling sound
I had the whistle, but the water pump fixed it (that was months ago), but just yesterday and today I noticed that its howling after warming up. It has been extremely humid out these past 2 days and it only seems to be howling when its humid enough at night (windows fog up and everything). I opened the hood and it is coming from the tensioner/water pump side.
Will see how it goes when its not so humid out
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"Check" MC | PW/B | stick | cream line interior | piano black interior | checkered cloth sports seats | fog lights | anthricite headliner | JCW checkered floor matts | JCW Grill | Vinyls | Blackout chrome PW Peerage # 1988
Ordered 9/29/07 | began labor 10/03/07 (week 40)| Body Shop 10/05/07 | Paint Shop 10/08/07 | Born 10/09/07 | Liberty EB741-LIB 2:11PM 10/12/07 | Unloaded 10/27/07 | at VDC 10/28/07 | on truck 10/29/07 | at dealer 10/30/07
so the whining has stopped for me the last 2 days. the whining stopped after i drove the mini into upper triple digit speeds. and i did that about 2-3 times.
i honestly don't think that its what fixed it, but if it did, thats cool. i made those straightaway runs in a very open & safe area. so i'm not recommending that you guys with the same issue to do what i did, but the whining did cease afterwards....
I had the water pump whine on my first long trip in the car during the break-in period. I just got back from another trip and no noise. I am close t0 3000 mi now. My normal commute is short (good and bad - quick trip but sometimes it would be nice if ti was longer so I could drive more I find myself taking the long way more often now) so it never happened on a daily basis. Seems like it just needed to work itself out. I think I saw another post on this thread that said the same thing.
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Just learned that the US cars have a different water pump arrangement and not the "electric on demand" water pump of the European cars.
In the US cars the water pump is driven by a pulley and friction wheel on an arm apparatus and any problems associated with that assembly would only surface in US cars while the European engineers would have no database of reported problems to investigate and issue correction guidelines.
According to the factory trained technician performing surgery on mine, Mini USA is officially unaware of this problem and has issued no service advisories on it.
Mine is still at the dealer's chicken coop awaiting its second water pump and friction wheel-pulley-arm assembly. Since delivery on June 6 the car has spent 26 nights and counting with the dealer. If it were a girlfriend .....
Just received a call from the dealer and despite earlier assurances of a delivery today, 08/08/08, I got the message that the situation will extend to next week waiting for parts that they ordered yesterday.
Out of 66 days since I took delivery, the car will have spent 31 days at the dealership assuming that they deliver it on Tuesday. Out of a total of 2000 miles driven, 1200 miles were for trips to the dealer.
Just learned that the US cars have a different water pump arrangement and not the "electric on demand" water pump of the European cars.
In the US cars the water pump is driven by a pulley and friction wheel on an arm apparatus and any problems associated with that assembly would only surface in US cars while the European engineers would have no database of reported problems to investigate and issue correction guidelines.
According to the factory trained technician performing surgery on mine, Mini USA is officially unaware of this problem and has issued no service advisories on it.
Mine is still at the dealer's chicken coop awaiting its second water pump and friction wheel-pulley-arm assembly. Since delivery on June 6 the car has spent 26 nights and counting with the dealer. If it were a girlfriend .....
Also european cars have this problem, read through these posts:
It appears this has popped up on my MINI as well. 2400 miles and when I stop, I'll hear it, as well as a final squeak when I turn it off. Intermittent right now, but I'll probably make mention of it when the replacement arches get in for my MINI. No need for yet ANOTHER trip to the service dept.
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Sorry haven't looked at my work order yet. But I just brought the car in for a 2nd visit for same problem yesterday. I should be getting an update this afternoon, if not tomorrow.
I find myself taking the long way more often now) so it never happened on a daily basis. Seems like it just needed to work itself out. I think I saw another post on this thread that said the same thing.
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