I have a 2007 MCS - Stock with JCW tuning kit dealer installed a few months ago. Car has less than 50,000 miles on it.

My car was always running fine, no noises. No symptoms. Made good power. I parked it in my garage about 1 week ago. I went to start it yesterday, and it would crank but not start. My first thought was battery going bad, but I could not jump start it.

It started to sound like maybe it needed another new HPFP after that. It's already on its second. I had to get it flatbedded to the dealer this morning. Was hoping for the HPFP to be the bad part so it would be warrantied...

Dealer just called and said they did a compression test and found zero compression on cyls 1, 2, and 3. How could that possibly happen? And what could have caused that? The car was running fine when I parked it in the garage... Nothing was leaking from the car either.

They want $1300 to take off the head and diagnose further.

 

Head gasket or timing chain.
Did it sound funny when cranking? Instead of bub-bub-bub-bub more like whirr-rrr-rrr-bub?

 

The dealer DID check engine timing and said everything looked good there. Everything was in time.

Engine sounded normal when cranking. No weird noises. It just would not fire up.

 

Aux vacuum pump?

 

How is engine timing checked on these (noob obviously). If it's checked on the crank, it won't show a broken TC.

 

Don't know how they tested to make sure it was still in time, but that was one of the tests the dealer said they've done already to trry to narrow the issue down before resorting to head removal...

 

You have what I'll call "Big Problems." In cylinder issues.

Think cracked valves, bad valve sealing, blown head gaskets, broken piston ring lands, timing chain jumped a couple gears, worn out rings... ALL VERY BAD NEWS. BTW, this has nothing to do with the vacuum pump.

You can play the speculation game all you want. When you have ZERO compression, your cylinder head is coming off.

Sorry for the bad news.

 

This one sounds interesting because it sounds cheaper than engine rebuilds...

How would an aux vacuum pump failure end up showing 0 cyl compression?

Pump fails and compression leaks out it?

Or pump fails and throws metal shards into cylinders and destroys the engine?

 

Yes, I've read posts here of guys pulling up to a stop sign and the car just quit. Evidently, when the Vacuum Pump grenades, it takes the whole engine with it. The pump is on the driver's side top front. Looks like a drum about 4 inches in diameter, not that you might see anything about it. Leaking oil maybe? It is spun by a lug in the back of the cam near as I can tell. Someone here will get far more technical than me.

Aux doesn't go with Vacuum Pump. Mixing my parts! Check this one.

 

Yeah, it's already getting the head pulled.

I guess my main question is how could it have gone from running fine the day I parked it in my garage to catastrophic engine failure one week later? I would have thought that I should have seen or heard some prior symptoms - Smoke? Grinding? Clanging? Cloudy engine oil? Leaking fluids?

But everything seemed fine up to and including when it would turn over, but not start...

And to add to the wierdness, the mileage is low - less than 50,000. And I am RELIGIOUS about topping off and changing the oil in this car due to all the well documented problems with low oil in these motors....

 

Check out this story.

 

Ugh.

What are crate MCS long blocks going for nowadays? :(

 

We had a member in our local MINI club get a burnt exhaust valve that caused lost compression on cylinder number four. It was running perfectly and then next morning, no start. Something like a burnt valve takes time to get bad enough where the valve won't seal against the seat, and you may not have even noticed a performance problem. His was caused by untreated carbon buildup that increased peak cylinder temperatures that eventually cracked the outside of the valve.

You can worry yourself to death here on the forums or just wait for the diagnosis. Funny how we're all experts when someone's wallet is about to get set on fire.

 

In the MSF community (al DI injection) it was not uncommon to have compression problems with heavy cabon build up causing leak at compression stoke. My money is heavy carbon build up

 

I'm hoping for the best for you. Certainly keep your eye on what they are doing as best you can. I mean, if it is carbon, pulling the head may or may not be overkill, but if it has gone to the point of 3 cylinders flat, guides and a valve job wouldn't be out of line. Make sure you get a new chain kit! Good luck and keep us posted.

 

I am assuming they will apply that to a repair? Clearly you are committed as it looks like it would be $1300 for them to simply tell you what is wrong. That is a hell of a buy-in.

That said I am betting timing chain. Either failing on its own or pump failure taking it out with it. Head gasket or carbon wouldn’t take out three cylinders which I am assuming are contiguous.

I anxiously await the verdict. Then I predict the discussion will get interesting.

Rich

 

Updates.

 

No updates from the dealer yet, which I take as a bad sign... If it was, "Good news, it's just the head gasket!" I think I would have gotten that call by now...

They basically need to remove the entire front clip of the car to remove the head, apparently. Hence something like 7-8 hours of labor just to investigate further. If there really is serious engine damage, this would all have to be taken apart anyway, reguardless of the repair I figure...

 

I think I'm going to stop reading the "issues" articles on the forum cause everytime I do, something happens to my car. How can a new car be so plagued with issues after being in production for so long? Is BMW short changing the MINI parts bins or something??
Good luck on the repairs.

 

No this isn't it at all. This form consists of less than .5% of all the minis on the road. Forums in general just happen to be were people complain more then praise.

 

Only reason I say this is because my own car has been in for replacement recall parts twice within my two year ownership from brand new. First a temp sensor, and just yesterday for the HPFP. My dealer is more than helpfull with recall and warranty replacements, but it's just a bit much for such a new car. I wouldn't expect this sort of thing until about 4-5 years in. still love my MINI though.

 

I undertand where you are coming from. You have to remember, even though it is 2012 and we have great technology, motors are mechanical items and there will always be failures.

 

I guess I'm just use to the Japanese/ Korean cars I've had in the past that take forever to have a problem, and run forever. Boring as hell to drive though.

 

haha, yeah. One of my friends said it best. Nice cars are like preppy girls. High maintenance and a PITA.

 

So MNIPWR, are you saying the more mods I throw at ol girl, the more of a foul mannered stuck up preppy girl she'll become? LOL!! That's not good.