Hello,

My wife has a 2007 MCS (late build - either Sept or Oct of '07). We bought it with ~8 months of warranty left with ~19k miles. We put on ~7k more miles in the ensuing 9 months or so (until I got my 328iT) and since then it is driven only about 3k miles/year. The car currently has 31k miles.

Not one to follow the crazy 15k oil change intervals, I do my own service every 7500 miles (Mobil1 0W-40 & OEM filter). When I did the last one a few hundred miles ago, I was shocked to see how little oil was left, so I researched and found that these cars consume quite a bit. Funny, I don't recall being that low at the ~23k mile oil change. Anyhow, I made it a point to tell my wife, who for the last couple of years almost exclusively drives the car, that we should check oil levels often.

Worth mentioning that I did notice that a slight ticking that had come up went away with the oil service.

Last night she reminded me that it had been a few weeks since the last oil change. It had only been a few hundred miles but I said what the heck. So I take the dipstick out and clean it and put it back in only to find it will not go in the last 3-4". No matter what I try. I start the engine and it runs smooth so I shut it down again.

Upon researching this I am now fully aware of the tensioner/guide/chain issue. (probably read 500 posts last night). Despite liking cars and being mechanical design engineer, even after all the reading, the question remains:

What the hell is preventing the dipstick from going in all the way? Clearly it's going into the cavity of the plastic chain guide, but what makes it stop?

1) Is something inside the plastic guide hole blocking it? If so what? A piece of plastic from the same guide? The chain can't be THAT F'd up since there is no rattle so I doubt there are chunks missing.

2) Is something (large) in the oil pan blocking the dipstick? I have trouble believing this given that the engine runs smoothly. And what the hell could it be?

Any thoughts?

I plan on pulling the valve cover tonight to see if I can spot anything wrong.

I don't know what a dealer could do besides pulling the cover and looking and from there perhaps replace the tensioner/chain/guides.

Assuming things are bad and the above parts have to be replaced, and assuming MINI doesn't step up to cover it out of goodwill so that I am out no more than $1k total, I'd be inclined to do the job myself. If I do, I will thoroughly document the job and post it, since it appears nobody has so far. Let me know if there is a good DIY.

Thanks

 

Pulled valve cover. Good news is that guides look good. Bad news is that I still can't tell why the dipstick is not going all the way in.

 

A couple more:

 

That is puzzling. Here is a diagram of the chain guides and you can see where the dipstick enters the one chain guide and then exits at the bottom of the chain guide. I'm not sure there is anything at the bottom of the chain guide that the dipstick would get hung up. Seems like it should just hit the oil in the oilpan.

 

Exactly! It's driving me batshit. I think I need to stick in a thinner flexible wire/tube/whatever and see if it can sneak by or also gets caught.

 

If you can pull off the oil pan and look from the bottom where the timing chain section is and look up.



#2 Timing chain guide is where the dip stick slides through.




There is a little slit in the tube in the middle of his piece possible, a little piece of plastic or something else. That's the only place I can think of its hung up on. You will have to dig into a little more. Take a led flashlight and point it down in the front from the top and see if you can see anything abnormal with that front guide..

Thanks and good luck.

 

So if I pull the oil pan I can look up at the dipstick (or where it should be if it were to go in properly)? That would at least let me diagnose it. Not looking forward to it especially after just having changed the oil, but I may have to do it.