Hi has anyone heard of the camshaft breaking in half (in the middle of the pistons - 2 either side)?
If not , how could have this happen ?
Because its happened to mine.
I have a 15% reduction pulley and Superchip map for 2 years , done 48000 miles Pulley fitted after 6000 miles and never missed a beat
My dealer says its the reduction pulley that has caused it to snap and wont fix it under warranty.
They say a new engine is required.
Any thoughts anyone?
Thanks

 

...well, the JCW motor has a 14.7% reduction pulley - basically a 15%. So that's a poppy-**** response. They're not interested in helping you, this is quite obvious. The extra load your mods placed on the engine is likely less than the JCW kit. I would begin here.

Why do you need a new engine? What else broke?

 

They havent investigated any further , they say its more cost effective to replace the engine just in case there is any more damage, by the way to replace the engine they have quoted me £5500 inc labour

 

Man, they're trying to rape you - in a prison kind of way. £5500?!?!? That's like $10K?

Just go buy an aftermarket head with a cam...

 

well, it could have damaged his valvetrain and possibly pistons, maybe a rod, so just throwing on an aftermarket head should be done only after checking these other parts out.
Unfortunately this is the chance most of us take when moding our cars. I do know that there are some great dealers here in the northeast USA that would just fix it.

 

Thats why my dealer wants to replace the engine .
But im not paying £5500 for that
If my dealer wont do the repair , ive arranged another garage to check the engine out and replace the cam (with a Schrik cam) and maybe replace the head (with a gas flowed bigger valve one Schrik valves).They can replace the pistons if any damaged .Luckily enough i bought a spare head off ebay for £40 , so i can just maybe put this on if everything else is ok
Might as well if ive got the head off

 

Under the US' Mangnusson-Moss (geez, butchered *that* spelling, didn't I?) act, wouldn't they be required to *prove* that the pulley caused the broken cam?

 

I’ve seen a JCW with a cracked camshaft. The local tech believed it was caused by improper torque of the cap bolts. The vehicle was shipped to the installing dealership for the warranty repair.

 

I've seen cams break (not in a Mini) from tossing the timing belt/chain. This is pretty common on diesels. Any interference motor can conceivably do that. I’ve seen a few Schrick cams break during install as well.
The sc pulley doesn’t put a load on the chain side directly so that shouldn't cause any problems unless it was inducing some odd harmonics. Enough people run pulleys that I don’t think it’s an issue.
Is your chain broken? If so the next question would be the chicken or the egg…..

 

Peace,
I received a response similar to this when a piston cracked. The dealerships that installed the mods backed away from their assurance that if anything happened to the car, it would still be warrantied if they approved and installed the mods.
The techs are required to report the mods on a car before they even tell the problem. So, the 1st respnse in a situation like this is to get you to pay for it.
In the end unfortunately, I was told that those who make the most noise get covered under warranty. Other wise, they opt out.
I would suggest to you that you call miniusa. Tell them your story. And demand a regional rep come and take a look at your car. They cannot and will not be able to "prove" that a pulley caused the cam to break. Don't go for it one bit. Don't back down on this.

 

if he's been asked to pay 5500 pounds sterling he's probably not in the USA... calling miniusa isn't likely to help and the Magnuson-Moss Act doesn't apply either...

 

Well after speaking to John Cooper Works i left a message with my dealer telling them what JCW said about them using standard camshafts on their Works kits , the dealer rang me back and are now going through the motions of finding out what has caused it. They are getting in touch with BMW Technical to see what can cause a camshaft to snap

 

Camshafts snapping out of the blue like this is rare. It's usually caused by lack of oil to a particular bearing, overheating or machining errors in the bearing saddles. It can also be caused when someone installs a camshaft and mixes up the bearing caps (they are not interchangeable in most cases). In even rarer cases, it breaks because of a metallurgical defect. If you were lucky and the cam stopped with the valves closed, no damage to the engine would have otherwise occurred, and a repair could be a lot cheaper.

 

This might be a silly question, but doesn't the JCW kit call for different plugs and injectors as well? Could these elements do something to help the kit and caboodle last well?

Also, depending on the dealer, places can blame stuff not only on the non OEM parts, but also question the install (meaning, try to blame the unknowns of the non-dealer installation and what they might have effected/done in the process).

Sorry to hear about it duncanbanana, bet it was a manufacturing defect - best of luck

 

hey i just got my car back after a 25 day stint in the local dealer's shop. my camshaft was scored and chipped. i took it in due to lifter noise. you can find the thread under lifter noise with all the details. i have a 15% pulley which of course does not put stress on the camshaft. the dealer did not enough bother discussing it with me.

 

Thats BS.....There is no way they can prove over boost ( if any ) will break a camshaft when your pulley is pretty much the same as the JCW.

Great Bear as always is correct.


"IF" your paying, the price is less than $900 w/3.6 hours of labor.

Camshaft 11-31-1-485-827 $355
Valve Cover Gasket 11-12-1-485-838 $7.80
Spark Plug gaskets 11-12-7-513-066 $3.30 x4 = $13.20
Oil change $?

And ill tell you from experience....It took me less than 2 to take my head off so the camshaft aint sh*t.

 

I've got a Cooper S engine with just 945 miles on it if you need it £1500+vat

 

How does one get such a low mile engine like that?

Garrett

 

wowww, but the MCS motor is around $9,000.00 here in the States

 

Cut that in half.

 

MCS crate motor is only $4.5k?? I should just go buy one just in case lol

 

$4365.....Reman from MINI
$6575.......New from MINI

 

1 x uncarefull owner

We have about 15 New Minis breaking at the moment

Over here salvage vehicles get put in certain categories depending on the extent of the estimate and the pre accident value.

Cat D is the repair cost is less than a 100% of the PAV
Cat C is the repair cost exceeds 100% but is less than 130%
Cat B is the repair cost exceeds 130% these vehicles must be broken for spares
Cat A is gut/scrap i.e a vehicle which has caught fire and has totally burnt out.

To be able to handle Cat B and A vehicles we have to meet our Environment Agency rules and regs to handle these cars as they are classified as hazdous waste.

Boring UK salvage lesson over