I recently had my timing chain replaced after hearing a rattle that would only occasionally happen on cold starts in the morning. Took it in to the mini dealer and they were not able to hear anything. I assured them that it was there and that they just needed to wait for a cold start. I asked them to keep it overnight and try in the morning.

Sure enough, the next morning they heard the rattle and proceeded to replace my timing chain, free of charge (mini is a 2010 MCS, CPO) as it was under warranty. Woo hoo, bullet dodged.

Unfortunately not so. Last night I was driving home from work and all of the sudden my car lurched, hard. It felt like someone was depressing the brakes about halfway (not a screeching halt, but still very rapid). Luckily, I wasn't on the freeway (only traveling 30 mph) and was able to pull over immediately. The engine had completely seized with absolutely no warning, and would not start. Right after that the oil pressure light came on for a second. Right away I wondered if it was starved of oil somehow and that I would be charged for all damage. But I remembered they topped off my oil less than 3 months prior (2500 miles ago) and that there's no way a normally functioning car would have no oil in it.

So, after towing it to the dealer and waiting until they opened the next day I get a call. It was the new timing chain - had completely snapped and been thrown down into the engine, causing it to seize instantly.

Luckily, warranty is still good and there's no way it could have been my fault. I wonder if the chain install done by the dealer was botched. Or if it was just a defective product from the start. Scary to think such a small, inexpensive piece of the puzzle can cause so much damage.

So, looking forward to a new engine being installed with 0 miles on it! Not looking forward, however, to a chronic issue like timing chain failure potentially happening again... possibly outside of warranty.

But what can you do? I love the mini and will likely be driving one for a long time. It might not be this one, but it will always be a mini

 

I'm sorry your MINI ate its chain & then motor. Very glad you are under the warranty for that original repair.

A friendly word of advice. Open the hood every week or so & check the oil. The turbo Prince engine is know to use oil. It shouldn't be a problem for most engines, but going 3 months without checking is asking for a problem.

 

Hey thanks for the reply. I had actually checked about 7 weeks ago (still probably should have been sooner, but is much better than 3 months). But I'll admit that dipstick isn't the easiest one to read, and I had no idea what volume it was indicating (it was more than half way between min and Max, at least as far as I could tell). But since I didn't know the exact volume then I just figured I'd post values that were well documented (full oil, how many miles ago, how long ago, etc) and I know that mileage shouldn't cause a 5 quart loss (which would be 500 miles per quart) so I used that as justification In my post.

That being said, I will definitely be very rigorous about Che king from now on, especially with a new engine.

Happy driving!

 

It seems you are unaware of the fact that MCS's can burn through 1 quart of oil in just 1500 miles, I go through half a quart every 1500 miles. This is nothing new to Mini owners, check your oil EVERY gas up! Some MCS's go through a quart of oil in less mileage! You're probably wondering why, because our Mini's N14 engine have a poor PCV system therefore oil turns to vapor and goes through the PCV system entering the combustion process.

Google it and be amazed!

 

From the research I have done, the all knowing engineers at BMW, using 1 quart in a 1K miles is considered acceptable. If you are having trouble reading the dipstick I would recommend buying a Cravenspeed unit and have it ready for your new engine. Sorry to hear of your troubles, but glad they're being taken care of for you.

 

I would say less likely a defective part, more likely the tech damaged it during the install. Very glad they are standing behind it.

 

Yes I've become increasingly aware since this incident. I do understand that it goes through oil quickly, I was just glad to basically have a document stating that if oil was a culprit in the problem, that it was being used at an extremely unusual rate and the rapid loss of oil would have been caused by some other unknown issue. I've read the 1500 miles per quart Stat, and seen 1000 as the most extreme estimate, but I drive fairly conservatively (just commuting to work).

Just as a side note I have at least two friends who have mini's who never top off between oil changes every 5000 miles and they have had there cars for years.

All that being said, I'm going to be checking my oil at least once every two weeks (I would say once per week but I'm thinking it's more realistic to do once per fill up, which for me is usually more like two weeks).

Cheers!

 

Thanks I will look into this.

Edit: this looks great actually. I'll have to invest in one of these. Thanks again.