My 2012 hardtop S popped a check engine light last week, followed by reduced power... Barely made it up a hill... Got to the kid's school and it restarted and ran just fine like nothing happened... Couldn't tell it has an issue, except for the CEL still being on... 5 days later the dealer *finally* has a loaner for me (been renting out of pocket, nice), "bad eccentric shaft in the timing gear" (huh??). Rare part... It's gonna be another week before I get it back, between getting the part and buttoning up the engine...

Anyone heard of that one before ? I was suspecting a fuel pump but apparently I'm way off... Should I be concerned that a piece of timing gear was bad (potential future issues if something was stripped, metal here or there?). I'm somewhat tempted to trade it in when I get it back, it's been at the shop 3 times in the last 2 months (CEL that would come and go for BS reasons) and it's costing me work credibility !! Getting concerned, it's only got 27K miles !

 

It's part of the valve train in the engine. This is what the eccentric shaft is - http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/show...diagId=11_4572. Did they say what the cause was? Is it being covered by the dealer?

 

No, they were very cagey about even telling about the eccentric shaft at all... Apparently that's not super common as it takes a week to get whatever bit is bad... The car IS under warranty for another 60 days so I consider myself lucky.... Then again because the warranty expires in 60 days and I've lived at the dealership service department since I got that car, I am starting to wonder if I shouldn't have kept my old R52 !

 

I haven't seen something like this pop up honestly so it definitely doesn't seem very common. I'd say you got lucky with still having a warranty to cover this. What other items have you had to get replaced so far?

 

Not too much actually replaced, but I've had to visit a lot for spurious CEL that were dismissed as nothing by the techs.. a short misfire, a short fuel overpressure, the alarm kicking off for no reason and not stopping (despite the car running), also came for a bad battery (replaced) and vibrating brakes (dismissed as "discs are crap, will do when pads are worn).... Considering it was a car from that dealership (bought used), I've been visiting them more than once every 2 weeks or so since I bought the car 2+ months ago. Also kinda bummed they only now got me a loaner, but such is life...

Still, my R52 was A-OK in comparison. Not as nice but solid ! Might be a bad apple....

 

Definitely could be. The alarm thing sounds like it was probably related to the bad battery as all sorts of weird electrical gremlins will happen with a bad battery. The misfire and fuel thing is interesting. Rotors could be uneven deposition from the pads on the rotors. Can be fixed, but might be a pain and may just want to wait for when it's time to replace the pads. Good info HERE. Anyhow, hope this gets fixed up and you don't continue to have issues. If you decide to keep it, might look into an extended warranty and ask members on here about the ones they have.

 

Actually the alarm thing happened after the battery was replaced. It was so weird, the car unlocked but the alarm triggered and would not shut up. (the convenience FOB was getting less and less efficient too, short range despite a new battery). I drove the car away with the alarm blaring for 2 minutes, the it stopped, then triggered again, all the while driving. Eventually I stopped and restarted and it fixed itself... weird that it did not disable the car ! Also the FOB range is back to normal now... Looks like a memory leak type of bug that eventually caused a reboot ;-)

Discs have a lip on them... But I got prepaid maintenance and brake and clutch are included for 2.5 years, so they'll change it whenever they please.

Finally got a loaner: a new mini base. It confused the hell out of me initially, as I did not see if it was a cooper or an S. It felt like a turbo, sounded good, but not as fast as an S. I had no idea what it was ;-) It's actually a base, as you guys know the base is now a 3 cyl turbo, so I could feel the turbo which is what was weird... Not a bad car at all actually. Except the steering is nervous...

 

Just happened to me with my 2012 Countryman - cause was the timing chain being stretched, timing chain was off by 75mm, this resulted in damage to the cam and eccentric shaft. Irony is that the vehicle has been maintained by MINI since I bought it new. After each service, got the thumbs up on vehicle condition. Little did I know that MINI service techs do not check the timing chain. This probably could have been caught earlier by the techs if they checked the timing chain and tensioner at regular intervals before it becomes an expensive repair to the owner.

 

Damn !!! Lucky that did not trash the engine ! I will ask about the timing chain when I pick it up... Sounds extensive. They quoted me only 5 hours of labor to do this, so I don't exactly what in the eccentric shaft vicinity (or the shaft itself) they are talking about. I'm driving the new 3cyl in the meantime, brand new car!!!