So I got back from a 2 week vacation, and started my 03 Mini Cooper S with 46,000 miles, started fine. So I started to type an address into my GPS, and the idle started to hesitate. So I drove it around the bock to see if that would clear it it. It did not so I had it towed to Hassel Mini in Freeport Long Island, NY. They could not look at it, so I got a code reader and found that there was a mis-fire in cylinder #1, so I replaced the Spark plugs and wires in the service lot. That did not help. So 3 weeks later Hassel Mini determines that the starter motor had "exploded" and some fragments had become lodged in the transmission with the flexplate, and this had somehow caused the timing chain to slip. Does this sound feasible? Can a timing chain in a 03 cooper s skip and tooth or two? I am running into problems with my extended warranty (thru Zurich) not wanting to pay for having the head removed to check the valves for damage or having the transmission removed to get the part that broke off the starter... Zurich says they will pay for a new starter. I am really not happy with this whole thing. But I REALLY NEED to know if it is possible for a timing chain on the cooper s to skip.

 

It is basically impossible. On the crankshaft gear there physically isnt enough room for the chain to skip so you can rule that out. There might be room for it to do so on the cam gear... but it just seems so hard to believe. If something that traumatic where to happen it seems morel likely that it would just break, which you would definitely know.

Plus, there really isnt any way for an "exploded" starter to get parts into the actual transmission. The starter interfaces with the flywheel, which is in its own sealed cavity between the transmission and the engine (along with the clutch and pressure plate). If by "flexplate" the mean pressure plate, then at least part of it makes some sense (I take the word transmission as being some sort of communication breakdown).

It sounds fishy to me, but my part me says that they wouldnt jerk you around like this for the hell of it (I suppose I still have some faith in humanity).

 

There is no way a timing chain could skip a tooth. If one did by some reverse miracle, the results would be truly catastrophic not an odd drivability issue.