Recheck the timing marks again and carefully inspect the camshafts, especially in those places where the sensor reads information!

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I guess I need to remove the valve cover and turn the engine by hand to see if EX and IN letters on the camshafts point up, right? What do you mean by inspect the camshaft near the area where it reads? Should I look for some damage there?

s it possible to turn the engine by hand without removing the passenger side wheel? I think that’s how I turned when I did the leak down test, but now I don’t have access to a flat ground and my driveway is sloped and not safe to jack so I was wondering if the bolt to turn can be accessed without removing the wheel.

 

Hello everyone, I finally figured out what is the problem...

Removing the valve cover revealed that the third cylinder rocker arm and spring had come loose. Luckily there was no damage. We put it back and we thought we solved the problem. For checking the timing, I didn't pay much attention just made sure the the writing were up when the pin is locked in the flywheel. It was still misfiring.

Today I removed the valve cover again and checked the timing again, and indeed it is completely off. Bentley manual says that the exhaust lobe on the cylinder `1 should pint in a lower inward direction and the intake side upward inward direction. On my engine it is completely off. So the mechanic who rebuilt the engine completely messed up the timing.

I am attaching the photo. Could you please confirm if the timing is off?

I am looking at the Bentley manual for adjusting the timing and it mentions after locking the camshaft with the special tool (which now I have), you need to remove the timing chain tensioner and put the dummy tool. I want to know if I need to remove the throttle body to access this tensioner bolt or can do without it? I saw some videos where they showed the throttle body is in the way and it is very difficult to remove one of the bolts. But that video was for n12 and mine is N16.

If I do not have to remove the throttle body, I should be able to follow the bentley instructions which says I have to put the locking tools, loosen the bolt on vanos sprockets and then torque the vanos bolt. (I am still not clear how this process will put the lobes on the camshaft to the correct position).

 

Ok, I figured out only three screws need to be removed. The guy in the youtube video had removed the entire intake.

 

I am quite confused which directions the lobes should go. The instructions and photo in the bentley manual don't make sense. I think on my camshaft it is impossible to have the numbers on the top and the lobes pointing to directions shown in Bentley manual. Can someone confirm? My engine is N16.

 

I figured out that the instructions in Bentley are wrong. Wrong photo, wrong and incomplete instructions. I am quite disappointed from the Bentley manual although I have used some good repair manuals by them in the past.

i did the timing adjustment by locking the flywheel, loosening the camshaft sprockets, locking them camshafts with the timing tool, removing the timing chain tensioner. Installing the dummmy tool and torquing to the spec, and then tightening the camshaft sprocket bolts..

What I did not do was loosening the crankshaft bolt. The engine ram fine for a day and then misfired again. For the first time, I got the crankshaft camshaft correlation code indicating that the timing is off. I need to do it gain. I went to the dealer to get the camshaft bolts and the mini technician said I should also loosen the crankshaft bolt.

Can someone confirm if I need to do this and also give any tips (i read elsewhere there is a chance of shearing the pin in flywheel if I do that)

Also, have I posted in the wrong forum? Or my questions not interesting at all? I get very little response here and just keep replying myself here.

 

I’m not convinced that you need to loosen the crank bolt

 

Hmm… I also don’t get it why the mini technician/service advisor recommended so. If the flywheel is locked, we should be able to time it by locking the camshaft. I followed the procedure as per Bentley and timing went off after some driving. What else can go wrong? I read (probably in this forum) that the dummy tensioner bolt tension is very critical (also there torque is pretty low, almost lower end of the torque wrench). Any other reason why things can move while adjusting the timing? Any chance of crankshaft moving even with the pin in the flywheel?

 

Also, I used a 36 dollar timing tool kit from eBay. Some of the kits like Baum are quite more expensive. Does anyone have experience with the cheaper eBay/ Amazon type kits? Can they be the culprit, say if they allow some slack when we lock the camshafts?

 

I did the timing again. Timing looks good. Still the same behavior. Also, my Foxwell Scanner (510 elite) doesn't show camshaft sensor position, vanos position, etc. Can someone confirm if their 2011 or newer mini is supported by Foxwell's scanners?

 

Hi, did you solve the problem?

I'm suffering a similar problem with you. but I know one thing you may not know. The reason why your car becomes fine when you disconnect the camshaft sensor is that your car's engine goes into 'emergency mode'. In emergency mode, valvetronic opens intake valves maximum and engine controls rpm with throttle body only.

About the mini technician's advice, I think that It might relate to tightening bolts sequence. In the aspect of rotation direction of the chain and bolts, tightening the bolts in the order of intake cam, exhaust cam and crankshaft might be ideal.

but the official manual indicates tightening bolts sequence is crankshaft, intake cam and exhaust cam.

I also used a cheap chinese timing tool, but I don’t know if it caused the problem.

I didn’t use a dummy tensioner like you, I used an actual tensioner. I’m thinking that It might have caused the problem.