Got off the phone with the SA. Bottom line with a field engineer coming out to check out the car, you know that he's coming out to deny the claim, not approve it.

Tomorrow I'll call the GM who is a friend of mine and maybe he can pull some strings...we'll see.

If not, I'll have to pay to have the repair work which will be about 700 bucks. Again, not a big deal but my biggest fear is how bad the heat trashed the oil inside the turbo and lines.

I've got 14K miles on the car. I've changed oil at 1200, 5K and 10K miles. I don't know the boiling point of synthetic oil but hopefully the damage is minimal.

Guess we'll see. Tomorrow I'll call the GM.

Mark

 

Hey, you bought a car with a French engine. What did you expect?

 

There's nothing wrong with the engine, it's the British/German hood scoop that's cheap and can't take the heat.

 

And the valve cover too, I guess. And probably all the hoses and plug wires eventually... c'est la vie.

 

Mark,

You might get lucky and get it covered. You have the proper oil changes and it should have held up ok, considering how you use the MINI.

I do hope you have no internal damage, but if it was running at shutdown but only pushing oil out the melted valve cover, you could be golden.

It would be great if you only get hit $700, if you do have to pay. Don' mention ecu mods, that gets my dealer real excited.

Let us know what they find and do.

Don

 

Me and my mechanic were talking about this the other day, it will be interesting to see how long all this stuff under the hood will last? My wife's cars has the heat shield installed and no problems yet. But she uses her car within normal parmeters. The location of the turbo and the cat, right underneath it, is a bad design IMHO.

 

That will be a real suprise.
1. The problem happened at a track event. The warranty says that competitive events void the warranty.

2. The engine was heavily modded. The damage was, at least in part, caused by an aftermarket heat shield. Without the heat shield those parts may not have been affected.

What kind of odds do you think you would get in Vegas for it being covered under warranty?

 

Let us know if the MINI rep says anything about the cars ECU being tuned

 

Also, I would be very surprised if Mini didn't monitor this forum on a fairly regular basis...

 

Good point... Would it be possible to reflash the ecu back to stock here at the last minute? I was reading a threat the other day and apparently this guy had an engine failure and took it straight to the dealer thinking it wasnt a big deal. Well, the dealer knew right away that the ecu was tampered with and that was what they used to deny him a warranty claim. That coupled with the rest of his mods. It didnt end well needless to say.

 

How is it that all the 'Cynics' drop out of the woodwork.

Oh! I understand it is a long-shot, it is interesting to me since MINI promotes the car as a race heritage drivers car.

Either it is or it is not! I enjoy mine on lapping days as much as I can.

When I can not get to the track I enjoy mountain driving in all types of conditions, the MINI excels in my opinion on the twisties.

And it gets tolerable good gas mileage.

So Mark, I hope it went well and internal damage is not part of the repair.

Don

 

Yea, that has always bugged me. As well as emphasizing the performace/raceing aspect of MINIs, their marketing folks make a big deal about Youification. Then their warranty is voided by "competitive events" and mods. I've shied away from AutoX because of the warranty and the timing chain tensioner issue.

An SA at MINI of Mountain View was telling me about someone who came in with melted brakes to be fixed under warranty. When asked if he had tracked the car, he claimed not. MINI researched it and found that he had...

 

Yes, that is why we run XP10 and XP8 on track.

Although, my dealer is pretty track friendly, not sure how they would handle a melted engine.

 

Here's a minor update....

1) still waiting on the field engineer to evaluate the setup.

2) managed to get in contact with the dealership's GM and explained to him what happened. He's a friend and told me not to worry, he's got my back. I know he'll help as much as possible but this could get sticky.

3) THE BEST PART.... The techs pulled the lines off the turbo and used a scope to view inside the lines. NO COOKED OIL AT ALL!!

4) They pulled the melted cover off the wiring harness. Though the harness cover was melted, the wires were intact.

Soooo, hopefully they'll cover it. If not, c'est la vie. It looks like my 3 oil changes in 14K miles paid off (or at least I just got lucky)

I'll let ya'll know what happens when the field eng'r gets there.


Mark

 

Completely agree...


When I burned up a set of pads (and rotors) at the track, I took my car in and the dealer replaced all of it under warranty. They didn't ask, I didn't tell.

Having said that... I won't lie about it. When I talked to the GM, I was very upfront about what I had done.

Like I said, if they cover it, great, if not... shiet happens.

We'll see.

Mark

 

Well, got a call from the dealership.

When the field engineer saw the bigger intercooler... not a big deal.

When the field engineer saw the bigger exhaust.... tis cool.

However, when the field engineer saw the tune on the car, NOPE, NO WAY, NADA....

They said there was an open circuit for the auxillary pump. I'm hoping that one of the wires got melted in the harness thus causing the auxillary pump not to work.

Well, hopefully they'll at least replace the timing chain tensioner still.

Oh well.... you play, you pay.


Mark

 

Does the Auxillary Pump supply the coolant through the TurboCharger after shutdown?

If so, that would contribute to the overheat following shutdown.

Hope they do a good job and take care of your cam-chain tensioner as well.

 

Well no one answered but will a turbo timer work on the MINI? And do give me the car already does it cause its not the same. I would like to know cause I might start looking into one.

 

Apparently the auxillary pump does supply coolant to the turbocharger after shutdown.

I can't imagine why someone can't install a timer....before I look into it, I need to find out why the harness shows an open circuit.

Mark

 

The small coolant pump in the MINI does circulate coolant through the turbo bearing housing water jacket for several minutes after shut down. If you listen closely you can just barely hear it running.

When the coolant circulates it is designed to keep the turbo bearing housing cool enough to prevent oil coking, however idling the engine a few minutes after a really hard run to keep the oil circulating a bit should only help.

I had a 1981 Fiat turbo 124 Spider (should have kept it - only 750 made). Back in those days the turbo bearing housings did not have a water jacket and relyed solely on oil cirulating to cool the turbo bearings on shut down. If you ran it hard and shut it down without a cool down idle you would trash the turbo. I installed an aftermarket headlight timer to idle the engine for 3 minutes after I removed the key (really freaked people out - the steering column was locked). With the introduction of the water cooled turbo bearing housings (like the MINI) uses), the synthetic oils we now use, and the coolant pump, we are probably OK until we hit the track - and then idling before shut down makes sense to me.

 

Yes, a lesson indeed learned.....


Mark

 

There was a thread about this subject awhile back. Might have been in the Mods section. I don't recall whether the conclusion was that it was unnecessary, or impossible. I just recall it not being something I needed to worry about.

 

Mark,

About what was expected when the field rep. saw the mod to the ecu. I suspect if I have a major, I'm going to eat the cost.

Let me know what you find and send me a PM with the cost numbers. Always good to know what I have to have in the mod bank.

Or should I say the emergency lapping fund.

Sorry you had this experience, but we all learn from the master.

Don

 

Is that the polite term for guinea pig?

 

We all learn from the master