Hi guys, i have an '09 R56 manual trans, bougth it brand new, 65K miles now, i'm having a horrible engine noise for a week now, the noise is on top on the passenger side, sounds like when u blow an exhaust gasket or something like that, very loud when cold, it happens between 1,500 and 2,500 rpm, and crazy loud on descel.
i've driven the 65K miles on my car like i was in the track every day....
the dealer changed the chain and tensioner at 30K miles, also replaced the DSC computer, and the whole clutch assy.
obviously it's out of warranty, any idea what can it be? maybe something easy to fix so i don't have to go to the "stealer"?
Tnaks a lot
Mariano from Miami

 

Does the noise go away or lessen as the engine warms? You could have a bad tensioner developing among other things. Check the oil level first then post back.

 

yes the noise go away when warmed up

 

have you checked the oil? seems obvious, but they do use oil with higher mileage

 

My recommendation: STOP DRIVING THE CAR. I think your tensioner broke. The same thing happened to me just a few weeks ago. The timing chain backed out, valves bent. See this post:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...hing-else.html

 

in response to one of the questions i said before that i have cheked the oil and it was fine.... well i guess i missunderstood the oil stick, chek it last morning on cold before starting the car. NO OIL AT ALL!!!!!
just put 3.5 liters of oil, started the engine, and noise is gonne! smooth as brand new! i can't belive i drove 2,000 miles with no oil, also the low level oil lamp was never on....
i can't belive i didn't blow the engine, since last week i went from miami to orlando round trip in the day (700 miles) with no oil!
thanks a lot for the advice!
Mariano

 

I believe the total oil capacity is 4.5 to 5 Liters.
The dipstick level from max to min is about 1 liter. Make sure you did not overfill it.
I would check your oil every day for awhile and look for leaks.

Note that MINI and most other cars do NOT have an oil level sensor.
It's very difficult to implement such a system due to varying oil levels during normal operation... acceleration, speed, incline of the car, braking etc.

The oil indicator is OIL PRESSURE only! Low oil pressure can be caused by a variety of issues... very low oil level can be one of those issues but waiting for the oil lite to come on to indicate low oil is not what it was intended for and could be disastrous. If you get the oil light then pull over and stop the engine immediately.... Don't wait for the next exit etc.