Well.....last Thursday I was driving from Camarillo back home. Driving north on US101 coming up the Canejo grade keeping the speed at 70 mph. Boost is at a constant 2.5psi....all is well, then not.

Just before I reached the crest, power all of a sudden is down, CEL lights up and boost is gone. I baby the car to Motoring Magic in Thousand Oaks where I have the car serviced. It idles like *****, shakes, the full catastrophe.

Plug in the OBD and it shows misfires on #1..suspect coil, nope, perhaps a bad plug (just had them replaced two weeks ago), nope....then compression check....bingo, 0psi. The other cylinders all at 175psi (normal).

Dropped a valve seat on #1.....$2K to fix....but I have a Mercury extended warranty policy, zero deductible.

Get the car back tomorrow.....haven't seen anyone else post this problem!

 

your description sounds like what happened to mine last week.

But what they told me happened - after 9 hours of investigation - was that an injector stuck open. They replaced it, and a slide rail and the chain tensioner. Ran fine after that but it took them 2 days to find the problem.

 

Scott at Motoring Magic knows MINI inside and out....they had the whole thing pegged in about 30 minutes. I'm having all the valve seats replaced as well as the valve guides....might as well make it as new as I can while its apart. No issues from the insurance company as well so I can't really complain about the service or the price as it has now paid for itself and I've only had the warranty in place for 4 months and 2500 miles! Makes the rest of the warranty period (4 yrs / 48Kmi) free!...but I hope I never need it again!

 

Picked the car up today....wow what a difference! It ran strong after I had the media blast, plugs, etc from a few weeks ago....but now it's simply amazing,

Since the head was off I had all the seats, valves, and guides replaced and the head ground and polished. Thanks to the the extended warranty, $2700 of the bill was paid, leaving $300 for me.

Idles smooth and quiet...great job Motoring Magic!

I'll post a picture of the exhaust valve.....nice chunk missing.

This is a problem in the turbo motors when the oil quality drops due to extended miles between changes ( from the original owner, not me).

 

Nice. Penny well spent. Good thing you had that warranty..

 

And here is the guilty party.....

As oil breaks down and if the oil level is low, the valve guides get starved of oil and the guides wear. This then causes the valves to be non concentric to the valve seats causing a hot spot on the valve and causes micro cracks...if it goes long enough the valve breaks. I only have 42k on the car, but bought it with 33k...a previous lease with the 15k between oil changes...so it had two oil changes when I bought it (I have the records). It's had three since I've owned it!

So the moral of the story is.....watch the oil level and change it every 4-5k miles!

 

Oooh! Nice chunk.
Appreciate the photos and follow-up on your situation.

- Erik

 

Can you post any more information on the warranty that saved you? Where did you buy it, how much did it cost, etc...

 

Bought it from Mercury Insurance (mechanical breakdown coverage). The key is to buy it before the factory warranty expires. I went for the 5 year/60k mile with zero deductible, cost was $2500.

As you can see, we'll worth it....and it's only 4 months and 2500 miles into the warranty! I have an SLK55 AMG with the same policy that just covered a power steering pump and crank position sensor three weeks ago at $1600, cost me zero. Mercury has done right by their policy and no questions even after inspection. No paperwork for me and the mechanic direct bills Mercury so no floating the funds and waiting for reimbursements.