To start thing off, this is my GF's car, and the first ever non chevy/ford i have worked on more then once...lol

So the issue, last week she calls me saying her car over heated and died as she got off the freeway. I tell her to park it and go get my second car and continue to work. So she does. After work I go take a look, and there was NO coolant. NONE. bone dry! She said she drove it that way 2 miles tops after the light came on. So we get it towed to my house, and upon investigation found a HUGE crack in the thermostat housing. Bought the part new from the MINI dealer, and r&r'd it. Car sounded funny (to me) (sounded like valve tick), but once again I am not familiar with MINI's. It sounded this way for about 10 minutes of the warm up we did to bleed it, and then about 2 minutes into the drive the tick went away. Well I take the car to her work and she is happy and YAY all girlie because its fixed.

Then 2 days later it gets a p0012 code, and she flips out. She is driving from my house to hers, and the car stalled, but restarted fine she said. I scan the car with my Torque app, and find the code, clear it, and research it and all that, and this leads me to here. I have read can sensor, gas octane, vanos solenoid, timing chain tensioner. I have read and heard all kinds of different things.

I don't want to start throwing money at this car, so where should I start? I am going to double check all the wiring we had to play with to do the t'stat housing, and then I don't really know what to check after that. I think this may be one for the dealer. yes? no?

 

It sounds like your timing chain needs to be replaced if the car sounded funny to you and had the weird tick that we all know, is usually the timing chain needs be replaced. Good luck.

 

i wish i knew more about this. what would you say the probability is? the car has around 75k miles i think. could it be the tensioner? or something else?

 

Check with your dealer or search here on NAM I think that there is a recall on this issue so it should be cover by MINI

 

It's not that simple - N14 engines do have defective timing chain tensioners from the factory. If left in for too long, they can and do start under-tensioning the chain, that will in turn start banging around, stretching, and destroying the guide rails. The extra slack can be measured by the dealer, and if detected, replaced under warranty. You are way out of warranty at 75K miles.

There is no recall (though there should be).
You can attempt to negotiate goodwill with the dealer, but will likely still pay a good chunk of ~$2K replacement bill.

Having said all of the above, it seams a bit too coincidental that your car starts stalling and idling rough after a major overheating event.
Best case: you overheated enough to cook the oil that is no longer feeding the tensioner properly. For starters - replace the oil and run oil analysis on it: http://www.blackstone-labs.com/
The more expensive possibilities include damage to the head, pistons, etc. Do a leakdown and compression tests on the car (wet and dry) and go from there. The results will indicate if there is a problem with the head sealing (warped or cracked head) or a possible head gasket failure.

a

 

Is this a mini cooper s with the turbo or no? There is a campaign/recall on the turbo cars for sure. My timing chain and components were replaced at 95k, at no charge. Call Mini USA with the VIN, they can tell you if there are any outstanding recalls.

 

that code turned out to be the vanos for me a few week ago. (08 non-turbo coop, about 65000mi on it) If oil level is ok, maybe have someone check the timing if ok then vanos could be your issue. Driveable, but car wont be 100% normally responsive while its failing.

 

Okay....I have a 2008 also and I have had the code and the vanos valve may need to be replaced. It cost me at the dealer $180.00. I have ticking and it goes away. It has been explained to me by the dealer that since the engine is hydraulic it takes a few seconds/minutes for the engine to be lubricated properly. The timing belt thing is for the "S" and not the base model. Little goes wrong with the base models. The vanos valve appears quite frequently though. It can be researched by searching "vanos"..