History-

Fiance's 08 S has the death rattle - replaced the tensioner with a detroit tuned one, but it still rattles a small amount on startup. Eventually will take it to the local dealer and have them officially "diagnose" the rattle in a hopeful attempt to get BMW to ****ing help, but the car being a canadian import, I'm likely going to have to do it myself.

I was following her down to the body shop after she backed into a post, and I noticed that while the car was still cold, when she'd set off after sitting at a light for a few seconds, it'd give a small puff of blue smoke. I changed the oil last month (first oil change since we bought it,) and she's only used a single tank of gas since then, but I checked the oil and it's still at the top, so I don't think it's one of those heavy oil drinkers. Once it was warmed up, it no longer puffed smoke in stop and go traffic.

Car is unmodded, I did pull the valve cover earlier to check the timing chain upper guide, is it possible that setting the valve cover down upside down plugged the PCV?

I'm running 5w30 amsoil synthetic in it.

Is a catch can and/or blocking off the upper PCV outlet helpful in the oiling of these engines? I've read an absolutely outrageous amount of conjecture regarding "normal" oil consumption of up to 1q/1000mi, these early engines just seem like absolute nightmares until you do some significant work to them.

 

400 people looked, no thoughts whatsoever?

 

How many miles/kms? Could be the valve cover. My mini had some out the tailpipe after idle and startup. Dealer replaced the valve cover but it turned out to be piston rings. I had 55000 miles..

 

has a hair under 80,000 miles. Was your car burning oil in noticeable amounts on the dipstick?

 

It was yes. But with this car I feel like checking the dipstick is a big guessing game sometimes. Even with the cravenspeed dipstick.

When I brought the car to the dealer for the issue the third time (long story) they said I was 2 quarts low. So I burned 2 quarts in around 2-3 weeks.

 

Thanks for your input Schteve. I just don't understand how this engine is so unbelievably unreliable, it's insane that BMW would permit such an unreliable motor (I've been a bimmer guy my whole life with an M coupe, e32, and e30 in my list of cars, none being perfect, but all having bulletproof motors and transmissions, the e32 barely burned any oil with 400,000 miles on it!)

I noticed the car was notably low on oil just after we had exceeded the state lemon laws, about 1q low, when I decided that the mild noise I heard couldn't be injector ticking. I pulled the valve cover and noticed the upper chain guide had broken a 1-2cm piece off of the inner edge of the guide. Immediately parked it, replaced the tensioner, changed the oil, and it's still rattling a bit (hopefully the dealer can convince BMW NA that my car deserves a new chain on their dime) but now I'm noticing the minor burning oil only when the car is cold and sits at a stop for more than about 30 seconds, been anally checking the oil level every single day when the woman comes home, no dropping of the oil level thusfar, so I'm thinking it's either the PCV or that the car is simply one that would benefit from an oil catch can.

It's just shameful. My 03 JCW with multiple mods and about 220whp, is pushing 128k miles and is absolutely bulletproof.

 

Yeah it's pretty ridiculous.

 

r56 s uses a complicated pcv system in the valve cover with a cyclonic valve, bmw loves to overengineer these things same kinda crap in everything from the M54 to the newest cars, I just had to replace half of my M62TU's separator parts.

there's some valves in there that are vacuum operated, I would check all of that first, it could be valve or turbo seals but It's probably just the dumb pcv setup, they (bmw) like to run negative crankcase pressure and that keeps the rings from leaking oil, even if they are pretty bad.

 

Wow. That sounds...uncomfortable. Is that in the owner's manual or the service manual?

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

 

The timing chain rattle sound can be temporarily solved with a new tensioner if caught early on but more than likely you need to replace the chain and guides as well since they are worn too.
I think it has been generally accepted that the engine (N14) is probably the weakest link in the car and the ridiculous 15k oil change interval has resulted in engine wear on most of our cars "properly maintained to Mini specifications" well before they should have. It's a weak design made worse through officially induced neglect.

I have yet to read where anyone has successfully diagnosed the N14 oil consumption issue and solved the issue without a complete engine rebuild or engine replacement. They all start by looking at the PCV or the Turbo or the valve guide seals and then the threads go dead because they have sold the car or replaced the motor. Often times we never know what they have done. They are just dead end threads.

It's a shame because the car is really something special. We are currently on our 4th Mini and I expect that more will follow. I think I may look for a first gen just for me to play with at some point when space allows as opposed to buying another motorcycle.

 

I'm following this thread to see if anyone else finds out anything on this condition. I'm new to my R55 Clubman and found that when I bought it it was the typical 1qt low. I added that qt of 05-30 and after about two days it began to smoke oil from the hood when waiting at stop lights while warming up... say the first 15 miles. I look under the hood and can't detect where any smoke would be coming from. Its mysterious. I'm worried I may have overfilled it a little. I'm taking it into the Dealer in a couple of days so they can address the recalls that haven't been performed on it yet and maybe they will figure it out.

 

You are right about the dead end threads. I read though all of them when I had my issue. Lucky for me ,actually I purposely bought my car beacause my car because it had extended warranty from MINI, the dealer just replaced the engine.

 

Owner's manual. People were complaining that the oil changes were a pain in the ***, so that's why they went to the 15k intervals.

Thanks for the help guys. I might replace the valve cover when I have a little more spare maintenance money (car needs tires soon alongside that stupid timing chain itself)

Now that I'm watching it really carefully, the car only really throws a single puff of smoke once you get to the first stoplight and sit there for more than about 30 seconds. After that, no smoke at all. It's so strange, because the one puff it does give off is a pretty big one, and it happens when the car comes on boost.

 

that's what it's like when a PCV fails on bmws, I would guess mini is the same

 

It's just retarded that the whole valve cover has to be thrown in the garbage because BMW can't leave well enough alone and make engines modular enough to make repairs reasonable.