First post so be nice please. Made a recent purchase of 2009 Cooper S with 57,000 miles. It has 4 cylinder, turbo and automatic transmission. I was very impressed with the power and fuel economy. We've put maybe 3,000 miles on it in the two months we've had it with no problems. Suddenly, it has a rattle noise on I initial startup of the day. First two times, it quit after a mile or two. Then it took about five miles plus reoccurred when it downshifted. I tried to check the oil but it's very hard to see.
I checked through the Carfax disclosure the dealer provided and found the timing chain and tensioner was replaced at 27,000 miles. My question is, should the timing chain and tensioner need replaced again at 60,000 miles? Thanks for any help provided!

 

It's a hit and miss. I've owned four 2nd gen mini's so far, one with an N12 engine and three with the N14. Pretty much summates to rattling after about 20k-30k miles. Then the rattles are tolerable. With this I drive another 10k miles and will definitely open up the valve cover, by this time, valve cover leaks are common, it's good practice to open it up anyways just to check everything. So upon opening up the valve cover, I look into the chain bay to see if there are any visible cracked plastic pieces. I also make sure the top chain guide is still in one piece. 2 out of 9 times I open it up (after 40k of driving after new chain job) the top guide has bad wear and tear including dropping pieces into the chain bay. Both times I got lucky the pieces didn't go jam up the crank pulley. And of course that's when I do a timing chain job. On those 7 times that I find nothing wrong I would replace the chain tensioner, and the noise would go away for another 15k-20k miles. But around 60k miles, I would just replace the whole timing chain assembly no matter what. And start over. When the car gets close to 200k miles, I'd sell the car on craiglist.

 

 

I've done this many times. And if you plan on having this car in the long run, you better start learning how to do the timing job on your own to save that repair bill. My two most commonly occuring problems are timing chain issues and oil leak issues. For oil leak, it's just a matter of finding them (valve cover, oil pan, rear main seal, turbo oil to coolant exchanger), these aren't difficult at all.

If you are to tackle the timing job on your own, common tools with some torx and E-sockets will get you all the way to the removal of valve cover, chain guide retainers, and the crankshaft. Then only thing you will really need is the timing chain tool kit (This you can buy just about anywhere online Amazon, Walmart.com, ebay,etc. they'll run about $45-$70) I got mine from ebay, but the quality is a bit crappy, I had to grind down the flyhwheel key to make it fit better, the cam lockers and the pre-tensioner are both very good from my kit.

You can definitely do all of it without pulling the engine. But you'll need to put the car into service position first, you can look that up on youtube, EricTheCarGuy has a lot of good demo video to follow. After 3 years of tinkering with this car, it's easy to get frustrated with it. I find it best to remain calm and take it slow.

ONE LAST BIT OF "GOOD ADVICE:" DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND GET A WALNUT BLASTING KIT - WILL ALSO NEED AN AIR COMPRESSOR. YOU'LL FIND DIRTY VALVES WITH THESE DIRECT INJECTION ENGINES AFTER EVERY 30K-40K VALVES. I pretty much do mine on every 15k just to make sure it remains squeeky clean.

 

Yupetc do you follow bmw's oil change interval? just curious because that's a lot of timing chain replacements

 

Yupetc, thanks for the great info! I put two quarts of Castrol Edge in in and brought it up to the add mark. The rattle noise is gone. I'm going to start buying the tools in need and don't have now. As you said, it's going to need changed at some point. You must like the cars to keep running and working on them? I also found ericthecarguy on youtube.

 

LOL, I've buying these cars right when they are out of warranty, mostly years 2008-2010. I don't follow BMW's oil change interval, I actually shorten the interval because I don't trust that these turbo charged motors can go that far without oil change. Usually I change oil between 4k-6k miles. It's not that expensive and each time I open up the oil pan and oil filter, it just calms me to see no sludge or any broken plastic pieces falling into the oil pan. The reason I do so many timing chain jobs is because when I first get the used MCS, I don't trust the previous owner would spend the money and time to properly care for the car. To avoid any guesses that timing chain job isn't performed, first thing I do is open up the valve cover and take a look. Then as I own the car, as described from my previous post, I give it up to 60k miles before I automatically go into timing chain job again. If you drive your MCS for 120k more miles after your purchase, and if you do it the way I do it to keep it reliable, you'll end up with that many timing chain jobs, too. LOL. I'm just a bit OCD about keeping the car really reliable and so far so good. I sell them cheap at 180k+ miles locally.

And yes I love working on these cars with good music and nice weather; also proud of all the tools I collected in my garage so far. Made everything so much easier when you have the right tools. Comparing the cost of having the repair done at the dealership, buying these tools makes it way cheaper with my own labor and pure interest to tinker with the car. Lately I just collected an 09 MCS with a burnt exhaust valve on cylinder #1, without all the good tools I wouldn't be confident enough to pull the heads as it's my first attempt. And ETCG on youtube really helped much of it.

 

Watched ETCG video and it's very informative. What do you mean by " putting the car in service position"? Taking the front clip off? I'm sorry, but I'm still learning the slang and abbreviations for these cars!

 

Check this out:
You do this so that you gain more room and accessibility to remove the motor mounting brackets. You'll need those brackets off to get to the timing chain guide retainer bolts.

 

Outstanding! Thanks. ETCG took more off the car.

 

+1 on the carbon blasting, great info here:

MINI Cooper Carbon Blasting DIY
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ke-valves.html

 

I have a decent amount of tools to do the timing chain replacement. What special tools will I need? I am ordering the timing chain block kit. Is there anything else out of the ordinary that I will need?

 

If you mean a kit like: https://www.detroittuned.com/mini-n1...ol-kit-rental/
when you say timing chain block kit then it will contain what you need for locking the motor and camshafts in place while removing the chain and tensioner.

I also recommend a torque wrench that does degrees and torque as you will need to torque to xx lbs and then xx degrees for the crankshaft bolt.

I also recommend looking at the parts/kits the above site has as they specialize in Mini parts.

I have only done one timing chain, on my 09 Clubman R55S while I had it apart I also done the walnut blasting of the intakes all work was done around 60K.

For those that have done the valve blasting have you considered a catch-can for the oil that goes through the pcv system to minimize the carbon buildup?

Scott.

 

In my research I have heard mention of the serpentine belt wrench's. I'm planning on doing this without engine removal. Will the wrenchs be required in this case?

 

I did mine without engine removal and did not have any special serpentine belt wrenches nor did I put the bay in "service position" but I did remove the "U" shaped brace that connects from strut tower to radiator back to the other strut tower.

Scott.

 

Can you estimate the amount of time it takes to complete the timing chain job?
Thanks!

 

In regards to whether or not do we need the drive belt tensioner wrench, the answer is "no" you don't have to have that special belt wrench to release the tensioner. The tensioner's driver fitting is a 30mm hex. As long as you're able to take out the lock bridge (part# 51717147911), then with a 30mm wrench, you can easily undo the tension and get the belt out. On the other hand, if you are able to put the vehicle in radiator service support mode, then you will have more room to access that tensioner and be able to do away with a large enough crescent wrench instead.

In regards to how long does it take to do the timing chain job, I'd say it'll take me 2-3 hours to get it into service mode, remove everything, then clean/scrub all the mating surfaces for bolts and baskets. Then it normally takes me another 2-3 hours to put the new parts back. I'm able to do it quickly because I've done so many already, I remember all most torque settings and exactly which bolts go where in this process. And I do have air tools to help me speed up certain part of the job. So total of 6 hours for me, but possibly longer if you run into uncertainty or hiccups.

 

I think I'm going to crack open my engine next week. It rattles loudly at idle with the AC off. With the AC on and the idle kicked up a little it doesn't really do it. I think I'll order a complete kit and possibly just replace the tensioner cylinder and top guide if it looks like that will help when I get it open. I have a 2007 justamini hatch normally aspirated. I think that would mean it's an N12? Are you a stickler about buying oem? I read that Bilstein makes the OEM stuff. Does this kit look right? Bilstein. 48387

Thanks for any help.

 

Yeah, opening up the valve cover is a piece of cake, you shouldn't have any issues doing it. Once you've opened it up, you can then assess what you need. In regards to what brand to use, you don't need to stick with OEM as that's my experience with many MINI's so far. OEM is just a part that has a MINI part number/badge on it, and it ended up being twice the amount you would pay for. You can go with any major aftermarket brands and still be fine. Brands I recommend are Dayco, Hamburg, Febi, Elring, and Victor-Reinz. Try to stay away from URO or Bremmem, those two are crap, won't last a year.

 

Thanks for all this great info! Glad to hear all this experience from someone like yourself he has done it over and over.

 

I did my first change of chain set at 83,000kms. The rattle, especially while being cold, were intense.
Now I enjoy nice engine sound from the first second after igniition.