hi all, just got my mini back on the raod today after 7 weeks of being off it. Had a really werid noise comming from the front end, almost sounded like an air leak, really anoying, and varied with engine speed. After much looking and listening, i discovered it was comming from the vavle area. Totaly by accident, i discovered it was the coil that was shaking. The bolts were not loose, i could barely break them loose (blue loctite by the look of it), but the coil would move around with very little effort. after i took the bolts off, and put washers under them and retightened, the noise went away. So, if you have a weird front end noise, check your coil.

hope this helps some one

Beecher