It seems the evidence points to oil starvation due to design/tollerance inadequacies. Therefore, it is logical that time and angle of park incline will contribute to that starvation, while temperature will affect how quickly that starvation is remedied, so when it is cooler, the noise is more pronounced.

Has anyone used the 0 weight oil and still expereinced the noise?

 

OK, I've been monitoring this "noise" for the past month now. So far, my car does not make this noise upon startup. Yesterday, I started the car after it had been sitting for 2 weeks (doing blackout mods ) and again, no noise. I guess I'll just keep my fingers crossed.

 

sad thing is, it's done that almost every day (except the last two, where it's been very mild).

 

Oh man, that is absolutely brutal.

And your dealer is doing nothing about his?

 

The latest Mini theory is its the timing chain and the chain tensioner . If you listen to the sound it sounds like a chain spining and hiting metal and plastic .Better than oil starvation . As long as the oil filter picks up all the metal and plastic shavings !

 

It seems that 0 weight oil would make that worse, not better. Not that I'm against them coming up with a reason. I just hope it's the right reason.

 

it goes back in to the dealer in two weeks. on it's last trip in, they said after they added some extra oil, the noise went away. so i've been taping the car every morning when it acts up, and am going to bring all my videos with me to the service appointment. hopefully, they will do *something*...

 

bitharvest, I know you went to Morristown to get this issue looked at and they generally have a very good service reputation. If however they are not addressing your issue to your satisfaction, I recommend you speak with Jimmy at Princeton MINI service. Lately I've been dealing with him and I'm very pleased because he always returns my calls and is very friendly and doesn't say things like, "Oh that's normal".

 

than you for the suggestion. if nothing comes of this next service visit, i will definitely give jimmy a call. i hate my car sounding like this!
i'm not giving up hope on morristown yet though, my SA there did ask me to bring in the videos of the "noise" when i mentioned it to him, and at least they admit it is enough of a problem (and not normal), that they are taking the car back in and giving me a loaner. i guess we shall see...

 

I have been watching this site for some time as I am an avid classic mini fan and have been waiting for the right time to buy a new style mini. My friend first told me about his late model mini making an engine noise so I pointed him to this site. His car made a completely horrid noise that scared the bejesus out of me since he paid 18500 pounds (about 37,000 dollars) for his car. I have been watching this thread all the way through.

Anyway in my recently ramped up hunt for a MINI I have went to the local dealership a few times and have asked different salesmen about the problem and all have denied hearing about it, YEAH RIGHT!!! tonight I went and spoke to a younger salesperson and he said he had heard about it and as far as he knew that BMW had not figured it out yet but he hoped they would soon and perform a recall on the cars that suffered. Now I know he was a younger member of staff and just talking but he definitely knew of the problem and said they had no idea what the root cause was.

I would have bought a clubman by now but this noise problem is keeping me to the 2005-6 models.

 

that young new salesperson hasn't been indoctrinated in the proper response escallation....

"Problem? What problem, never heard of it."
"This is the first time...."
"This is normal"
etc....

Matt

 

It's my belief that all of the sales & service staff are sent to school & taught to say such things with a straight face.

 

Thats what I had with one of the head honcho salepersons a few weeks ago.

I am going to go look at a 2005 and 2006 today.

Wish me luck. Peter

 

if a picture is worth a thousand words, that video is War and Peace!

to echo the shock of some other posters here...

stop. do not collect $200. proceed directly to dealer. that isn't a little wrong, that's unarguably, irretrievably, unconcionably, profoundly, and tragically wrong

sweet Heavans, are any other new Coopers sounding like that? really?

my complete sympathy! that's like listening to a blender full of parts!

 

finally after years of dithering and buying other cars, I just bought a 2006 MCS!!!

Thanks to all posters who helped me know what to look out for and what to buy.

Peter

 

poor guy... i think you just got him fired for being honest. then again, you never said where, so he's safe...for now.

 

congrats on the '06.

 

any solid news yet for this noise on cold start? Since our weather is warming up and then cooling down at night the chatter has come back.. few months back i went on a test drive with the technician and he heard the noise and made note of it.. i also get this annoying buzzing noise when driving on the highway from the front dash.. anyhow when i got the car back he said that the noise went away and could not figure out where it originated from and said it most likely has to do with the extreme cold.. which i somewhat believe but I also think that they should fix the problem, and not blame it on the weather.
This morning i heard the noise again, turned my car off to run back inside to get my computer with a mic to record it.. started my car again and the noise went away.. bummer.. i am going to drop my car off on the 22nd and will complain about the noise again but may get the same answer from them.. that they couldnt find anything, on top of that I am going to complain about the creaking noise i get from my sunroof when in tilt or closed position.. they tried fixing this last time.. but the noise came bak in 1 week. Can anyone suggest areas for them to diagnose for the chatter noise when i drop the car off? I am almost positive mini knows about this issue but they are denying just like any other dealer would..

 

guys im gonna email the youtube link to my service advisor, it is the exact same noise i have with my mini, and also CC the Service manager.. will let you know how it goes after the 22nd

 

Edit: Posted under the wrong topic. Oops.

 

No...its actually just a symptom of oil starvation in the top end.

The MINI theory is that the cam chain tensioner PISTON is not filling with oil and putting enough pressure on the cam chain tensioner. So no oil up to = rattly tensioner.

Unfortunatly... replacing with a "good" cam chain tensioner piston has no effect over time. Soooooo... bottom line.... its still pointing towards oil starvation.

 

Oil starvation is the only thing that makes sense to me too...but IMHO it has to be an issue with quality control/tolerances when machining. Otherwise it should happen in all of them, should it not? What really has me confused though, is some people seem to have their problem fixed (a few totally, most just for a time) when replacing the cam chain/tensioner. I understand that's more than likely not the problem here, it just boggles the mind to think that it does fix it for a time...the problem comes back, and usually if they replace those parts again it has no effect.
Also, why would it seem to (some people say it does, some say it doesn't) get worse over time. That leads me to believe there has to be something wearing out. If nothing was wearing, it should stay constant, should it not?
Does anyone know the parts that are different from that of the MC motor that seems to be running just fine? I know Mini's got a number of motors that were pulled because of this issue, so they should most definitely be able to figure out what the issue is eventually.

 

All this speaks toward machining tollerances, as you say. If they are that tight, changing, or even moving, parts could change the sound or event.

 

I suspect that the inconsistency of the problem is what leads people to believe it has been fixed, only to discover that it in fact hasn't when the sound reappears soon after. Heck, there are several people who have had their engines replaced only to have the problem come back, which makes me wonder if this problem in fact does affect all turbocharged 2007+ models, but those who haven't experienced this problem may not have had the right conditions present (be they weather related, or some combination of the many possible causes others have suspected) for the noise to noticably manifest itself. I have no doubt that if I resided in, say, south Florida, I would still be driving my Mini around feeling that I was completely unaffected by what appears to be a very common issue with these cars.

 

Just an update. (reminder: I had the cold start chatter at 235 mile)
My car was parked for four days straight again (for the third time), and no chatter still (car is barely over 400 miles at this point). So we can completely rule out long term parking being one of the cause for the cold start chatter.
I'm going to try and test out the other theory this weekend, which is the short-engine-run theory, where the engine runs for less then a couple of minute prior to shutting it off and then park for extended time.