I talked to the service guy and he said .. mini is working on it but it doesn't seem to be a big issue..

He said that it might be that its taking some time for oil to lubricate the parts .. being thick in cold temperatures and all.

I asked him if using different oil would solve it.. he was apprehensive about it but indirectly told me that I could try on my own and not ask the dealer as they are instructed not to use different oil. Also not to tell anyone here that I tried a different oil.

I m not too worried about it as it goes away in a minute or so .. Plus have warranty till 2010 and then have an extended warranty from geico.

So I would just rest easy till Mini sees it as a serious issue.

PS: If your rattle or hard noise lasts more than few minutes than its a huge concern but there are so many guys on this forum who know about cars inside out -- they would post here if they find something.

I m just monitoring this thread to make sure. I dont miss something important.

 

Whew! I just read all 28 pages of this thread and I'm exhausted.

But I have an '07 and I have the dreaded top-end rap. Lots of good stuff here in this thread - lot's of hyperbole too.

So I speculate oil starvation due to insufficient pressure/supply to the upper reaches of the oiling galleries, not necessarily to the top of the head but all those tight passages machined to supply the lifters and other pressure sensitive things like the TSB item in the tensioner plunger bulletin.
Remember, I'm speculating too! Don't bite my head off.

I built a few different SCCA Spec cars in my time and a few of the spec engines had similar problems. In one design issue, the authorized shops were over-boring the supply channels to lessen the degree of engine failures - lots of engine failures! (clue - made in France, begins with R)

In those days, the Amsoil rep was my best friend. In this case, I'm going to try the 0w30 Castrol approach and see if I can get a rise out of that. It makes more sense to me than anything else.

My condition isn't horrible (yet), probably on the order of every 15th-20th start. Same circumstances, slight downhill grade after more than a day of off-time. If I reverse the car in the driveway, I can leave it for a week and not have the condition. Why? I have no idea; makes no sense. Temperature doesn't matter - this winter, it only did it a couple of times, yesterday it was 50 degrees and it clanked at me in a perfectly level parking lot after work.

I've made peace with the fact that there's probably a manufacturing flaw in my MINI's engine and many others like it. I've already gone to the mat and won against BMW over a Lemon from their illustrious MotoRad Division (they can do no wrong and know much more than stupid consumers) - I've got no problem doing it again. But I'll try the simple stuff first before I build a case and go legal on their a$$.

What a shame. I can empathize with everyone. Happy freaking Motoring.

 

28 pages??? I didn't read a lot of it, so sorry if it's been addressed, but has anyone tried an oil pump to preprime as to test whether or not it's oil starvation?
Greg

 

Disclaimer - I have an R53 so I will never have this cold start problem. However, I have read with interest about this problem. From my reading of the various threads, I think Tom of Michigan Minis has a complete handle on the problem. His commentary is in this thread and in several posts therein:

http://www.michiganmini.org/forum/in...?topic=3115.90

It appears that the hydraulic lifters in the Prince engine are of poor design. The compromise of good port design versus size of hydraulic lifter went in favor of the port design, to the detriment of an adequate lifter. Tom's excellent posts are very informative.

IMHO you will never hear BMW/Mini admitting anything is wrong with the design of the engine. They will quietly change the design without fanfare or announcement, and absent safety concerns, use a bandaid approach (thinner oil) to address the problem. This seems to make business sense. I suspect the long term consequence of the problem is merely accelerated wear of the valve assembly and increased valve seat erosion, and this is true for only a small percentage of the R56 vehicles, so big expense and "egg on face" is not warranted.

Tom's suggestion that you get the Dealer's WRITTEN authorization to use thinner oil is a good one.

 

I wonder if the JCW factory engine, with all of its modifications, would help alleviate this problem. If it truly maximizes the potential, and the stress, of the engine, then maybe they have quietly addressed this problem in the process.

 

Well, Castrol 0w30 isn't going to solve the issue as it happened to me last week. I don't know if the TSB has been publicized but a copy should be sitting in my car that I have yet to pick up from the dealer. I'll post a copy when I get it.

 

Well, once I got a hold of the service bulletin I realized this was written back in January, so it's not exactly new info. If anyone wants a copy I can scan it and email.

 

I'd be interested in seeing what they have to say, old info or not.

 

Here is the latest from my SA . It's normal for these cars , it's the oil bleeding down from the lifters and takes a while to lubricate , it's doing no damage and other BMW 's do it also . Chain tentioner has nothing to do with it .

 

Comments like that just miff me. If it's "normal", then why don't the vehicles sound that way all during the test drive or for x number of miles??? What a crock. More like abnormal. If I heard such noises during a test drive or right before signing papers, I'd be sure to walk away.

Your car squeals loudly? That's perfectly normal. You're car shakes? That's perfectly normal. Your car leaks? That's perfectly normal. Ridiculous. Greg

 

can you post a link to the image here?

 

Were my SA to give me this kind of explanation, I would assuredly post the details of such comment here:

http://www.motoringfile.com/2008/02/...issue-exposed/


This kind of ignorant and arrogant explanation deserves to be widely disseminated. Hopefully it would prompt a serious effort by BMW to address the design deficiency found in the valve train of the R56.

EDIT. Sorry, I see you did this already. Nevermind.

 

My sentiments, exactly. Meanwhile, I am driving my car like I stole it.

 

 

well, i brought my car in two weeks ago for the "noise" to morristown mini. my SA told me he was aware of the problem, and that there were two service bullitens. the first was for the tensioner, and the other was for something like changing the idle speed. they did both to my car, and as i started it up to drive off the lot, the noise happened again. i was late to where i was headed, so i didn't even bother to tell my SA. it has made the noise numerous times since, and when i bring my mini back in next month for its fog lights, i'll mention the noise again to see if mini has any new "fixes" for it. until then, all i care is that it is well documented in my vehicle history...

 

Guys, I see a lot of chatter about this happening in cold weather, but mine started for the very first time today and it was 80F outside. I was shocked! Sounded like a diesel engine under the hood. Here are my specs:

2008 Clubman S with manual 6 speed
Less then 600 miles on it. Sound lasted less then 2 minutes.
Build date December 2007
Car was parked on flat driveway.

Yes, I posted on the sticky as well. I took it around the block and it stopped doing it. The only thing I have done was put a brand new tank of premium 91 octane gas in it from Chevron (yesterday) I've driven it a couple of times since this morning and it hasn't done it again, but it makes me nervous from reading these posts here.

 

I just wanted to add my 2cents. I haven't heard the noise in person, however, from the videos I've watched, the noise seems to be very similar to a noise that I've heard many times in BMW I-6 engines. The noise only occurs when a sustained left turn (or was it right) occurs.

When I did BMWCCA car control clinic there is an oval where you go around it using only the throttle to steer. Several cars with the I-6 (mostly e46 with M54) ended up with a noise very very similar to the noise heard on the video. BMW has acknowledge the noise as being caused by oil starvation to the valve train. The recommended fix was to do nothing and just drive normally or if such driving (track school) is needed, add 1 qt of oil.

Now I'm not recommending adding any oil to your engines at all!!! BMW I6 engines hold nearly 7qts so adding 1 additional qt is not a big of a deal as compared to the MINI engine. However, from all of the diagnoses I've read about, that one stuck in my head.

I apologize if this has been brought up already, as I've only read about 10-12 pages out of 28.

 

Has anyone empirically determined that the chatter only exists on cars with a build date prior to some point in time. In other words, are cars produced after April 1, 2008 (for example) immune to this problem?

 

There was some talk that they'd fixed it sometime last year and later build cars were unaffected, but that turned out to be complete and utter bunk.

 

Clubmans got ,it so no .

 

This sucks. Mine started doing this just a few weeks ago. Up to that point, I was all happy that I didn't have the dreaded cold-start chatter. Oh well, sucks to be me I guess.

So we have no definitive answer from anyone as to whether or not this can cause long term problems? I gotta say, it doesn't sound that bad at idle, but it sounds HORRIBLE when you accelerate.

Makes me feel very sad for poor Winston. Something is obviously not right in his engine bay, and apparently there's not much anyone can do about it, yet.

 

I think we can throw the 'cold start' bit out the window. I got it this morning and the temp gauge read 60F when I started the car up.

I only seem to get it (and not all the time) when I've been parked for awhile, then back it out of the garage (like to wash it), then put it back in the garage and leave it parked overnight.

 

I actually wouldn't be too suprised if this problem is happening to more folks and they just don't know about it. It's only happened to me once but I didn't even notice it when sitting in the car. I only heard it when I got out of the car to grab something in the garage before leaving. If I had just hopped in and backed up and left, I wouldn't of even noticed. Maybe the sound from mine wasn't so pronounced as others, but it seems to me that others might have this happening and just don't know it.

 

I have concluded that the noise is normal. My car is normal. It is awesome. Everybody should bid high for it when it goes on autotrader!

 

Make sure you prepare an answer in advance when they ask you if it has the cold start problem , dont want to be caught off guard .