Just picked up my MCS from Rasmussen MINI in PDX after it's third trip in for rattling timing chain issues. This car received the full SIM-11-02-07 in May 2009, and the "death rattle" started again in late October after 3,500 miles.

I sent a registered letter to the BMW MINI Customer Relations office in Westwood, NJ (address p.27 Service and Warranty Info book), and contacted the service advisor manager at Rasmussen MINI. The NJ office called me about a week later to verify the information and to coordinate another repair. The car was dropped off in PDX Dec 28 and returned Jan 12, 2010. A loaner MINI Cooper was provided.

The techs ended up replacing the chain tensioner piston yet again after verifying all the almost-new parts from the last repair were still in tolerence (65.8 mm deflection). So far, all is quiet.

Here's the interesting part. Since May, 2009, BMW MINI has revised the tensioner piston part number twice! The absolute latest mod is part # 11-31-7-597-895. If you've had your chain tensioner replaced earlier than fall 2009, you may have an outdated part. Whatever part was installed into your engine will be listed on the invoice you received. So, if the morning death rattle starts up again, suspect an outdated tensioner.

I wish to pass on a "Thanks" to the folks at Rasmussen MINI - PDX for being straight-up about the problem, and pleasant to deal with.

 

I dropped my car off today for its second go around to get the cold start ratttle fixed. Before the first "fix" the noise was merely annoying, now it literally sounded like someone banging on the head with a baseball bat. I consider myself a pretty knowledgeable car guy, but I cannot figure out how a timing chain and tensioner being loose would cause this problem. If a chain is loose and you are jumping teeth, won't your problems be a lot worse than just a loud noise? I cannot find an explanation in this thread for "how" the Mini fix actually fixes the problem. I have seen some threads on other sites and even mentioned here about the issue lying with the HLAs. That one seems to make more sense to me. The sound eminating from under my hood sounded almost like helicopter blades and not necessarily metal to metal. If the HLAs are "draining" then the pressurized oil has to pump all the air out. Has anyone had their HLAs adjusted? I'm kind of annoyed, but the folks at Motor City Mini have been great thusfar.

 

I am gonna see what happens tomorrow morning. If it happens again (it probably will) i will call them tomorrow to schedule service.

 

UPDATE: my idle surge after the fix was the exhaust cam out of timing. The shop foreman took it home that night before delivery the next day to make sure everything was ok. Today called and said it missed at 3,000 rpm on the way into work... back at at it again, still have the loaner. Going on week 2 with the R56 JCW.

 

HLAs cannot be adjusted, but according to an SAE valve train engineer they can be shimmed to prevent that knock. Thing is its a pretty deep fix, one that no MINI dealer is wanting to perform.

think of it this way: when oil drains out of the HLAs, they fill with air. and you start your car those hydraulic adjusters, for a brief time as the engine warms up, are pneumatic, hence the banging noise. With HLAs, tolerances are very tight, and if anything is out of whack, WHAM WHAM WHAM until VANOS delivers enough oil to purge the air and return the HLAs back to their proper hydraulic working order.

while I beleive the HLA noise is symptomatic of another problem, more than like poorly designed HLAs coupled with the persnickety VANOS, the tensioner and guide issue could be related in an ancillary way. And we dont even want to discuss the vacuum pump; when that part siezes, so too does the engine.

 

So...you are saying that the HLA’s are of poor design but if the entire timing chain apparatus works properly the HLA’s won’t drain and fill with air?

I have wondered since I started reading these discussions why fixing the timing chain would prevent the HLA’s from draining and knocking.

Does a proper timing chain make the HLA’s park in a better position to avoid draining?


I can hear my timing chain zzziiiippp and sometimes but not always is followed by the 60 second diesel knock. It didn't happen one time during the summer but as soon as the temp dropped below 50...zzziiiippp CLANK CLANK CLANK.

 

As of today, the service bulletin though is only effective through 11/08 correct? Any indication BMW will be revising this?

I am heading back to the dealership again next week and they sure cannot say the problem is due to low oil since I was just there 2 weeks ago.

The problem before was the SA looked at the service bulletin and noticed it was through Nov 08 and said, "oh they fixed that in production after Nov 08 so yours in not effect cause your went into Production 3/09", but it sounds like the Chain Tensioner has been modified several times in Production since then.

 

I'm thinking your dealer doesn't know what he/she is talking about because the revised tensioner didn't start appearing on new builds until late March 09. A couple of members of our local club had March 09 builds that had the rattle and the dealer fixed them no questions asked.

 

Hmmm, wonder if I should just go to another dealer at this point.

 

Not sure if you've already done this or not (didn't bother looking back thru all the threads ) but for me it helped to have the PDF of the SIM# as well as URL links to major sites, like NAM, R56MCS.COM, etc that discuss the problems at length. I emailed these to my SA and the service manager. That represents a mountain of evidence about the problem. I also documented the 4 exact steps that I could go thru to duplicate the problem.

With all my ducks in a row, the dealer performed the work even without trying to duplicate the noise.

 

That was just it, I had the PDF document and guess they looked at the date and determined it was only effecting those THROUGH Nov 2008. Any idea if BMW is suppose to revise this?

 

How do I check my build month?

 

you can call the dealer w the VIN, or they usually have that info if youve gotten service there

 

It should be on the sticker on the driver-side door, same place your VIN is listed.

 

You need to push harder. The PDF is obviously not sufficient. List the other URLs, include pasted copies of specific threads. I also phone one the SA's at Rasmussen MINI in Portland and got her name and asked my dealer to contact her if they had questions. I believe they're one of the first/best dealers to deal with this issue.

 

Getting ready to email my SA about my appointment next week; can you provide any URLs referencing the issue going past the Nov 2008 Production date?

 

I don't know of any specific threads about the problem presisting past Nov 2008

 

I have noticed that some morning it really doesn't occur, but other mornings the diesel engine is starting up. I have tried revving the engine before turning it off the night before and they seems to make a noticeable difference.

 

At least time they cannot say it is low on oil, but also concerned about having to duplicate the noise while it is there.

 

Check the posts in this thread about how to duplicate. For me it was 4 simple steps

 

So you basically:

• Started the car and moved it 10 feet (from garage to driveway)
• Left car in driveway for 45 minutes
• Started up the car and drove it 10 feet (back into garage)
• Started the next day and rattle occurs for the first mile from my place

Instead of waiting until the next day, how long would you need to wait after backing the car back into the garage before restarting it?

 

If you're driving to the dealer its already warmed up and not likely to work. Drive it there then have them perform those steps the next day. If its really cold and you drive it in the morning and it sits outside all day, perhaps by 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon you could try.

 

That's the point. How can you make the leap from noisy HLAs to a timing chain and tensioner? I call BS. I talked to my service manager today and he tried to crab walk around the issue. I'm not buyin' it. I paid $30k for a go kart, I should be able to park it on any incline I want and not have a special shut down sequence.

 

Um, I'm not sure if you're attempting to call me out, or call out your service manager. I said "could be related in an ancillary way" because, right now, that's the general consensus out there among SAE engineers, some of who own MCS's, that have both problems. Some have even blamed the valve train vacuum pump, and if that goes in yr $30K go-kart, so too will the engine.

 

i just watched the "cold start noise video" you had and that's what i've got. what did you/the dealer do?