Hello all, recently my 02 MINI Cooper S has begun to make a rythmatic squealing noise. It is a little random occurrence, but usually while the engine is cool and especially in the morning when there is now significant dew. I can only hear it when it is idling, but if it is still there while revving i probably wouldn't be able to here it (not all that loud) It also seams to go away as the engine warms up, but I haven't been able to throughly test this. I read around about numerous water pump problems, but I assume these are more with the R56 with the electric pump. I think it is either the tensioner or the belt. Is there an easy way to tell if the the tensioner is going bad? How much should it move/vibrate while the car is in idling? Any help is a appreciated.

 

How many miles? Any Mods? Your Water Pump is run off the Supercharger and is not electric, but is still a weak leak in the system.

 

It's at 60k, no mods other then a borla catback and a dinan CAI. Thanks for looking!

 

I had a similar thing happen to my '02. The tensioner needed to be replaced and it was shredding the belt. I could only hear the squeak at idle because of my CAI and cat back. This occurred around 50k miles.

 

Well, I'm fairly certain it is just the belt now. As per my mechanics advice I cleaned the belt with warm water and put a small drop of oil on it and it seemed to have stopped the noise (at least momentarily). Probably gonna get the belt replaced soon anyways.