Just a few thoughts and experiences I've had:


Tapping/clicking noises:

bad lifter
harmonic balancer
pinging
supercharger rotor (normal)
aftermarket exhaust resonator
belt tensioner
heat shield for exhaust and header
swaybar drop link loose
clutch throw out bearing
aftermarket flywheel (normal)
steering rack
steering bushing

Here are some hints to try to isolate which of these may be the cause:

If it happens only under certain conditions, you can say it is most likely pinging, supercharger rotor noise, a resonator, or the throwout bearing.

Consistent noise is usually from a lifter, a harmonic balancer, or a belt tensioner. You may have the noise increase under load if it is one of these items.

The others require a bit more trouble shooting.

Some of these noises are normal - under hard acceleration, with the windows down, you can actually hear the rotors meshing in the supercharger.

Pinging is easy to figure out - find some 100 octane at a track or a station that sells it (look at racegas.com) and if the noise dissappears, it is most likely pinging. It could be caused by an aftermarket ECU, carbon build up, or bad gas. If you have a pulley, try going with a colder heat range spark plug.

Hope that helps!

Randy

 

Randy,

We have tried all these things, and don't have any definate answers. You have just provided more info/diagnostic help than my dealer has provided in 3 visits and 2 weeks of holding my car at the service department.

The knocking/hammering seems to start at 3000 rpm and continues until there is enough wind noise to mask it. The noise is definitely motor related, and is not effected by load. It makes the same noise with the A/C on or off, but the noise only happens under load in gear. It isn't detectable just by reving the motor.

I can and have repeated this for several of the dealers service personel. They have all acknowleged clearly hearing the knocking/hammering noise.

I can repeat this knocking/hammering at will. The procedure is very simple. Drive along in 2nd gear to about 3000 rpm, then mash down on the gas pedal. The knocking will start slowly increasing in volume and stabilize at about 3600 rpm and stay until your speed increases and the wind noise masks it. The same procedure works in 3rd gear, but you run into wind noise sooner as you will be going faster.

I have eliminated as many of the possible causes you listed, but I still don't know what is causing the knocking/hammering noise.

It SHOULD NOT be the customers responsiblity to diagnose this problem for the manufacturer.

03DrkSlvrS

 

...

 

Is the "not" a typo ?

Randy,

Thank you so much for the tips. When you listen to a MCS with the hood up, idling, (as I'm sure you done more than most)should a certain uneveness be heard from the blower side in the area of the belt. I hear a slight rattle like noise. It's not even sounding, nothing terrible, just not smoooth. I am still hoping for the harmonic balancer or dampner. It's possibly making some noise all the time, not the least noisiest cars in the world, as you know.

I wouldn't know what the blades in the SC are supposed to sound like. I only started hearing it when the windows came down in the spring, that I know.

The fact you mentioned pinging is interesting. Would pinging not sound like the tradition v8 sizzling or crackling we have all heard from some running on pig along the way? In other words could it actually sound like tapping, knocking or clattering. I've never heard it from a blown, FWD car, or Chrysler motor massaged by BMW before, but I assumed pinging, still sounded like, well pinging.
I swapped out my Denso's based on the panic thread back in early spring,(you can send the bill anytime ) and the noise did seem to stop temporarily after the dealer visit,( why else would you work there, if not to flog the snot out of other peoples cars ?). I tried too redline my mini at least once a day, until the noise started that is. I will certainly never be thought of as a fast MINI driver, so carbon could still certainly be a possibility.

This waitng until the 19th is going to have my imagination running again, Damn it Jim.

I know Randy doesn't want to "own" this thread, so anyone else with input, feel free. I am hoping for one more successfull harmonic dampner (or whatever they choose to call it) so I can put all three in front of my SM.
Now I just have to call and ask nicely for one to be on-site when my car is in for service. Hopefully that's possible.

MINIUSA is likely aware of this by now, let's hope some info get's out to the dealers, soon.

Slant,
3 dealers, all of them lame ? What is up with that ? I wonder why not one of them would even try it ? Either BMW is harrasing them soo much, they are unable to their jobs anymore, or they are just so overworked and over booked from fixing these damn cars, they realy couldn't give a rats backside about the stupid customer anymore. Eitherway, not a good sign for the future of product. I didn't even go to college, and I can see that.

It is great too here from you Randy. Thanks again for the help.

 

Has anyone had this noise at 3000rpm on a CVT Cooper?
I just began noticing it a couple of weeks ago. It's usually
just when I first start the car and I don't hear it until I accelerate
to 3000rpm. Later in the day while driving, I don't notice it at all.
I'm taking her in for her scheduled oil change tomorrow and I'm
wondering if that isn't my problem. She's definitely due and the
dealer wouldn't perform it until the 'numbers' got down to 200 miles.
I'm not going to let her go this long without an oil change again,
I don't care what MINI or the service people tell me.

 

The above post sounds oil related. Hopefully nothing too serious. I am no chemist, so I am not going to claim that oil can't last as long as MINI seems to think. What I will say is my last German made automobile also came with free oils changes at 5,000, 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 miles. At about 18,000 after shutting it down and restarting it on a hot day, big time lifter knock. I decided to check the oil, and couldn't find any !!! I dumped in a quart, still nothing, so I dumped in another one, the dipstick showed 1 quart low. So I was down nearly 3 quarts in 8,000 miles !!! That car was a lease and made it too at least 48,000 without further issue. Point ? The level needs to be checked at 3,000 miles, even if you don't change the oil that often. Of course changing the oil is a good way to make sure it is fresh and full at the same time, as well as adding a clean filter.
It is not to tough and the filters aren't too expensive. Take a look at the how to's.:smile:

Ok, getting back to my saga. I putt the car up on ramps and the heatshields up front and around cat overlap and do in fact make noise noise when tapped on. Appears to be secure, just a feature if you will. I adjusted them with a slightly larger gap so they couldn't hit each other. Check all motor and tranny mounts were torqued to spec. and went for a ride. No joy, just as loud as ever. The next morning I got in the car drove to the end of my street and nailed it, no noise. Hmmm.
Ok, so when the car isn't warmed up yet it's much less noticable, this goes against what I thought I noticed before.

My knowledge is pretty limited, but I am pretty sure the ECU dosen't fully advance the timing until the water reaches a certain temp. Hmmm.
Well Randy did mention pinging as one of the causes. Hmmm.
I need to remove the Shark before taking it back to the dealer anyway, so let's try that again. Nope, still there. Hmm
I have one can of octane booster left over from the 4 pack, might as well dump it in. Nope, still there.
My MINI is likely not driven as hard as it would like to be, so could be carboned up a bit, better check the plugs. Coffee with cream, no signs of detonation, at least on number one. Hmmm.
Got a can of Chevron Techron sitting in the garage, supposed to lower octane requirements by removing carbon deposits, the tanks still full of 94 octane+booster, 8 more ounces shouldn't hurt anything. Drove around for a half hour, nope still there.
Ok, it's time to ask the dealer to drop the car off on Friday instead Monday for convenience. I'll do that right after lunch. While returning from lunch, sanity check, better be able to recreate it at the dealer, don't want to look like even a bigger ***.
First try. Nope, can't hear it.
Second try, Nope, still nothing.
Third try, in a small tunnel, were it was clearly noticable 2 weeks ago. Nope.
The return trip through the tunnel, I could just barely hear it.
So WTF?
It would appear that my noise is in fact knocking.
I ordered colder plugs that would hopefully be here before the weekend. If as I had hoped, it was my harmonic balancer, it shouldn't go away. It can't fix itself.
Why would it be knocking. We have 93 octane here , and several people are running stock plugs without issue. It's hot here, but it is hotter in other areas. It is apparently outside the range of the knock sensors to prevent, which is of course very, very,very bad. Being that far off, it's seems unlikely 1 range plug is going to cure it completely, so as chesse mentioned a month ago, something would appear to be wrong with my car, besides me of course.
Anybody else have this issue or any advice ?

 

Wow! It really sounds like you know what you're doing (unlike some of us.) I did get the oil change and I've noticed that the tapping, knocking, etc. is almost completely gone now. I had been checking my oil levels regularly so I knew the level wasn't the problem. I think it was just too dirty. It also only made the noise in sport drive - never in regular drive - and only at 3000rpm. Even then, the noise has never been constant and it's not very loud. I can't hear it when I open the windows. Hopefully, this took care of it. I explained it to my MINI tech who didn't seem to want to connect it to the need for an oil change. He did tell me that if it continues or gets worse, etc., then I would need to bring it back and leave it so that he could duplicate exactly what I do before hearing it. Start cold in the morning, drive in Sport Drive, let it hit 3000rpms and listen VERY intently.

Hope it won't come to that. It's definitely much better now.

 

Well I finally had my long awaited test drive with the Field Service Rep today, and I wish I had some good news.

It seemed that the FSR had already made his determination even before I gotten to the service department.

He said that he had heard the same noise on 3 other mini's before mine. He didn't know what the noise is, but he doesn't feel that is is a problem with the car. He called it characteristic of a Cooper S. He said that this characteristic seems to be a normal wear or break-in occurence.
I found this disturbing as it seems that many more people will have to suffer this horrible situation.

I asked what he could do to remedy the knocking/hammering noise, and he stated flatly that their was nothing that Mini would do. He stated that Mini is not going to replace parts without knowing what is causing the noise.

I asked if he could authorize changing the harmonic damper as that seemed like a likely possible source of the noise as it is located low on the engine and on the right hand side of the car. Again he stated that Mini will not replace any parts without knowing what is causing the noise.
He also said that if Mini did replace the harmonic damper and it did fix the noise, what would Mini do if after another 20,000 miles it started making the noise again.
I stated that if it did fix the noise that I would think that Mini would make corrections to the parts so that it wouldn't make the noise.

This also found this very disturbing. How is Mini ever going to find a solution to this problem if they are not willing to try to determine the cause.

I asked how is this problem ever going to be resolved if nothing is done. He agreed that it will not be resolved until Mini knows what is causing the noise and what parts need to be changed.

He did tell me that he would check for any new service bulletins to see if there is any information about this problem.

This doesn't leave me with any other option but to file a lemon law case, as this is not a satisfactory situation. I cannot drive my car with the passenger window down as the knocking/hammering noise has continued to get worse.

I used to really enjoy driving my Mini, but this knocking/hammering noise now makes me dreed driving my Mini.

I guess I will have to start looking for a new car. I can not stand driving my car with this knocking/hammering noise constant interrupting the driving experience.

03DrkSlvrS

 

Your situation really does sound intolerable. The small problem I've had with my Cooper is nothing like what you've described. When I mentioned the problem (like yours) that a number of people with an S had experienced to my Service Rep., he said that he hadn't had any customers with that particular complaint. I suggested he check out the MINI boards since I've seen a number of people post about this problem with an S.

Sorry to hear that yours is so bad that you're looking into another car. MINI should definitely address this problem.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by lhowlett

Wow! It really sounds like you know what you're doing (unlike some of us.)

No. Nothing could be farther from the truth.


It's doing it again this morning. I don't even need to have the windows down anymore. I feel it in the gas pedal. Probably only because I am pushing on it. Whatever is causing this this "noise" is also creating enough vibration that you feel it in your right foot. I have no clue what "it" is, and little hope of solving this one myself.



94SwiftGT,



That sucks. I have been wondering if I should bother with my upcoming visit as well. Bodinski's car got fixed on the third try ? You would think that when his dealer finally cracked that nut, that info would be shared with MINI service people. So all the dealers could save their time, MINI's money and BMW's future customer base. Apparently peace in the middle east is a more realistic dream.



When I first found this board, MINI had finally admitted the coolant tanks were a bad design and was in deep denial about the stumble and windshields. Apparently they are only willing to admit to a problem when they are already working on a fix.

I can't here what your car sounds like, so I can't guarantee we are hearing the exact same thing. It seems that we are, and if we are, your right it sucks, and you shouldn't just have to drive around with your windows up.

They (MINI) are obviously clueless, or hiding something. Maybe they know it's the harmonic balancer, but don't have a replacement part that's any better, yet. Or maybe they feel it won't actually cause a serious issue until our warantees expire ? Hard to tell, 2 people in this thread alone have this issue successfully resolved by replacing it. So why is the FSR refusing to even try it? I can't imagine. Trying to claim this is a "feature" however is completely bogus. They said the same about the stumble and yo-yo initially. Apparently the high cost of resolving all of the production mistakes and lousy ECU programming has taken a toll on their desire for customer satisfaction.

Randy's comments about the blower's blades meshing together are very interesting. Heating of said blades would explain why sometimes I can't here it. The fact I can feel it in the floorboards of the car, makes me think I am hearing something else however. If it is the blades, and I can feel it, and hear it, at 13,000 miles, what's it going to be like at 70,000 miles.

If my dealer had told me that's what it is, and let me drive a new one that had the noise, I would be getting stuff done at work right now.
They (My Dealer) however told me they hadn't heard it before, ever. They have sold a lot of cars. Most of which are probably driven harder than mine. They even have customers with over 50,000 miles on their cars. And according to them, they've never heard it, except from my car.

It's hard to see another BMW/MINIUSA product in my future as well, because of comments like your FSR's, although it's very unlikely they care at this point. Caring cost too much money for a car in this price range, apparently. I probably had unrealistic expectations of quality and support for a car this cheap. My Bad.
The car flat out would not go into gear several times this morning. Since however I can't pin down the exact sequence of events that causes this too happen, I can't recreate it for my dealer. They've driven it, and it worked fine. They can't just adjust or replace my cables, based on my word. Can't say as I blame them. Seems like MINI would give them trouble if they did.

I however now have a car that I can't count on, listen too, expect not too yo-yo or convince the dealer that it has issues. Something feels like it is bouncing around under the car when I push the clutch in, and take it out gear, normal ? No thanks.

If you really want out fast, without the legal hassle, trade it in on something. That's what I am going to do.


Bodinski,



You are lucky that FSR wasn't at your dealership when you brought your car in. You would still be down here with the disgruntled and confused. Happy Motoring.

[font=Times New Roman] [/font]

 

Gmack,

I would really push for them to replace the harmonic damper(Part #11-23-7-514-461). Both Bodinski & TomKCooperS had their harmonic dampers replaced and it fixed the knocking/hammering noise.

Their dealers should get credit for finding an answer to this problem.
Bodinski had his done at Mini of Nashville.
TomKCooperS had his done at John Roberts BMW, Dallas Texas.

I really wish my dealer located in Ft. Lauderdale, FL would have put any effort into trying to fix this problem. They don't seem in the least bit interested in trying to fix the noise. All I ever got was excuses. The only real effort they took was to change my aftermarket exhaust for a stock exhaust after I offered to pay to have it changed so I could prove that it was not the source of the noise. I was proven right as the noise still was there with the stock exhaust.

I am at a total loss as to the FSR's complete lack of concern with the trying fix this problem. My only thought is that the Service Manager must have convinced him that I was being unreasonable. The service manager as much as told me he going to make getting warranty work done as hard for me as he possible could. I think waiting over 2 months and getting zero satisfaction is unreasonable.

While we were on the test drive the service manager told the FSR that they thought that the noise was the exhaust, and that after they changed the exhaust and it still made the knocking/hammering noise that they didn't look any further into the problem. They hadn't done anything before changing the exhaust because they assumed the exhaust was the cause.

If you think that you would have a lemon law case I would suggest that you take the action and hire an attorney. It seems that Mini will only take you serious if you make it in their best interest to deal with you.

I have now hired an attorney. I would have prefered to have Mini make things right, but they don't seem interested in taking care of their customers. I guess they feel they are seeling enough cars, and they can afford to loss customers.

03DrkSlvrS

 

94SwiftGt,

Thanks that is great advice. I hope you finally get the satisfaction you deserve.
I have been putting a lot of thought into just selling the car. So in anticipation of that, I have been pushing the MINI much harder than I usually do. Which has made me remember why so many people fall in love with things in the first place. The harder you push them, the more they seperate themselves from regular cars. As a GT car, these things fall pretty short, when driven the way they are supposed to be, they shine like few others.

This has made want to keep it !! And a funny thing would appear to have happened, the noise could not be felt or heard in the 2 tries I gave it this morning. I need to figure out why, it's like a quest now. Either I am just not hearing it all the time, or it's not doing it all the time. This makes me curious. I have colder plugs arriving tonight, and I am going to see if Agocart and Ryephile have time to look at this again on Sunday. For the life of me I can't think of why my harmonic balancer would only be able to be heard, some of the time. It makes no sense at all.

Again we are back to the problem of this thread. I can't hear what you guys are hearing, and you can't hear what I am hearing. Although the symptoms seem very similar, I fear I may have been so happy to find out I am not the only one, I jumped in with both feet. Driving around with just the drivers down, this thing sounds great. The vibration of the gas pedal in sequence with with the hammering noise was not felt this morning, but I am wearing different shoes, so who knows. It's time to get a littel more scientific.

I posted on here a few weeks ago a request to our fellow motors to try the "test" if you will. We have zero new members. Which makes me think this problem is not as wide spread as I first thought.

As much as I appreciate Bo and Tom's effort in getting there's fixed, since they never mentioned the noise coming and going, as mine would appear too, I need to explore the possibility that we have a "different" problem.

You commented to Randy that you had already tried these things ? Do you have a "Randied" car ? Do you have colder plugs ? A good way to get some of the frustation from your recent FSR experience might be to try what I will now call experiment #2. Try to find 100 octane race fuel this weekend, if you can't, get a 1/2-3/4 tank of the best gas you can find, add a can of Chevron Techron and a can of "street legal octane boost". Whenever it is safe and appropiate (ie: don't get a ticket !!!) give er the "ol welly" as the english say. Don't expect for anything to change right a way, after a few days, repeat experiment number one. I appologize if you have in fact already tried all this. I don't know your regualr driving habits. If you have been driving it like you "own" it, like I was, it's just possible that we have a similar issue. At the very least it will be fun for you.

I made a huge mistake of bringing home a RX-8 (a/t, I know, I know, no comments please !!) yesterday and letting the wife drive it. She's in love with that car !!! She was calling me on way to work with offers of calling around to get a fare price for the MCS and a better price on the RX-8. Once the initial facination of driving something different wore off, (3rd time driving it) and jumping back in the MCS and given er the ol welly, I want my car fixed more than ever. If I just "missed" the noise this morning for some reason, and Agocart and Ryan (not even sure if he's available) can here it on Sunday, it goes to the dealer on Monday. If they (the dealer) refuse to try a harmonic balancer, it's gone. Baa Bye. If we can't here it, than it's likely my car needs to be driven harder on a daily basis. That however could lead to "more" tickets. Which may be how I got to here in the first place. Slowing down too much.
Best of luck in court, and with experiment #2, if you choose to accept this mission ....

 

Alrighty then !!!

I just let a co-worker, a retired SCCA rally driver, , drive my car back and fourth to lunch. We hammered around for what must have been 20 minutes, back and fourth, too and fro, over hill and dail, anyway you get the picture.

The noise has officially stopped for the time being. This makes the Monday trip too the dealer not neccessary.

So the real question now has to be, why ? I put 2 different brands of Octane booster and the Chevron Techron into a full tank of Sunoco 94 octane. I estimate my current octane rating to be between 98 and 100. Not the healthiest blend of toxins I am sure, but boy o buy is it running great. It shouldn't need this much octane, no way. It's possible the Shark being mapped for pulley plus air box + a under achieving driver (me) + Sunoco fuel that likely isn't selling very well at $2.26 created this issue. The Shark stays in the box for now, tonight colder plugs go in, and when this toxic tank of fuel gets a little lower, I am topping it off with Mobil 1 premium or Amoco Gold and staying away from Sunoco. With this setup, it should have no problems running on 93 octane. If it does, there is still a issue, somewhere.

Does anyone how the MINI senses crankshaft position or adjusts ignition timing ? Are there visible wires for the knock sensors than I can find and verify are still intact ? Somehow this just doesn't seem right, although after that test drive, my ears are not just missing it sometimes, it is gone, for now at least.

 

Hello, Gmack

If your knocking is gone thats great, but I wouldn't expect it to stay gone. If you are driving harder, you may not be hearing the noise due to the increase in speed and RPM.

I drive my car quite spiritedly. I don't just cruise along.

I to really love the way my car drives, but I cannot stand that I hear this knocking noise all the time. It completely destroys the enjoyment that the car delivers.
I can completely understand your wanting to sell you car. I am beginning to start looking for a replacement, and it will not be a BMW product seeing how they treat their customers.

My car will repeat the noise every time I accelerate from 3000 rpm in 2nd or 3rd gears. If I am going faster than that the wind noise masks the noise.

The RX-8 is a great car. My brother has one and really loves driving it. The extra door really makes the car more useful.

03DrkSlvrS

 

Got in the car to drive it home. Passenger window down only, entered the tunnel at exactly 3,000 rpm, stomped on it, , ah, it's still there. My co-worker was likely entering the tunnell at a higher rpm and I was likely distracted trying to hold on and keeping a eye on the road. Having both windows down probably kept me hearing it off the curbs, along with the wind noise and the rpm's.

Starting to feel kinda silly. More like a ******* actualy.
I'll try to get some help tommorow, and likely take it the dealer on Monday.

 

Gmack,

You might want to copy the messages from TomkCoopers and Bodinski were they note that changing the harmonic damper fixed the noise.

You could do a search for their posts. They may be more receptive if you can provide them with some documented proof. They could also confirm with the 2 dealers if they are so inclined.

Here is the part number that Bodinski provided (Part #11-23-7-514-461).

I PM'd Bodinski and he said that is has been over a month and the noise is gone. There is hope.

94SwiftGT

 

94SwiftGT,

Yep great idea, as long as they keep a open mind. I printed out the posts a few weeks ago actually. I also printed the how to from Cooper Speed.com on how to correct the squeaky window issue.
Anyone who tried Octane Booster based on my comments, I must apologize. The noise is in fact not gone from my car. The noise would appear to be emenating only from the right side of my car and limited to the 3,000-4,??? rpm range. I think possibly I would sometimes just miss the noise. I do here something besides the hammering/knocking noise that accures sometimes at idle and other non load situations, hopefully that's realated, it would be great to have both of the issues cleared up at once.
I won't be leaving you all for a Rx-8 that's for sure. Flooding issues with the Renesis engine aside, in the end, they don't offer all seasons on the OE rims, and a quick search reveals, few if any are offered in the 225 45 /18 size. So that deal is dead. Let's hope my dealer and I can get this resolved, so I won't need to keep looking elsewhere. Wish me luck, it goes in this morning.

 

I'm reader of this thread who just put a deposit down on a 2005 Cabrio, my first Mini. I've been somewhat shaken by some of the negative posts re: the noise problem. I haven't yet completed the order with Mini of Peabody (MA), as the salesman claims not to have specific prices of all the options, despite their availability on the web.

I have two questions: Why won't those of you having difficulties with your dealers identify the dealer by name? If a potential buyer such as me were to bring up this issue to the salesman and the sales manager, there would be additional pressure on the service manager to do the right thing. Sales managers carry a lot of clout in any company I've worked in. I realize that isolated issues with service managers will occasionally be blown out of proportion and the dealership could be maligned unfairly. I would suggest that the dealership be encouraged to post it's side of the general or specific issue.

Second question: Does this noise issue affect any non S Coopers?

I read a week or so ago that Mini seems quite proud of fixing a heat shield noise issue. I'd encourage as much noise about this noise problem to be directed up the chain to MiniUSA at their "contact us" page on their web site. What can it hurt?

 

Hi Phill and welcome to MCO, err, NAM! Both noises described here - the noise @ idle that goes away when you press the clutch, and the sewing-machine tick under load @ 3-4k rpm, are AFAIK affecting Ss only.
Best - Bodinski

 

Congats on your purchase,

Don't let what you read here ruin your motoring experience. Chances are if your inclined to like these cars, you'll love it.

I don't know if this S related only. It would appear to be. I personally don't want to be hated by or do battle with my dealership. (you never know who is reading this.) I just want my car fixed. Being "that" guy at the dealership is something I would prefer to avoid. I worked in the auto service buisness for about 4 years, you don't want to be "that" guy, at least I don't.
Maybe I am weak or naive, or both. I would just prefer a good relationship with them, if at all possible. I do however need a place to vent every so often.
This mornings visit seemed promising. I have a new SA, (although the other SA never appeared to be the issue) She seemed open minded although skeptical of the Harmonic balancer. I provided her with TomScooperS and Bodinski's stories and their dealers contact info. She stated, that to her, it sounded like a problem with the knock sensors. I told her my octane booster tale, and she said if that's it, no addititives in the world would have any effect.
Still hopefull of a successful resolution, whatever it is.

 

I've been following this thread for some time. I also had a tapping sound in my 03 Cooper S with 22,000 miles. I would notice it when the car was under high load, ecellerating on to an expressway. It sounded like a lifter noise at first but, the oil was full. I looked at the heat shields etc. but no luck. I took the car to the dealer and had them check it out. The tapping noise was easy to duplicate between 3000 and 4500 rpm.

At first the dealer thought it was pinging and that's what it sounded like through the supercharger. I use supper unleaded gasoline and asked for another opinion. Took it back a second time and had a Mini representative take a look at it. Apparently, once a month a factory rep goes to each dealership to help solve problem cases like mine.

It was not the belt tensioner or the harmonic balancer. It was diagnoised as a piston noise possibly a wrist pin or piston slap. Mini decided to change the engine because "piston and crankcase replacement exceeds 75%". Intersting that the tapping sound could only be duplicated under load on the road. Mini tried to duplicate the noise on a smog dyno but could not sustain the load necessary to repeat the tapping noise.

I realize this is long but I thought the forum would find it interesting. I now have a new engine and my car back. The dealer had my car for four weeks.

 

Hey thanks for the input. Your problem sounds like mine. I broke her in real nice though. I now have something entirely new to be completely worried about and loose sleep over, Thanks. This is going to be a rough week.

I wonder if this is the normal wear and tear issue that the FSR was referring too when he visited 94SwiftGT. If this is my dealers official reponse, I will likely wait until this issue gets large enough to become a Class Action Lawsuit or a official recall of all these engines by MINI. Let's hope DS072 was the exception and not the new "norm". We can only hope. It would definetely seem easier for them to at least try the harmonic balancer though. If several people who hear this noise have piston slap or a failing wrist pin, I can see why BMW/MINIUSA are in no hurry to start throughing parts at it. As the mileage of cars goes up, the noise could spread, to hundreds or even thousands of cars. I heard nothing the first 10,000 miles.
As many have stated before, these noises, appear to have different causes on different cars. It being impossible to hear each others cars, we have only the one thread however. My SA sounded confident that my noise was not the idler pulley noise. My noise is definetely coming from the right side of the car, that is about all I can be sure of. That and it only happens under load.
DS072,
Could your noise be heard from both sides (out both windows or only one) ? Could the tapping be felt slightly by your accelerator foot ? Did they give you any reason to think the engine they replaced your original with was less likely to have the same issue 22,000 miles later ? I sent you a PM.

 

I left my work badge in the car, so I had to shoot into the dealer this morning. My SA stated a crankshaft pulley was overnighted to the the dealer.

God it would be sooo sweet if this fixes the issue. Thinking about the motor actually being broken is not good for my hair color.

If this fixes it, any dealer or FSR that refuses to at least try it, should be seperated from the company or severaly reprimanded. It makes little to no sense, but if it fixes it on mine, the precedent has to be considered to be fully set now. 3 successfull satisfactory resolutions, that should be enough to get the word out.

In the end, it was the print out of Toms and Bo's cars being successfully resolved, that pushed the issue into the realm of worth a try. Thanks guys !!So far, this visit has been stellar. Although the drop off the car always seemed to go well in the past. I've got my fingers crossed that the beginning and the end of this visit will both live up to expectations.

I asked to v38 loaded as well. I was told it does not address the yo-yo ? Maybe they have been asked to say that ? Or additional fixes are planned ? It was stated to only address the cold start issue. I told them if it only fixes the cruise control, it was worth my time.

 

I've been following this thread for some time, since Minisql makes the same noise. The tapping is related to engine speed, it's frequency increasing and decreasing with rpm, not road speed. This eliminates all the running gear, cv joints, brake rotors, tires or wheels. Given enough road it will do it in any gear, but the engine has to be under sufficient load. In the first 2 gears, the transmission provides enough mechanical advantage that it is difficult to reproduce the noise, I have to be going up a steep hill. I've heard ping in engines before and I dont think that it is the cause of the noise in my engine.
Since the sound is clearly audible with the window down, I dont believe it is internal to the engine. I believe in my case it is something in the accessory drive. Either the harmonic balancer, the belt tensioner, the alternator, or the belt itself. I'm within 2000 miles of my second service so I am going to try to get my dealer to change the balancer at that time (Hopefully change my sc pulley too!). One of the European tuners, Hamman I think, changes the tensioner as part of their pulley upgrade, so maybe they know something we don't. It's not affecting the performance of the car so I'm not too worried about it, but I am keeping an eye on it.

 

After DSO72 was nice enough to return my PM. I have a opinion, for whats that worth.

Let's call it more of a hope.

I am hoping that, no offense DS072, I didn't ask if they replaced your Harmonic Balancer before the engine. Let me ask that first, was a new one put one your car ? If so everyone can ignore the next paragraph(s).

I was thinking/hoping/guessing that they didn't, and the field service rep had incorrectly diagnosed your engine failure. It should be no mystery why I am hoping that, so again no offense.

My hope was that further analysis by BMW determinied the faulty HB was making the noise and thats why they (at least some of them) have been replacing them.