I took my 06 S out of storage about a month ago and have driven it a couple of times with out a problem. I took it out this morning and she started up great, but when I went to pick up my daughter from school today, I tried starting it and there is a loud grinding/crunching noise. It will start but the sound is horrible and I cannot imagine the damage that it is doing.

Any help in finding the problem would be great, seeing as the closest current dealer is about 2 1/2 hours away.

 

Where in the engine bay is the noise coming from, pass mid area or drivers side - if you can tell ?

 

It is hard to tell, if I had to try and pin point it I would say Pass mid area.

 

could be your Hydraulic engine mount......there are tons of threads on that here.

 

Any idea what it would be if it were on the drivers side?

 

Look at these photos and see if you have same brownish stains....

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...tor-mount.html

 

If drivers side could be the water pump, but on an 06 ? Sorta doubt it.

Part No 1 below. It is driven by gears from the Supercharger....How many miles on your MINI ?

 

There are no stains there, any other idea's?

 

about 53,000 miles. It does sound like gears grinding together.

 

Yikes...Could be SC gears then at water pump side ?

And other symptoms Mini4CY before the loud grinding noises ? Normally there are some other unusual engine sounds before they get as bad as you describe- some time before hand, any sounds of chains being dragged on pavement ?

 

On occasion there was what sounded like a heat shield being dragged, but other that not nothing. The only time there is a grinding noise though is when I start the car. After it is started the car runs fine.

 

check this thread....

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-start-up.html

and this one...

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ing-noise.html

 

Neither of those links seemed to work for me. But I guess I should put up a sound file on this. The sound is only while it is starting, are there gears in the starter motor? That was my first thought because once the car starts it does not make any odd sounds.

 

Sorry first link was bad...could be. Did the alternator light on your dash ever activate ?

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-start-up.html