I am doing this to see if anyone else has had any of these problems. The first is the knocking noise which I know it is the hydrolic chain tensioner. It has failed more than 7 times in the last 30000 miles. I have 70000 miles on the car and know they are failing more frequently. Heres a video I posted awile back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX1mPmu9kpE

Mini claims they are not a comin problem but yet the girlfreinds car had one fail at 50000 miles and every once and awile it comes back and then goes away. Both cars are 2005 MCS.

Next is my oil consumption. I go through at least 3 quarts of oil in 6000 miles . Which I believe is the reason the chain tensioner is failing all the time. I heard of the Minis engines from 2005 -2006 may be missing an oil ring or all of them. I had a horribly log accident where some hill billy used it to hold his truck bed down on a windy and took out my oil pan and destroyed my engine. So in 2006 I got a brand new engine for my Mini Thanks Insurance since he had none judging by the multi colored truck and since then It has been eating oil. Yes he drove off not stopping and yes the police went looking for the the truck bed and he went back an got it . Cheapo

Has anyone had these problems or are having these problems?

Thanks

 

The chain tensioner issue you seem to be referring to are in the 2007 and newer engines, I think you have something else going on here...

 

No my car goes through those. An we did one on the girlfreinds car. Trust me my car has an issue with the chain tensoiner.

 

That's what I thought too....
Maybe you have something going on causing the chain tensioner to fail...sounds like a unique situation....can't sat I have read of many, if any failures on non high mile gen1 mini's....

 

Update, Called owner of dealership and let him know what his service department kept doing with replacing the chain tension and they agreed to look at it for free . They found the guide rails were broken and chain was worn ( I wish I could tell them I told ya so) and are replacing under warranty . The oil pan gasket they said was in bad shape and was saturated, But it never leaked so who knows on that . They said they would look into it if it doesn't get better with the gasket.

 

Glad to hear you had some different results this time around.

Post an update when you're MINI service is done.

 

The parts they changed were, the oil pan gasket, profile gasket, another profile gasket, shaft seal, the chain, the guide rails, and the part that they thought was still good and then wondered why the car still was knocking. So I reminded them on what they told me, once the tensioner fails its failed and they replace and its been pretty good so far. its made the noise a couple times on start up when the car is warm for about 30 seconds and this was only after driving around and stopping at a store then restarting the car .

What happened was the guide rails broke and half of them were in the drain pan and the chain was worn due to slapping around for 30,000 miles. I am going to keep a close ear on this and see if it starts coming back. Wonder why the chain tensioners were failing because there was nothing for it to push on so they would just pop out .

Oil consumption:

I think I will just start changing the oil at 3000 miles then it would be only about a quart low. Who knows maybe there right on the oil pan gasket but like I said before its not leaking out. Its on my back window.

Hope know one else has to go through this. It was a battle just to get them to look at something they should have looked at a long time ago when it was under warranty. Know they lost money while I got the management mad at me. But this car cost me some good hard earned money and I wasted parts of my day to bring it in every 2000 miles for 2 years.

 

did they check the oil sump pickup? I bet it's full of shavings from your chain guides....................

 

^ Yup.... they have to go somewhere

 

my guess is it will eventually spin a bearing if they didn't clean it......then charge him full pop for an engine rebuild

 

He's burning the oil..........he says it's all over his back window.

I don't know what the ultimate cause will be, but I've never heard of anyone having this kind of trouble with a first gen engine unless it had a bazillion miles on it.

Something's wrong inside, no doubt......

 

^ there're squiters to oil the piston skirts, no oil = problem

 

So it seems like this is going to come back and possible destroy everything. Maybe I will do an oil change and take the pan off to make sure. This has been a battle already with the dealership. Think how I am going to explain this to them know. They will probably say its all the modifications causing this, like there doing to my brothers r56. Just think if they would have looked into this the second time the same part failed, but nope who cares he is almost out of warranty anyway.

Any ideas on what I should do next. I do have someone that used to work there that could help out for a fee of course.

 

Just so everyone else see's the kind of dealership i am dealing with please listen. resently I have had my car in for a issue that has been happening for 30000 miles which by the way has been a battle to get fix.

I have been wondering why my car has been starting with a clunk every since I got it back a couple of days ago. Well It is missing a bolt in the belt tensioner, hun, and I am missing the belt tensioner tool in the back of my car ever since I brought it in, Hun mistake maybe or they just suck. Please let me now anything that comes to mid since have been dealing with this 30,000 miles ago. I am pretty sure on monday when I call the owner I will have his full attention on how they disreguard cars. They just dont care because they dont own it. O what is that clunk sound when I satart it O why don't I replace the actual part that the chain tensioner pushes on. Hun may be that is why it still rattles.

Sorry a little pissed about this. Everyone thinks I am making this up or is lying about all this an think I caused all this. Why would I spend 28000 dollars to prove they suck no reason.

Please see picture. and sorry for it being so big but it is missing a bolt so dont beleive no one unless you did the work your self.

 

 

Check here http://www.realoem.com/bmw/select.do . Locate the missing bolt, thread size & length. This is a common bolt that would be available at a hardware store. After looking at your pic - this bolt is necessary, they all are, but you can't have the tensioner fail.
Hope this helps...........

 

I'm having trouble following your tale here, between your disjointed writing, unusual spelling ( what is "hun"?) lack of punctuation and typing skills.....

What I think you're saying is that your dealer is not doing what they should.

I agree with you............I think.

If I've got the story straight, your car had a noise in the engine, you took it to the dealer and they fixed a chain tensioner (you say it "failed" seven times in 30K miles, does that mean you had it replaced 7 times, or that you heard a noise 7 times?). Later, it did it again and this time they took the pan off to replace the gasket, and changed the guide rails, chain and installed a new tensioner.

Since that time you've noticed that it's using a lot of oil, and there's oil all over the back window.

You also noticed a clunk when you started your car, and found the supercharger belt tensioner missing a bolt.

Is that right?

You mention mods, and your brother's R56.....

Has your dealer denied warranty coverage on your car because of your mods? which mods? What coverage?

I think as others have indicated that you still have a problem, and it's probably traceable to what failed before.

In order to get real help from your dealership (is there only one in your town?) you need to carefully and accurately document what has happened with your car, try to put it in a logical, linear form with dates (such as when you added oil and how much) so that it makes sense. Then, ask for a meeting with the dealer's service manager and general manager to discuss the problems you're still having.

Let us know what happens, OK?

 

Sorry for the crazy storys just a little mad at the dealer. The tensioner failed seven times (replaced) and with this dealer it is one thing after another. Also the car has been out of warranty since 50,000 but the problems started at around 40,000 but never got fixed right. They just kept replacing the hydralic tensioner part ever 2,000 or so miles for the last 2 years until the latest one when they told me no more and I would have to pay them to look into why they fail. Thats when I made a phone call to the owner and all of a sudden they took the car and started to replace everything for the timing chain and the tensioner except one part that I noticed wasn't on the paper work, which might be why it still does it once and awhile. the guide rail that the actual hydralic piece pushes on. Do you know of anything else that I should look into before something major goes wrong because on monday I am going to have a good talk with the dealership and I just want to make sure everything that needs to get done is accounted for.

They have not denied me any warranty work do to mods, intake, exhaust, 17% pulley, intercooler.But the r56 they just keep blaming the down pipe for any other code that pops up. We know the cat eff. code is always going to be there but other ones like the thermostat and fuel to air ratio are also being blamed on the downpipe. Do you have any ideas on this.

thanks for helping me out and for the good input everyone.

 

No ideas on the R56, but I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that it is the downpipe that's causing the codes.....

Back to your car for a minute - you've had 7 chain tensioners?

After the second or third at most I'd be in the service manager's office wanting to know what the heck was going on.

I don't know where your problem is now, but if you're buring oil like that and can prove that you complained about it while the car was in warranty, take your documention in and ask for a meeting with the GM or owner and the service manager and tell them they need to find the problem and fix it, and that you'll take a loaner till they do.

There is no reason on god's green earth that any car should require 7 chain tensioners - something's wrong and they know it too.....

But the key is documentation, if you want them to do something under warranty. Just because you "know" it has a problem doesn't require them to fix it now that you're out of warranty.

I also did not understand your previous post about a log and a bed from a truck? Did you hit something and get a new engine, or just a new pan or what? Did the dealer do that work as well?

Like I said, documentation is your friend here.....

 

If you look at this diagram you can see the tesioner system is very simple on your engine, the tensioner itself simply pushes against the guide rail to tension the chain. The tensioner has a spring inside it, and is supplemented by oil pressure when the engine is running. You don't say "how" the tesnioner fails, does it break, or????

At any rate, again, no reason any engine should go thru 7 of these unless something else is broken causing the problem....oh, and the tensioner doesn't really have to push very hard - all it's doing is taking up the slack in the chain so that as it wears and stretches it can't jump a tooth.

 

To the best of my knowledge the couple times they actually let me sit in the tensioner ends would have poped out exposing the spring and insides. I am very nervous about the oil consumption though.

The log got me a new engine in 2006, but there is a period of time where the engine factory was forgeting to put oil rings on the pistons which was around the time I got a new engine. the only reason I found this out is because I talk to the ex head mechanice quite often since hes got his own place, but I don't want to pay somebody if it wasn't something I caused from the start. What about the sheavings of the rail guide? should I be worried about them floating around?

 

Well, Jan from RMW already answered that question for you, he says if they didn't clean the pick up screen it can cause a problem......they did have the pan off, right? To change the pan gasket? It's unlikely they cleaned the oil pump pick up unless someone or something about the repair told them to do it. OTOH, how did the rails break, were there large chunks or little bits?

Either way, if you got an oil change, and it has good oil pressure, there's not a whole lot to do about it now.

OTOH, shavings in the pump are probably not causing your oil usage problem. Short of tearing it down, there's no sure way I know of to determine if they forgot your oil rings, but oil all over the back window is a pretty good indicator that something like this could be wrong......

By the way, do you proofread your postings? Perhaps English is a second language for you? If it is, then I can understand your difficulty in conveying complex terms.....

You wrote that the last time they let you "sit in the tensioner ends".....

Can you see why we get confused trying to answer your questions and help you?

I still think you should do as I suggested before, get all your documentation together, take the car to the dealer and show an oil covered back window to the service mgr and owner and tell them you want it fixed and that you'll appreciate a loaner till it's done.......if MINI left the oil rings off the pistons, it's no real cost to the dealer, they'll get paid for the repairs under the warranty. If they replace 7 chain tensioners without finding out why they were breaking - well that's their own stupid fault.

 

I believe everything was cleaned I asked them the other day when the had to find me a new bolt. The black build up on the back window seems to be gone for the most part and oil is still clear. It used to be black after the first drive. I will pay attention to the oil lose and see how it goes.

My spell check doesn't work and I don't like proof reading, I didn't know I was being graded.

Thanks for all the help and making sense of my poor spelling and phraseing, the one I was a little drunk and found out it was missing a bolt at a bar.

 

It's not a matter of being graded, you asked for help and we're trying to do that, but it makes it difficult when we can't understand what you wrote.

Pisses me off when someone get's upset after asking for help and someone tries to give it but they can't be bothered to look at what they wrote and see if it makes sense......

Next time I'll just pass the threads by I guess.......