I'm looking to buy a 2003 Cooper S, however the car in question has a ticking noise at low idle. Could this be the harmonic balancer or something more serious? If it is the blancer is there an issue with driving the car home (it's about 300 mile away).

Most of the posts that talk about the harmonic balancer say it occurs between 2- 4K rpm when accelerating

The sound does not change when the clutch is depressed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQiZq2zQ8jI

 

Sounds like the blower to me. Steth(ear to long screw driver) the engine bay to probe where the sound is coming from.

Jeremy

 

By blower do you mean the supercharger?

 

I doubt it's the supercharger. It's hard to tell from the vid what the sound is. It could be anything from a lazy lifter to something much worse. The bottom line is that there are many MINIs available: wait for one with no mystery sounds.

 

Yes to supercharger and yes I forgot to mention to stay clear when you can't even hear the exhaust note over the clacking 12 feet forward of you.

Jeremy

 

Any idea of the cost to replace / rebuild a MINI supercharger?

I'm interested in this one because it's cheap (for obvious reasons) but if can be repaired for reasonable money.....

 

sounds like a bad/bent valve to me. Maybe even just really low on oil. In either case, I would not buy it unless it is so cheap you could buy it and replace the top of the motor for considerably less money than the cost of another MCS (of which there are mini ).

 

Wow, the video..... that's not a good sound. could be the blower, but it sounds like valves or, hwy74 suggests, little or no oil. Is the noise as loud as the video suggests?

 

I've not seen the car. The video was taken by the salesman. Initially i thought it was the harmonic balancer however if it's the tappets it could mean, as you suggested that it was starved of oil, in which case a replacement engine might be in order.....

I think I'm scared enough now that I'll walk away. I'm sure a mechanic could turn it around and make a profit but I'm not a mechanic and therefore I'm starting to think it will cost me more than it would be worth.

Thanks for all the replies

 

A salesman? what was he thinking? whatever the noise is, the video says - NOT GOOD. If the car is near by & inexpensive enough, it may be worth a look.. take an OLD car guy with you