So My R56's Engine Went FUBAR
 

I was driving home after a night out with friends and I was coming off the freeway to a stop light and put it in neutral to coast to the light and as soon as I go to the light the car shut off. I didn't hear a single sound out of the ordinary, no CEL, no indication of anything wrong.

I got it home checked voltage on the battery, pump, relays, fuses and nothing was wrong. When trying to start it it would just make a loud single click and that was it, only the yellow engine light would come on.

So I had it towed to the dealer and 2 days later I get a call telling me there is a serious problem. The cam gear "fell" off the cam and supposedly the entire engine needs to be replaced. I really don't have any much more info than that, it seems like the dealer I am working with isn't being very helpful with what all is exactly wrong. When I ask if the valves collided with the pistons they do not confirm. Unfortunately I have zero time to go check it out, and the messages I leave seem to have no importance. But I will get to the bottom of this with them.

Anyways the new engine is to be done this week. I should know this already but does the warranty for the engine start over? Do I get to keep all the parts they replaced? I checked the box that says to retain them, but I don't know if that applies to the engine. I have a ton of questions for them that they seem to be dodging, I couldn't get them to answer if I'm getting a short block, long block, just internals, head rebuilt or new head, etc.

My girl is pretty upset with this, we've had it for less than 2,000 miles and then this happens. She's wishing she never sold her truck now which never once gave her an issue in 5 years. And to top it off, they wouldn't give us a rental and I got tired of arguing with them so now she is stuck driving my E21 track car.

Since they're paying for the replacement (under the warranty) any and all parts will be retained by the dealer for MINI's inspection and either returned to MINI or destroyed (usually just thrown away after the inspection)

They will not be returned to you.

Your warranty will be the same as always, with the exception that if you have less than 2 years left, the new parts will carry the standard MINI 2 year warranty on thier work and parts. So, you'll have at minimum 2 years of warranty on the new engine.

I think if it were my car I would find the time to go down to the dealer before repairs are complete and have them show you what went wrong and try to explain why. However, sometimes things just break - and that's why you have such a generous and long warranty.

Remember, it wasn't that long ago that most cars had at best 2 years or 24K miles....

Ugh- sorry to hear about that man. I hope you are able to find out what caused the failure. As far as the warranty goes, and your dealer will be able to fill in you in I'm sure, it will not be extended because of the engine change. The only way it would is if you were past three years of ownership. The reason behind that is the part's warranty would then be in effect, which is 2yrs/20k miles.

Unfortunately the powers at be consider my job much more important than the car, so I am not able to leave to go check it out, I would think they would discuss over the phone, but regardless, I will make it down there.

The car's warranty expires in May of 2011, there is 35k miles on the car right now, it's a 2007. So now with a new engine in place it will not restart the warranty/maintenance on the engine as if it were new...?

I know of a high mileage 07MCS ( 100,000 +) that had this issue. New engine required.

wow... sorry to hear about that... hope they didn't try and blame the NM-CAI for the reason. good luck with everything and let us know how it goes.

The engine will be covered for 2 years/20k but it won't be an extension of your original warranty. It will be a warranty on the engine just like any other part you would get from MINI.

Alright so here's the scoop on what happened. The vacuum pump on the exhaust side of the cam which powers the brake booster and something else I don't recall (timing?) failed which caused the timing chain sprocket to detach from the cam, this allowed the timing chain to fall to the bottom crank and do some damage down there. Valves were bent, shards of vacuum pump and chain pieces lodged themselves along the crank shaft and sprocket. They found that the oil filter had collapsed and the correlation between the 2 is unknown.

It was interesting to hear that the cost to rebuild the motor and the labor involved with dismantle/reassemble outweighed the cost of a new long block that would simply bolt in by $300. So in what I am calling a good thing, I get a new engine with a 2 year warranty for parts/labor. The maintenance program is not extended however, which is unfortunate, but understood.

I'm glad I just took it in just a couple weeks prior to have a complete look over of the car and there were no issues, oil was good and to be replaced in another 2,500mi per the service report Things are going good with the install and I am to have it on Saturday.

Here are some visual aid:

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WTF?!? A cam gear falling off. That is random as hell right there.

Wow.

:eek2:

Random you say? Well look what pops in with 1 search, same exact thing happened to this guy!

http://www.mini2.com/forum/second-ge...e-failure.html

Yup, this is not the first time I've heard of vacuum pump failure on this motor. My dealer has done a few...and like you see here, when they go....kiss the motor goodbye. They generally give no warning either.

Happy & feel safe that mine was replaced under warranty about 2k miles ago. They said it was 'excessively noisy'....although I never heard anything abnormal, but no complaints in them willingly replacing a part that is known to fail before it fails!

Hi Blitzed,

real sorry, this has happened to you and I hope for the best, most painless outcome.:)

Can you guys help me out in identifying the failed component, is it the 'almost brass/gold' effect circular/cylindrical part with a vacuum line connection at its upper most on the far right of the block in the 10th picture?

In other words, this??

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...18&hg=11&fg=45

I have an '07 that has made a 'vacuum type', 'oink' sound on first start up of the day, or after being left for a while, this has occurred ever since the first timing chain tensioner replacement in '09, so could be the sign of a failing/weak pump??

If this is the vacuum pump that caused the failure in your case, I will probably just change it out, for peace of mind..

Anyways, sorry to hear of this happening to you man and (again) hope for a speedy recovery.:thumbsup:

Yes that's the one Cyberflex.

:thumbsup:

omg.... sorry it happen to u

Yup, that's correct. I don't know what it used to look like inside but there were about 695,896,325 pieces of metal they collected from it.

This Might Sound Like A Retarded Question But Has Anyone Found A Way To Prevent This ? Is This Happening To A Specific Range Of Models ?

Wow! This is sort of scary. I am tempted to replace the darn pump as soon as my warranty expires (ouch it is $330). My pump makes a fairly loud ticking noise occasionally and has since it was new, I have asked the dealer about it at least three times.

Why wait?

Keep pushing for them to replace it while you still have a warranty. :thumbsup:

Either that or try to install shear bolts so if that vacuum pump locks up, it won't shred the rest of the engine!

I'm at 60k miles. Same exact thing happened to me. Sitting at a traffic light and car just died. No noise, no warning lights, nothing.
After sitting at the dealer for over 1week, Mini said it was the vacuum pump that failed. They offered a motor replacement at a discount to me. Total = $4300.

They said it was due to lack of oil. Even though the dealer did a oil change just 10k miles ago, and I did one myself 5k later. Never received a low oil light.
I also asked for technical info & how much oil was in the motor....none of my questions were answered. Just kept getting the run around.

Mini Cust.Relations was not helpful either. They didn't offer any opinion or help. They just reiterated what the dealer had already told me.

I'm so disappointed. First new car I ever purchased, this shouldn't be happening to a modern car. Just 12k miles ago, it was at the dealer for the chain tensioner & rails...etc. I'm also seeing more and more posts with this failure. There must be more we can do.

benfica09 has your warranty expired?

From the little bit of research I have done BMW Good Will seems to help with more than half the cost of the engine/labor when something like this happens out of warranty. The engine alone with a core is $9,600 and about $3,500 for labor, so this seems that you are getting pretty much what I have read elsewhere when you are out of warranty. It's terrible but they could tell us to go piss up a rope.

I'm thinking with the more of these happening that they may eventually extend the warranty of the vacuum pump, similar to the extended warranty on the HP fuel pumps.

Wow. This is all shocking to read, and sound very similar to the early issues in the S54's rod bearings for BMW...deny deny deny, then finally relent and start fixing.
Is this only related to the MCS, or are Regular boring Mini's affected as well?

The same exact thing happened to my sister's Justacooper when she was at 65k miles. Thankfully, they comped her the part and she paid the labor (as it was out of warranty).