correct, that is right side photo from rear of engine. you can see the water pump under the tensioner.

Scary stuff, a friend's 08 MCS auto had a big oil leak but it was a rear main seal. Our 09 6spd had one from a loose turbo oil return line. Just took it in and it had a coolant leak with a bad sensor, what is going on with these cars?

Also ours has a rattle only on cold start, reason to be concerned or do they all do that?

When you have a discussion thread dedicated to problems, it's going to seem worse than it is. Every car has problems. There are plenty of R56s in the Michigan MINI club that haven't had any huge issues like this.

Agreed, I just don't want to find out 4000 miles later out of warranty. Time to decide whether to ditch the car or not once it's not covered.

My wife just had the chain, tensioner and guides replaced on her 07 S. The shop foreman told her to check the oil every 750 miles. I find this highly unacceptable on a newer car.

I'm sorry but don't give me it has a turbo B.S. I have a 97 850 Volvo turbo and it doesn't loose any oil and it has 155,000 miles on it the mini has 36,000.

What I find hard to understand is I was under the car after I had to add 3 quarts of oil and could find no oil leaks. It was loosing a quart a week until it went in to get serviced.

We had to wait a week for the parts because the dealership have been replacing so many they were out of the parts.

If I have to add a quart of oil every 750 to 1000 miles I'm running conventional oil and getting a different turbo as I'm not going to be paying $10 for a quart of oil because of a design flaw by BMW and it is a design flaw to be loosing a quart of oil every 1000 miles.

I have a 2010 Mini that hasn't used any oil in 5000 miles.

Dave

most turbo car (audi,vw ) spec oil consumption at 1 quart every 1000 miles. obviously this is on the high side , dependent on driving conditions . its kinda a CYA(cover your a$$) type of clause . personally i think it is crazy to have 15k oil change intervals. 10K maybe in a non turbo application . but as long as u you ad here to the manual while under warranty you will be covered. i use mobile one for mini's and my personal vehicles 07 srt jeep and supercharger 98 cobra and never had any issues.

There are a lot of us out there who's cars use no measurable amount of oil between changes - for me that's every 7500 miles, and yes it's an MCS with a turbo - I'm at 30K miles now.

However I have had even non turbo European cars that used oil from day one - including a new Audi I owned. I think a quart every 750 miles is excessive too, but before I got too concerned I'd watch it awhile and document the usage.

I think the tech was merely trying to instill a good habit - that is, check your oil frequently till you establish the real use pattern.

Major Oil Leak
 

Prior To The Timing Chain/tensioner Malfunction, My Car Did Not Seem To Burn Any Oil. My Mini Clubman S Had Approx 32,000 Miles On It At The Time Of The Malfunction And I Had Check My Oil Level At Least Monthly And It Had Been At The Dealer One Month Before The Event Occurred (not Requiring An Oil Change At The Time).

At The Time Of The Event (the Oil Pressure Warning Message Coming On), I Found That All The Oil Was Out Of My Mini. I Had My Wife Bring Me 4 Quarts Of Oil Which I Proceeded To Put In My Mini Only To See All Of It Spill On To The Pavement Below.

One Of The Respondants To These Threads Has Said That The Timing Chain/ Tensioner Malfunction Cannot Cause An Oil Leak Like This, But The Repairing Mechanic Informed Me That They Occur Often Associated With This Malfunction. Other Than Replacing The Timing Chain And Tensioner, There Were No Other Sources Of Oil Leaks Found. Thus Cause And Effect


Now My Only Question Pertains To Reliability, Which Is Yet To Be Answered Since I Have Not Experienced A Problem Like This On Any Bmw, Mercedes, Cadillac Escalade, Volvo, Or Subaru I Have Ever Owned

Add me to the tally...

This all happened to me 2 days ago as well. My '10 MCS with 21,000 miles had it's 1 year oil change in early December. All along I've been checking the oil religiously, and only once (maybe around 5k) I needed to top it off ever so slightly.

I had ~1mile to go, low oil pressure light flashed, I slowed a bit and started hearing the rattle so I threw it into neutral for most of the remainder. When I got out to look it over, my little black and white car bore a striking resemblence to a penguin in the Valdez spill... I got it towed to the dealership on Mini Roadside assistance, and was nervous that an engine rebuild was on the horizon. They gave me a loaner right away, but my car was ready by the end of the day. Diagnosis: timing chain tensioner stretched, backed out of a block. All in all, everything was covered under the warranty.

I was surprised by how sudden it all happened, considering that there was no evidence of a leak in my parking spot from the night before...

Major Oil Leak
 

It Is Good To Know That This Has Also Occurred In A Moderate Number Of 2010 Cars As Well.

I Think Mini (bmw) Needs To Issue A Recall For This Problem. I Do Not Know How To Put Pressure On Them To Do It But I Will Investigate This Issue.

By The Way, Honda Just Issued A Recall On The Fit Due To A Defective Spring Which May Cause The Engine To Stall (i Wonder If They Use A Similar Engine Design)


Tyield

2009 Mini Cooper Clubman S: Ordered 4/009 -delivered 6/2009
Automatic With Navigation, Horizon Blue With Silver Strips, Parking Sensor, Anti Theft, Comprehensive Communication Package And Roof Rails, Premium Stereo With Siruis

Tensioner leaks are different from most oils leaks as they are pressurized with oil. It would be the same effect if you oil filter or oil cooler hose with a hole in it. It will empty the system in less than a minute in most vehicles. That is why most instances are sudden. The cause is still the tensioner coming loose and not a loose chain causing it to come loose. The tensioner is nothing more than a large bolt with piston and spring on the end of it. Bolts with crush washers do not come loose when properly tightened, which MINI forgot to do on quite a few cars as we are seeing. They are making it quite a while before they break the finger tight fitment but i does work until it stops working. I have seen drain plugs that were finger tight come in on several occasion, not leaking.

What are the odds?
 

I was less than a half mile from turning into my MINI dealer for a fuel injector service appointment, when my 2009 MINI Cooper S (10,300 miles) started to make a terrible rattling noise; my oil pressure light came on almost immediately. Half way up the right side, the rear and about a third of the way up on the left was covered in oil spray. Oil was also pooling at rather alarming rate under the car. Long story short the chain tensioner had broken-at seemingly just the right time! Fortunately, the problem is being covered because it was caused by a manufacturers defect.

I'm trying to orient the photo of the head to what I'm seeing under my bonnet; can someone describe to me where to look for this tensioner bolt on the head?

:popcorn: me too!

In an invisible car that picture would be taken from the passenger side , you would be rearward of tire slightly looking forward. On a real car the way to see it is to remove boost hose that connects to throttle body and look straight down. If you plan on upgrading the boost hoses it would be a good idea to put a wrench on it to see if its loose or not.

I tried to show where the tensioner is in relation to the engine bay. The first pic shows where to look (it's been raining a lot so don't mind my dirty engine). The second shows the head of the tensioner. You can almost touch it with your fingers.

Touche, toque listing?

Are you asking for the TORQUE the tensioner is supposed to be tightened to? If so, I'm not at home with my computer that has the BMW TIS software. I'll look when I get home late tonight if nobody else has replied by then.

kk thanks

Hi all, I posted the following in the other thread regarding this issue;


"Just brought my mini in for service today. It's a 2010 with 16,000 miles. I brought it in due to several small issues and figured I'd get it's yearly service to.
Interestingly enough I never saw a drip of oil. Never even guessed there was an oil issue. The engine always rapped like it was low on oil but levels checked out ok.


Well same issue as everyone else here "...oil leak coming from the timing chain tensioner backing out of the cylinder head. Removed the tensioner and replaced crush washer then re-torqued the tensioner to resolve..."
"

If some of you are correct about the hand tightening occuring at the factory then I feel better about the mechanic specifically stating that he torqued the tensioner.

Thanks "EuroTechsAZ" and "BBoshart!" That clears up the mystery!

I forgot that I said I'd look on the TIS and post the torque spec. The TIS I have dates back to 2007 (the most current version I can find) so I'm not sure the spec is still current, but it lists the chain tensioner as 65Nm, or about 48ft/lb.

Thanks!

This has been a fascinating thread and much appreciated! I have a 2010 MC and have peered down there and see the tensioner hiding beneath a hose. It looks like a relatively easy job to put a wrench on it to check torque.

Since it looks like a rather large size I wonder if anyone knows the socket size??

Now why have so many of the tensioners come loose? It's been explained that some were probably only finger tight. Do you suppose that's because one person is installing finger tight and another person is responsible to torque it? I hope, by now, they have one person doing the job with the promise that he will be on the dole if he fails.