07 MCS automatic.
I have had the timing chain just replaced and the water pump recall taken care of at 40k.

I still have the crazy lag when I press the gas or am going up hill and a rattle sound like the engine is about to stall, then something kicks in and the car starts to go again.

did I pay for a timing chain for nothing? Could it be the trani?

 

I took my car in for water pump recall. Once again I complained about timing chain noise / cold start noise, happens every time engine is cold, outside temp below 45 degrees.
The timing chain was replaced again under warranty. 34,000 miles and two timing chains. Something is wrong here. Fiat here I come.

 

My 2009 Clubman S is currently in shop being repaired. Chain guides broke, chain slipped. $4000 repair. 58,000 miles Service Manager sent up to district, no help. Also problem with leaking turbo oil and leaking coolant at Thermostat. The '85 Mini I had in Germany had fewer problems.

 

Damn. Out of warranty, or what happened? Seems within mileage...?

 

+1 2006 MCS Just snapped the chain this week, we are repairing it ourselves. 75,000 miles on her

 

It probably had the cold start issue, but I bought used so I thought was normal. Just had it in for the water pump recall (before warranty expired, I drive 1k/wk), but nothing mentioned at MINI. When it failed, the engine just stopped and would not restart. I was pulling out onto a 3 lane each way street when it happened. It could have been bad.

 

Sorry to hear about your misadventures but Im not sure that a Fix It Again Tony (FIAT) is the answer, unless they have radically improved the quality that gave them the completely deserved rep of being raging turds right before they abandoned the US market. Hopefully the second time around is a bit better ..............

 

Very sorry that happened to you.

It's unconscionable that MINI hasn't done a recall on this. NO car should need a new timing chain at 58K...yet it seems MOST MCSs do! In fact, many of them need one long before 58K. Mine needed one at 46K...and my dealer wouldn't do a thing to help me, even though I was a loyal customer and bought my car new from them. Of course, it was out of warranty when the chain went bad. I was lucky, I traded it in before my chain broke. However, the Honda dealer I traded it to was FULLY aware of the problem with this engine and asked me right away if I had that problem.

Thanks a lot MINI!! It cost me $1500 off my trade in!!

 

I just bought my 2007 MCS on March 27 and I am afraid I have heard the rattle on a few cold mornings. There is no warranty on my car. I had the water pump recall done a week after taking the car home. They kept it overnight as they couldn't get it done on the first day. There was no mention of the timing chain.
I contacted the dealer a couple days ago to ask about the cost of having it replaced and they have given me a general ballpark quote. I then sent them a message that I think MINI should if not recall this problem, this car had entire engine replacement in 2009, they should at least absorb most if not all of the cost of a part that should last the lifetime of a vehicle, and that I should not suffer such a financial loss after 1 month of ownership. I bought the car from the MINI dealership that I would have repair it.
Waiting to hear back from them. I don't know if they will do anything or even contact MINI headquarters, but I do hope to get an answer either way.

 

It is unfathomable to me that they are not addressing this as well. My previous car was an 08 Honda Civic. The engine block cracked (known design flaw, happens sometime after about 80k) after 102k miles, 50k past the warrantly. Honda covered 1/2 of the cost at the time (better then MINI at least) and sent a letter offering to cover the rest 6 months later, 2 weeks after I got an email from a class action lawyer. I think this will turn into a class action once enough people have paid out of pocket to repair it. Not sure it will help on your trade in reduction though. This thread started with data gathering for a class action. Does anyone know if it is moving forward?

 

Haven't seen or heard anything but in another thread titled, 'Chances of good will repair'. A guy finally got Mini USA to cover the cost through his dealership (no warranty). His dealership was unwilling to help. My issue came up back in Dec. 2011 (no warranty) but my dealership offered to fix it for $500 (my cost) and they submitted $1200 to Mini USA as good will.
Seems to me that fixing these outside of warranty is totally up to the dealership which, also leads me to believe they are aware there is an issue. It would be nice if all dealerships treated customers with the same respect as I felt mine did for me. Sure, I put out $500 but at least they didn't make me go through hoops for it plus I didn't pay the entire thing.

 

While I would prefer to not have to pay anything, I would be OK with $500.00.
At least the weather is much warmer than it was just a few days ago.

 

^^I agree, I would rather have not paid anything but I did buy the car used that's why I was ok with the $500. Plus, Mini of Pensacola has been really good with me and I'm sure if I have issues to come they'll be willing to work with me. I'm thankful for that much. At least my car is paid for so I don't have that monthy bill.
Good luck with yours, hope they help you out.

 

Yeah, I'm not really all that worked up about the trade-in loss, although it is money out of my pocket in a sense. I still got a decent trade-in and my payments (yes, I was still making payments on the MINI) went down by $50, on a 36 month loan. So, other than having to trade in a car I really loved, I was happy with the end result.

I'd still own my MINI today if my dealer had done what drsimmons' dealer did and at least meet me in the middle. However, a recall would solve every issue of uncaring dealers. My dealer is the only one in a 400 mile radius, so they don't really need to care. I got one hell of a lot more respect from ALL of the 7 Honda dealers in St. Louis than I did from MINI of St. Louis...fair warning to those in the STL area.

 

Well had the timing chain assembly replaced yesterday. $1700.00
They had my car for 3 days. On the first day they said they couldn't find anything wrong and didn't hear any noise so wanted to keep it overnight to hear it first start in the am. Next day they called and said it was the timing chain tensioner. When I asked what the timing chain measured they couldn't, or wouldn't tell me. Replacing the tensioner was going to be $400.00. I told them to go ahead and replace the whole thing so I wouldn't be spending $400.00 to only have to go back and have the whole thing done anyway and to give me peace of mind. Maybe foolish, I'm not sure, but I feel better about the car. Couldn't get all the parts until the next day. Next day comes and they call, my car is ready. I go to pick it up and they tell me that the coolant light came on and they were looking into it. I wait and the service manager comes and says they they can't find any faults and everything looks OK, and the light is gone out. I drive away and before I get to the road the coolant light comes back on. I turn around and go back. When I shut the car off the fans are all running. The service manager comes out and takes the car back in. After looking at it again tells me that the thermostat is opening and closing sporadically and needs replaced. The good willed me the labour for the thermostat, but I still spent another $180.00 and another 2 hours waiting.Holy crap the most expensive car thermostat I have ever seen. He assures me that it was just a fluke that this happened at the same time.
Didn't do the turbo lines, will have to work some more OT.
In any case pickup feels improved since this work. Is it possible that this is due to the timing chain replacement?
Sorry for the long story, but wanted to share.
Oh yeah brakes need done in 1700 km. Good times.
Still loving my MINI.
p.s This car had the entire engine replaced in 2009. that was before I purchased it, so I can only assume that it was due to the timing chain problem

 

I think you made a wise choice in replacing the entire chain. It would have gone bad eventually. I wish you the best of luck with your MINI. In some ways I wish I still had mine. I'm sad every time I see one on the road now.

 

Tjtull, how do like the CR-Z? I've been wanting to look at one...

 

I like it a lot. It's not as fast or maneuverable (aka fun) as my MINI was but it gets close to 40MPG and is somewhat peppy. I got the automatic but I hear that the standard is really fun to drive. I had a 6 speed MCS and decided to make the change to automatic, just for something different. I got a decent trade-in on my MINI, even though they knocked $1500 off because of the timing chain issue.

 

One of the automotive magazines compared it favorable to a Justa. As my warranty gets ready to end I'm looking around for something else, a Mini out of warranty is TOO expensive. Might just get another Mini, we'll see.

 

Lol. You think a Mini is too expensive - I've been tracking warranty repairs on my 335 and I'm up to $7K *excluding* labour. I'm cringing to think what it would cost post-warranty.

 

Well my Mini has been pretty good, just had the timing chain/tensioner replaced back in Feb of this year and nothing serious before that (strut, battery, vanity mirror). I currently have an intermittent serpentine tensioner whining every now and then but that's all. Pretty good compared to others here. My warranty ends next month .

 

Any car is expensive to repair out of warranty.

 

+1 2008 MCS

$450 which included an oil change.

 

We got the timing chain replaced on my wife's 07 MCS about 3 weeks ago. I started to notice some oil drips on the driveway and bought her car in MINI of Peabody over the weeked. They said there's a leak at the front main seal and it needs to replaced for $475!!

Is this related to timing chain tensioner work they done 3 weeks ago? Is it common for the front main seal to go bad?

 

I don't know but I hope not as I also had my timing chain replaced about 3 weeks ago.