+1 2007 cooper s. Timing chain jumped teeth and broke the guides. Pistons hit the valves. No compression in all cylinders.

 

cooper s?

 

yes

 

Awesome!

 

Scratch that! Took it to mini, they what $7300 to put in a new motor !!! They refuse to fix motor that is in it! Last night my wife said enough is enough !!! we went and leased a 2013 Ford Fusion ! I owe the first mechanic $4680 for 4 new fuel injectors ,one Catalytic converter and one new timing chain guides gears tensioner and all the gaskets that go with that ! If I have mini fix it their way, add $7300 to that for one reconditioned motor !!! Add the fact that she owes $7200 on the car loan ... Puts me around $19,180 for car that is worth $ 10,000-$12,000 if it was in good running condition ! If that is even posable (good running condition). I bought this car new had to go out and refinance it once to pay for the last time it took a s*@&.!!! I had motor problem from around 14,000 miles on to now !! Looking for a motor fix for car !? It is now going to sit in my driveway as a very expensive yard ornament !!

 

I'm trying to read this thread, but there are over 600 responses to it.
I'm wondering if someone can post a Sticky with some details and reference this thread, in the process, to highlight:
* If the motor in a Cooper is a valve bender
* If the motor in a Cooper S is a valve bender
* What model years are most affected by the issue outlined in the start of the aforementioned thread
* What model years, if any, are not affected and why (details of the fix from inception by BMW and starting with which model year)
* What mileage is recommended to replace the timing chain under normal wear
* What to listen/look for if you have a Cooper that is suspect to this known issue
* etc.

As the to-be-owner of a new 2013 currently being built, this issues concerns the hell out of me.

(if there is already a sticky about this issue, please advise)

 

Picket up car today.they offered me $2500 for it!! If I trade it in on a new mini .

 

How many miles you have on it? Mine is getting rebuilt at 3rd party. I have a hole in the exhaust valve and zero compression in cyclinder 3. 88K miles.

 

I think it is 90 040 miles I 'm on the second head ,Mimi cleaned off Corbin build up the head twice I think

 

anybody out there have a good source to buy new exhaust valves. 2007 mini s.

 

Where are you located? I work for an automotive group and can get you my discount on factory valves from mini. I am in charleston, sc.

 

california

 

My Mello Yellow '07 S with 80M just died an unexpected death. The trooper ran on 2 cylinders, fairly smoothly, on the way to an independent service shop. (I'm 100 miles away from my MINI service dealer). I was informed the timing chain broke, shearing off and melting the bottom of two spark plugs! Maybe he could fix it for $3,500 no guaranty. I never, ever heard anything about this problem and am still in disbelief. My vehicle was well taken care of and driven a steady routine of about 100 highway miles a day for 5 years. I loved it. After reviewing this and some other sites it's obvious that hundreds, if not thousands of owners have been affected by this catastrophic design failure to a 21st century vehicle, most of them hung out to dry by MINI. I visited this site often but never noticed (or looked for) any thread talking about this wide-spread "Corvair" type disaster flaw.

I'm well over the warranty but when I brought it in for service last summer I told them about engine rattling and they said it was probably caused by not keeping the oil topped off. OK. From then on I carried around a case of Mobil 1 and checked the level every week. Not at any time did they say my MINI was a candidate for an imminent heart attack, which they knew was on its way. I should have been warned that bad things could happen if I did not have the timing chain/tensioner inspected and assessed. Thank God they don't have medical degrees. If by now, MINI has not taken ownership of this design flaw and given loyal customers some relief, I have no reasonable options. I've looked into them all, legal and illegal. So my question to my now former MINI colleagues is what can I do with a 2,600 pound doorstop? Really. I can't even give it away until I pay off the last $8,000 and my complex will tow away any disabled car after a week. I hope at least one of you folks can avoid this mess. Good night and good luck.

 

Wow. That's bad, and very sad. A class action lawyer need only cruise this site and contact all of the people and I'm pretty sure they would want to know more. I don't remember if one ever got started or not. I'm watching this carefully, as I just bought a 2013 JCW and I plan to drive a very long time. My last MINI went 165k until I sold it still running strong on the original supercharger even. So, IF there is a design flaw it's important that they address it and that's pretty much why the class action system exists, for people like yourself.

I don't think it isn't safe to say that hundreds or thousands of people have had this problem without an attorney actually compiling a long list of known failures. I user forum is a highly unscientific cross-section of the MINI-owning population. We are all enthusiasts here, and we represent a small segment in the U.S. (mostly) of customers. Even if there were 100 people here who said they had this problem (I don't think it's that high on NAM yet), MINI could make the case that those 100 people are the only people they've heard from who had this problem, and 100 out of millions of vehicles sold is not a compelling case for a class action because it's a tiny percentage of all MINIs sold worldwide. In short, I think a legal professional needs to look into this.

I'm really sorry, and a little bit nervous, to hear about these problems. I hope there ends up being some sort of resolution for everyone who had a timing chain fail.

 

Very sorry to hear. I would suggest calling Way Motorworks:

http://www.waymotorworks.com/

He can provide a brand new motor very economically. Repairing the existing motor will cost much more, even at an independent shop. FYI, 80K miles is about as long as an S can typically go without replacing the timing chain system.

There is a class action lawsuit starting. See the thread here:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...m-lawsuit.html

Also, if your last service was at a Mini dealer and your complaint about a timing chain rattle was noted on the work order, conact Mini USA. You just might get lucky.

DOC

 

Every 07 cs will fail at some time !!! Under 100,000 miles Not every person will post on a site like this . A lot of people trade in there car every three years or so . You will see a lot more failers of this year car ! I had mine fail under under 40,000 and it was covered under warranty. Mini has change the timing chain tensioner spring design ! They know that it is defective ( old design ) I got another 50,000 miles out of the new one( new design) until it failed again out of warranty ! The guy at Mini told me "no one wants a high mileage Mini "and said he did not want my Mini on trade ! "It is worth nothing"I had to ask 8 times and to four different guys to get a price on my car ?! $2500 today only on a trade in only !!!

 

That's sad that the dealership even realizes nobody wants a high mileage MCS (80k isn't really high mileage either..but it is for MINIs).

I hope I don't run into this problem next weekend. I'm approaching 80k on my '07 r56 and have had almost every known issue EXCEPT the timing chain. It's only a matter of time and I have my eyes on a new civic si. I'm hoping the Honda dealership will give me what my car is worth on a trade.

 

+1 2007 MCS with JCW kit. My car only has 33,500 miles on it! WTF BMW.

 

Just had my car diagnosed after hearing the death rattle. Cambridge UK dealer tried to fob me off by saying the oil was 2 litres low which is bullshite as the first thing I checked was the oil & it was halfway between the marks on dipstick. Plus there was no warning light of any kind. After leaving it there another day it has now been diagnosed as the timing chain issue. We've only had the car 6 weeks & it's already been back in with a misfire. Apparently a couple of the spark plugs had burnt out which seemed a bit suspect.

 

Currently working on mine. Tensioner froze, followed by death rattle, then a destroyed guide rail which stalled the engine. The debris from the rail may be the reason I must dig deeper to see why I now have NO oil pressure! All for a cheap part and a 20 minute repair. BMW knows this part is faulty and if they won't do a recall, they should have at least warned the owners.

 

The majority of chain failures are due to insufficient oil level. Originating by the majority of people who own these believing that they are "Maintenance Free" vehicles instead of "Free Maintenance" vehicles. 15k mile oil change intervals, engine that holds less than 5qts of oil, and a turbocharged engine that inherently consumes small amounts of oil= guaranteed problems for ignorant owners. And I do not mean that in a bad way. But it's the truth. How many owners do you guys think check their engine oil at LEAST every 3k miles? There is a reason BMW is integrating an oil level sensor in future MINI engines. Way too much feedback from dealers about low oil levels and mechanical engine problems. Take care of your cars. Check fluids regularly. It's the best thing you can do to help prevent this expensive frustrating event from occurring.

 

Well said.


Blows my mind when people come in and state, "my car has been running really rough and making these loud rattle noises from the engine" then you go pull the dip stick and its drier then Atacama Desert. Always gets a good Lulz when the dipstick comes out cleaner & drier then it was going in. I've actually had people tell me that they were unaware that the engines oil required service...

 

Just heard it for the first time this morning, last for a brief second. It was vary loud and unmistakable!

 

I'm not a mechanic, and I don't know a lot, but I was talking to a MINI service guy and I asked him what I have been asking a lot of people... what is the difference between the straight Cooper engine and the N14, that the N14 gives this trouble and the straight Cooper (N12) doesn't? Why do the timing chain/cold start threads have so many failing turbo MINIs and no straight Cooper engines failing? What is the difference??

From what he said (and he couldn't say much, of course!) it almost sounds like the turbo version has more oil pulled up into the engine when starting, because it goes up into the turbo **as well as* into the engine itself. So, with the same oil capacity (4.4 quarts or so?) the turbo engine immediately moves more oil up into the system than the non turbo does, thus dropping the oil level further, and leaving less for that timing chain tensioner. Now, he couldn't say that, it is my guess, but he was talking about how the oil is required for the turbo as well as the regular engine parts... and how much pressure that oil is under to move it through the system. That MIGHT be why dealerships tend to overfill... instead of saying that there should be more oil in the system than it indicates. ONLY MY GUESS.... so what do you guys think, who have actually worked on these engines? Might the turbo engines require a higher oil level, but were not designed to have it?

He also confirmed that the heat from the turbo tends to sludge the oil over time, and that the engine also burns oil as anyone could guess who has had to pay for the walnut shell blasting.

Loving my straight Coopers!

 

That's interesting - I had simply assumed it was the difference in torque causing the issue. I'm completely new to the car and the issues, I know for Evo X's (which moved to chains w/ the 4b11) they would simply stretch, causing issues.

It is a complete surprise that there are Mini owners with low to zero oil in their engines - you'd have far bigger problems than just the timing chain and tensioner going bad, and you'd have other symptoms than what has been described from having NO oil in the car... not to mention, turbo cars can consume some oil, but you're talking about a LOT of oil being consumed that has to go somewhere - either as blue smoke out the tailpipe or a leak somewhere or tubes filled with them... haven't seen any reports of that though.

and FWIW, I don't know how much the turbo Minis consume, but it's not a hand in hand statements that turbo cars consume oil - I'd venture that at the very least after break-in, no turbocharged cars these days should be consuming any oil at all. Of the main Japanese turbocharged cars (evos, wrxs/stis) none of them consume any oil at all in normal (non-built) operating conditions - nor "should" they.

Of course I'm not saying you shouldn't maintain and check the cars regularly - but there shouldn't be mass failures of hundreds of people all not checking their oil levels and their engine oils going to practically nothing...