And remember MINI of Peabody MA, AKA-
http://www.minipartsmass.com/partloc...?siteid=215989
a sponsor does list -15% as does
http://www.eminiparts.com/ AKA MINI of Bedford NH (sister dealership to MINI of Peabody)...
Both these OEM parts discounts are very good, and worth a look IMO, and they DO ship!
Have had good luck with both of them! (they are local to me so I can actually do local pick-up)

 

GR,

GL? Has something to do with TTY bolts?

DOC

 

OP == Original Poster.
GL == Good Luck.

 

My eyes are glued on this because I have to do this also at 66k miles. I love my car and the way it drives, but the reliability of these irks me to no end.

 

If you have had a Mini valve cover off this is a o-ring design and should be reusable, the only trick is the drivers side where the head has a rise needs to have some RTV to seal at the 90 degree angle there or it will leak oil, something many small block guys do on intakes at the corners too. Very simple and easy to get done, really a nice gasket design with steel barrels so you can't crush the gasket, just snug and your tight. Although a new gasket wouldn't hurt anything either!!

It's a good idea to pull the valve cover just to see about the upper guide and if its intact and then you can install the longer tensioner for a extended duration til you get the parts ready to do the replacement of the timing chain, it keeps tension better than the stock tensioner which could be part of the problem, and why the extended tensioner was made. Chain Tentioner Part No. 40943942
Also very easy to install. Buys a bit of time is all, not a fix, when you get close to 50k miles just plan to replace at any time.

Enjoy the Mini and become your own best mechanic!!! There are plenty of others who have done what your planning already.

 

I think that is no BMW part number... Did you perhaps mean 11314609482 (82mm) or 11314609483 (78mm) ??

 

Any updates on the progress of the repair?

 

I'm in the home stretch! Everything has been cleaned up/out and replaced. I'm trying to get it put back together this week and I hope to have it running without issue by the weekend. All I have left is to secure the hood locking carrier and headlight, replace air ducts, wheel liner and wheel, valve cover and fill with antifreeze and oil. Then comes the scary part, pushing the start button

 

Good luck. I'm watching with anticipation.

My timing chain/guide assembly was replaced twice before on BMW's dime (once at 19k miles and once at 49k miles) and it's starting to rattle again at 81k miles. I'm on my own this time. Looking forward to your write-up.

 

Leave the spark plugs out and turn the engine over manually before applying power - if you haven't already.... This will tell you that it turns over freely and that way you will have a real good indication that you are in correct valve timing and that you shouldn't have a valve-piston collision when you hit the power. Oh! GL!

 

Any updates? How'd it go?

 

If that second fix was done within the last two years, it should be warrantied by MINI. I've always heard they guarantee repairs for two years.

 

Curiosity is weighing, hoping no news is good!!!

 

Did you hit the start button yet?

 

Well, 9000 miles since the timing chain swap and it's still running great. Hitting the start button after all of this was one of the most difficult parts of this whole procedure. While I'd love to write a step by step tutorial, the truth is I wouldn't recommend performing this repair without the Bentley service manual by your side. If you're willing to take this on yourself and save a ton of money in labor charges from the dealer, it's a no brainer to make the manual just another part that you purchase. One thing I will caution against that the Bentley manual got wrong was removing the timing chain tensioner bolt too early. Don't remove it until you have the crank locked and the cam locking tool installed. Below are some additional pics from the repair.





The majority of this was jammed in the pickup of the oil pump below.
































My water pump was also leaking so I replaced it as well. It was a tight fit as you can see.


The large hole in the middle is where the timing chain tensioner goes in.


This is the tool I made to hold the crank while removing and installing the crank bolt. This was a must to complete this repair.




Here it is with everything new installed.















One final note. To save a little more money, I used a common Permatex Ultra Black gasket maker to seal the oil pan to the engine rather than the ridiculously expensive Loctite stuff the sell at the dealer. I've had no issues. I also reused the valve cover gasket and dabbed a little of the gasket maker in the corners where the change in direction around the end of the cams is located. Again, no leaks.

If anyone wants to purchase the cam locking tools and my homemade crank holding tool, PM me and we'll work something out.

 

Getting ready to do the same this weekend, do you happen to have the instructions for the cam locking tool (mine did not come with any). Also the dummy tensioner I have has no markings on it, how do I determine the correct Nm setting?

thanks

 

Sabini...My first piece of advice is to call your closest Mini stealer and tell them you just received a letter in the mail inviting you in for a free timing chain and tensioner check and you think your chain might be loose. I got my letter in the mail 4 days ago (salt in wound, ouch) and I saw a scanned copy of one in another thread. If necessary, they're offering to do the whole $2000 service for free. Save yourself the headache and return any and all parts that you bought to do the repair if you can. You'll thank me for it.

If you absolutely have to do it yourself, the locking tool is pretty self explanatory. All that came in my tool set was a diagram of how it installed. Install the locking on the underside of the motor so that it fits in the hole in the flywheel and locks the crank into position. Test it by trying to turn the motor over by hand with socket and wrench at the crank bolt. If you can't turn it over, it's locked correctly so long as you have the IN and EX on the cams pointed up. If the motor still turns over it isn't locked. Point then IN and EX up again an try again. This is much easier if you have a second pair of capable hands. Once that's locked, the remaining three parts of the tool set fit over the end of the cam and align with the holes used by the valve cover if I recall. It may take a little torquing with a large wrench on the opposite side of the cam your installing the locking tool on to get the tool to line up with the part of the cam it locks onto.

I think their is a video at the beginning of this thread that shows the proper procedure.

Just remember not to over tighten bolts in the aluminum cylinder head, including the new timing chain guide between the two cam sprockets on top of the motor. Those two bolts made me real nervous about stripping out.

My kit didn't come with the dummy chain tensioner. The only time I found a need for it was when I was torquing the new cam sprocket bolts. You need that solid tensioner in there pressing against the guide rail so that when your applying the correct amount of torque to the new cam bolts, the new tensioner isn't compressing and affecting your torque level on the new bolts. Install your chain the chain on the sprockets and tighten the new cam bolts enough to hold everything in place securely. At this point, install the dummy tensioner to the correct Nm and then go back and torque the cam sprocket bolts to spec. Remove the dummy tensioner and install the new one.

 

sent you a PM

 

Sabini, I hate to say this but if you don't know what a Nm is you may not want to do it yourself :( But, perhaps you are used to working with "standard" units...in which case, an Nm is similar to a ft-lb, it is a unit of torque. I don't know the conversion off the top of my head. When I did mine, I just tightened the dummy tensioner hand tight, since I don't own a 1/4" drive torque wrench. If you do get a letter from the dealer saying they'll do it for free, DO IT. I'm glad I did mine but if I could have had them do it for free I would have let them!

Everyday I'm Motorin, nice crank holding tool! I had made something similar but much less professional looking. Sucks that one of your guides grenaded!

 

Howie, i was asking whether the tensioner dummy should have markings on it. I realize that I need to tighten the tensioner with a torque wrench until 6Nm. thx

 

Thank heavens, you had me very concerned! As far as changing the timing chain, there isn't anything too crazy other than it is very hard to get to some of the bolts. Also, the Bentley Manual had a different torque value for the crank bolt, I believe, than what I found in a different reference (it said it had changed from the value in the Bentley manual). It has been a while, I do not know if it would have changed again, something to check out.

 

Thanks again, I just got done with everything. What a JOB!. anyway i am still getting this p0012 code. all the mechanics checked out, once I put the new components in, I turned the crank several revolutions and rechecked the timing. All good, I pit everything back and started the car. NO issues what so ever. Smooth idle, it actually drives better, but still getting this code. Any ideas? sensor maybe

 

Huh, I assume you looked it up but just in case, the manual says that is either camshaft over retarded or that the VANOS unit is sticking. Did you disconnect the battery? Perhaps it thinks the VANOS unit should be in the same orientation with respect to the cam as it was before? Maybe disconnect the battery and let it sit overnight. My wife has our car and she is out of town, so I am trying to go by memory. I think the sensor is on the left hand side (when facing the engine from the front of the car!), it's not disconnected or something is it? I would think that it would be a hall sensor, so I believe it would also be magnetic, there isn't something stuck to it is there? I'm shooting pretty blindly :( Best of luck getting it sorted out, let us know how it goes!

 

A few years have past since anyone posted to this thread, so I thought I would. I just finished replacing the timing chain in my 2008 Cooper S. I got a parts kit from ecstuning.com. They assemble their own kit with parts from German and US manufacturers. Nothing from China. I got the tool set from M&R Industries (Amazon). These tools are made in China, but they worked very well. Just a small modification to one of the cam braces. You can either modify the brace or remove the turbo unit. Much easier to modify the brace. Then I used the Bently service manual. This manual leaves something to be desired. They left out a lot of things that you must do, gave instructions on things that you don't need to do and some of the instructions were just wrong.

Just took it for a test drive. No more ticking and it runs great.

 

Ranger, do you remember what you torqued the crank bolt to? The last time that I did mine, it needed to be torqued to something, I forget exactly what now and then an additional 180 degrees. I think the Bentley Manual has something closer to half of this. It might depend on the version of the manual and I don't know if MINI changed it or the manual was made wrong...or the info I got from AllData was wrong. Just another cursed thing to worry about :( Might be a good thing to double check!