Been a curious follower of this thread. I know this is NAM forum but have you heard of this service campaign in other countries? I called a local mini garage here in Australia and all I got was "no we don't have this campaign".

 

Your car is a non-S and this shouldn't apply I don't believe. The huge issue was with S model cars.

 

Well I had my car in at MINI of St Louis today.

They had it all of 20 minutes and came back to me and said that it was good to go. I asked them what the timing chained measured at and they informed me that they did not measure it as I already had the new tensor in the car.

I informed them that this was correct at 40,000 miles the new tensionerr was put in by myself, however the original owner had been driving the car around for 40,000 miles with the old unit. I also brought up that in the letter it clearly states that the chain tensioner and timing chain must be checked for wear and replaced if necessary. They responded that cooperate MINI had informed them to not do further work if a new tensioner was in place.

So I called cooperate MINI customer support and they informed me that I should call back MINI of St. Louis and talk to the service manager to find out why the work was no completed.

Who do I contact after the Service Manager tells me the same story?

BMW/MINI should read their own letter regarding the work that was supposed to be done. Embarrassed to be a MINI and BMW owner right now.

 

Can someone who received a letter send me or scan and email me a copy? I just bought my '07 and am not registered at MiniUSA so will probably not get one. I called Flow Mini in Raleigh, NC last week and after checking my VIN was told that my car falls in the category. I would just like to have a copy of the letter to show them if they try to blow me off. I have no experience with the dealer, but it's the closest to where I live.

 

Post 233 has a copy of it.

 

I saw that, but was hoping for a little better copy.

 

Well after a little bit of internet detective work and a few social engineering calls I was able to put together a list of just about all of BMW/MINI NA contacts. I have phone numbers and e-mails covering the entire NA region now.

I sent out a few e-mails and left a few VM regarding this situation of not getting my timing chain inspected per the "recall" letter. This along with my call to the dealership SM and US customer service, I have a feeling I may now be getting a free inspection of it at the very least. (that should have been done in the first place) While I was at it also brought up faulty thermostats and turbo oil lines...

I will let you know my progress as it goes.

 

I tried getting my timing chain replaced at Mini of STL last week and they said because I have the new tensioner, I do not qualify for the service action. They also didn't have any loaners at the time so it was probably good that I wasn't eligible. I didn't push them on the subject because I hadn't received a letter or anything (although I did buy it used from a private party). You should be eligible for the turbo oil line heatshield service action if you have not been informed yet.

 

Called dealer today as I have not rec,d a letter, he told me my car was on the list to be checked for timing tensioner , he also told me that MINI used 3 different suppliers and only one of the tensioners was being replaced if you have one of the others then they do nothing, not even measure your chain etc. I asked how can I tell if I have the bad tensioner as I am 3 hours away & don't want to drive for no reason. I was told if your tensioner head face is smooth you have the bad one & we will replace chain, guides & tensioner free .

 

in with my letter was another envelope in the event that I had sold the car to forward it on to. I bought at a mini dealer, its financed through BMW and i'm registered on the mini owner lounge. When you look up the vin it doesn't say there is any work to perform also.

 

You can't use the online check for the this. You need to contact a MINI dealership or MINI USA to find out if your vehicle qualifies. It's not a "recall" so you won't find information for it by plugging your VIN into the website.

 

Interesting, it seems as if MINI/BMW is concerned about second hand sales of their Mini Coopers and further damage to their reputation beyond the original owner! It's a bit late for that type action, better late than never! I can imagine people buying used higher mileage MCS's second hand and becoming the worst known used car to purchase, oh wait a minute according to Carmax that is already the case.

My Carmax where I purchased my MCS, the SA attempted to convince the higher ups to quit purchasing used Mini Coopers S for trade ins! Sorry (SA) unnamed of Carmax Irvine. They have had to replace several engines from what I'm told. Max Care is losing more money than with any other car! When the time comes to sell my MCS (hopefully not anytime soon) everyone will have heard what we already know, imagine if most of the public knew what we know now! Not good!

 

Your receipt specifically states "timing chain tensioner recall". I could have sworn my SA said this isn't a recall.....

 

Hi everyone. I just purchased my pre owned 08 MCS last Saturday. Is this something I should worry about or call the nearest dealership about this?

 

Take the car to your local dealer and they will tell you what you need to do. Congratulations on the new car!

 

Thank God for this website. I found out about this in the nick of time and the pump failure as well.

 

Just took my 2008 s to Mini of North Scottsdale to check on this code. They are replacing my chain and tensioner because of the symptoms along with the code. So the chain was loose, but it sounds like it's dieseling when it's cold, as it warms up the dieseling almost goes away completely. My oil was low so I added about 1/2 quart which stopped the racket. In addition, Mini said that sometimes when they remove one of the bolts to do the job it will fall into the oil pan and therefore they have to do an oil change on their dime too. This is the second extended warranty "deal" I've received from mini. If feel it's always wise to bring the car over to mini before performing work myself.

 

Thank you! Will do

So does my car have to be throwing a code in order to get maintenance done?

 

Our engines sound like diesel engine because of the very high fuel pressure, it's more pronounced when the engine is cold because there's more fuel. I had broken plastic chain guide parts in my oil pan when they did the timing chain procedure, didn't replace my oil though. I change it anyway. Check your oil every 500 miles and you'll see it down just about 1/4 of an inch depending on what type of driving you do, I do mostly city driving.

 

I was at my new dealer Saturday for 1st official service. There were 3 folks that dropped of cars for timing chain and turbo heat shield while I was there for 1 1/2 hrs. A new Mini owner stopped in and got a big suprise. He had picked up used off a lot and dropped in for a check-up. The bad was he found out he needed to come back for the timing chain and heat shield work. The good was the prevoius owner had extended maintenance plan he gets the beni of the next couple of years or many K miles.

 

I bought my 08 MCS Feb 2013 from a Ford dealer, with 30k miles on the clock. I did buy the extended warrantee, knowing repairs could be expensive especially a turbo. When the timing chain started making noise I took it to the Ford dealer to have it checked out. The SA suggested I take it to a Mini dealer and my extended warrantee would pay for covered repairs.

So I called my local mini dealer and the SA checked my vin and said repairs would be covered by a recall. She said the repairs would probably take more than a day and asked if I needed a loaner car. I took the car in and picked up the loaner car and awaited her phone call.

Over the next couple of days, the technician found another recall item to fix, a leaking oil line that had ruined an o2 sensor, a couple other things to fix, and adjusted my sunroof to reduced wind noise.

When I picked up the car my portion of the bill was $100 (my deductible). The technician performed 8 different jobs on my car, most under recall, warrantee, or goodwill. They did bill my extended warrantee carrier $1000 for one of the jobs. The timing chain task included inspecting the oil pan for broken parts and a complete oil and filter change.

At this point I am very impressed with Mini of San Diego, my SA Alexa, and a technician (I don't yet know his name) who really cares about his work.

 

Hi guys, so I just called Mini of Ontario in Southern California and scheduled an appointment for the timing chain and turbo heatshield. Could it have been that easy? Do you guys know if I need to bring any paperwork because I don't have any. I've only had my 08 MCS for a week so have no experience with taking the car to the dealership. Will the dealership inspect the whole car and inform me if stuff needs to be done and will it cost me anything to have it inspected?

 

I am at my dealership now with my new to me 2008 with 68k miles on it. .. the plugged the key into their reader then told me it needed the heart shield and inspection of the timing chain. They are doing that pay now. No questions asked. So far it has been a good experience.

 

Thanks for posting this sound clip! Like I mentioned, I've only owned the car for about a week so I don't really know how it should or shouldn't sound but I believe my car does have that knocking/rattling.

So has the design of the chain/cassette been redesigned at all or is it just inevitable that it could again fail prematurely?

 

The key FOB should have all of the information needed. When I had mine done, that was all they needed to know what parts were needed.