thats a good experience. I went to get my car today. the SA lowered the fee to $99. I didn't put up much of a fight, just kinda tired of the situation. probably won't be going to that dealer again. he said the clicking sound was coming from a loose pre cat o2 sensor. why would it only click when the car was moving? and why would it click faster the faster the car went?

 

that sucks, dropped my clubman s off last night, called me this morning that they got the car, 30 mins later they left a voicemail that its all done... so I'm sure they didn't even do the timing chain and just the heat shield... blah so ****ing pissed

 

Then the dealer didn't perform their job by checking the chain slack, no way could they have done that in 30 minutes. Be forceful but polite when demanding they check the slack! This will determine if you indeed need a chain assembly.

 

Wow! Reading this thread has made me question my situation. I took my car into Momentum Mini (Southwest Houston) a week ago because it suddenly stopped acceleration and had no choice to pull over. I first thought is was the HPFP from reading another thread on NAM, but after doing the dealers diagnostic test they determined that "low" oil was causing the chain to have some slack and come off the track. I change the oil myself ever 5000mi and the only time my oil light was on was when the turbo oil line was leaking (replaced 2 months ago). The dealer said the tensioner was replaced with the most recent model and I should be checking oil every 750miles, so it wouldn't get low..wtf!. It's still at the dealer because I am making arrangements to tow it to my own mechanic because they qouted me about 3K to replace the chain and componets. yikes! I have an 07' R56 119K miles second owner. . Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks for reading.

 

you can call mini and see if its part of the timing tensioner campaign. if its not, then theres probably a reason why. like with mine I never found out for sure but my tensioner was leaking oil from when the previous owner had it. and they replaced the tensioner. most likely with a updated one that would have been used in the tensioner campaign. thus removing the car from the campaign.

 

Once the oil light is on you're too late, these Mini Cooper S models (N14) are known to burn through oil. A lot of us on NAM change our oil every 5000 miles as well. Just because your oil change is every 5000 miles doesn't mean you don't need to check your oil, my MCS burns through about 1.5 quarts per 2500 miles and burns more the harder I drive it. That's 3 quarts needed to add in-between oil changes, This is considered normal on NAM with respect with what to expect from your Mini, you just didn't do your research before buying!

Research, research, research, research..... This is how I live my life in an imperfect world!

 

It seems there are 2 groups of people in this 'recall,' those with updated tensioners that don't get any help, versus those with original tensioners that get all the components replaced. They had my car 3 days and noted 'removing debris from the oil pan.' I still question the quality of their work, but I did get new components installed for free so I'm not complaining.

 

Add a third group i had updated tensioner and they replaced everythinh

 

So I went into my dealer probably 6 months ago after I heard a rattle coming from my engine bay. I bought a timing chain tensioner to change out myself and when I was buying it the parts guy asked me a few questions then showed me the bulletin and then took me over to their service department and confirmed my car qualified in the bulletin but that they weren't allowed to do the work yet. I went ahead and bought the tensioner anways and later called them back and now they say they have no idea what I'm talking about and my car doesn't show anything about the timing chain bulletin but I show the aux water pump recall and the oil line heatshield recall. I then called MINI USA and they proceeded to tell me I had no recalls or bulletins on my car at all. I feel like I'm getting the complete runaround on this one and just want to figure out whats going on. My car is a 2007 MCS with 80000 miles.

 

It's beginning to sound like if they've changed your tensioner once then the bulliten has been satisfied and it is pretty much a dealership call on whether they will do anything futher should your Mini developes further timing chain problems (as many have) down the road, pretty much sucks.
Change a tensioner once and they pretty much wash their hands of the whole mess and leave at the "mercy" of dealerships who all to often fail to do the right thing.

 

The thing about my case is I purchased the tensioner from the parts department but replaced it myself I don't think this would be enough for MINI to wash their hands of it as the service record wouldn't exist.

 

Unfortunatly if most second generation Mini "S" owners had known what we know now about all the problems these cars have, unless they are just hard core "S" lovers willing to pay any price to keep one up, they would never have bought one out of warranty.
As for "3 quarts needed to add in-between oil chages" (@5K miles) as "considered normal" and "what to expect from your Mini", sadly it may be true for some but certainly not what anyone would ever expect and NOT the norm for other turbocharged cars out there.
If 3 quarts were to be the normal oil consumption between 5K miles oil chages and Mini Cooper recomends oil changes every 10K miles, that would be a norm of 6 quarts of oil between oil changes which is outrageuos by any standards.
If this excessive oil consumption were to be considered normal then Mini Cooper is remiss in not pointing such a serious engine damaging potential out to owners and putting this tendency for excessive oil consumtion and the need to check their oil levels every time before they drive their cars in the owners manual with a warning in" BOLD LETTERS" .

 

So with that did the 'low" oil cause the slack? or is it the timing chain i've been researching on this thread?

 

Low oil levels could very much cause the tensioner to fail to provide the proper tension to the chain.
This would allow slack in the chain which in effect would allow the chain to stretch due to this slack when starting, accelerating and decelerating. Basicly every time you step on the gas it would stress the chain when taking up the slack and comming to the end of the slack.

 

Another thing you should "reasearch" is the oil dipsticks giving faulse readings due to poor design, probably another reason Mini owners end up with "low oil" without realizing it.
To bad Mini Cooper is passing all these poor design flaws (excessive oil consumption and faulty oil dip stick design) that can lead to timing chain failures off on to the owners rather than accept Mini Cooper failures in this timing chain fiasco.

 

i find the dipstick easy to read once I figured out to look at bottom edge along the dipstick while holding it parallel.

 

There is no "design flaw" with the dipsticks. It's the dipsticks who don't kow how to operate a dipstick.

Dave

 

Wow, why so nasty?

Actauly there has been quite a bit of discussion on this forum about difficulty reading and getting faulse readings from the oem dipsticks.
The problem envolves the lower "bulb" on the dipstick drawing oil up into the tube as you remove the dipstick. this oil in the tube then coats the dipstick when it is put back into the tube to check oil level getting oil on the portion of the dipstick that would normally not have oil on it if low on oil.
Many have complained on this site about this problem and I personaly could not tell my correct oil level by simply removing the dipstick, wiping it clean and then re-inserting it and removing it to read.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ife-of-me.html

Many suggestion have been made on this forum to resovle this problem such as multiple insertions(without inserting the last inch) and removals of the dipstick while wiping clean of oil each time so the oil residue in the tube is removed so when you finnaly insert the dipstick fully in you should get a clean reading without the oil residue showing up on the upper part of the dipstick.
Others recomended you wait at least an half hour after shutting your engine down before attempting to check the oil level.
The best solution(if keeping the oem diptstick) was to modify the bottom plastic part of the dipstick by removing the bottom bulb and filing flat the remaining portion where the oil level would show leavig the top bulb unchanged. (This is the method I chose and it works fine for me).
Most ended up buying the Craven dipstick to resolve this problem.
The point is, those Mini owners out there who simply tried to check there oil as they would on a normal car would see oil on the distick and think they were fine on oil when in fact they very well may not have been.

It's great that you and Gabe3 have not had any difficulty useing the oem dipstick without all the above procedures/alterations but that does not, none-the-less, change the fact that many Mini owners out there have had great difficulty in properly reading their oil levels with the stock oem dipstick and your insult to them(and me) is totaly uncalled for.

 

After 50 years of driving and maintaining British, German, American, Italian (briefly), and Japanese cars, I have never had an oil dipstick so difficult to read correctly.

I blame the French.

 

Did you mean to say "so difficult to read"?

 

Indeed. I blame the French for mobile device 'keyboards', too.

;-)

 

I thought I was being funny!

It still remains that the MINI dipstick works just fine, If you know how to work it.

Cold engine, level surface, pull out dipstick, look at it, note oil level, put back.

This works for me every time.

Dave

 

I sold my 2008 Cooper S, but had paid out of pocket for the timing chain tensioner work. What course of action should I take? Call up Mini service and asked if my vehicle was part of the campaign and ask for reimbursement? Thanks.

 

I was did the same and I was just at the dealer today with my 2007.

They checked for the dimpled (new) chain tensioner but would not any of the amount that I had already paid for the work. Your results may vary.

 

Great thread. I had the vacuum pump seize on my 2008 S and spanked the engine. Sheared off the Exh cam sprocket bolt and ripped everything apart. I am currently repairing the head and cleaning out the oil pan. Wonder what the dealer would think if I show up with an engine on a dolly asking for a free timing chain replacement kit and install....I was worried about getting the cam timing right anyway. I am holding my breath.

Thanks for all the good info! I am a new poster.