cylinder 3 leakage, requires cylinder head replacement
 

Hi,

I have a 2008 cooper convertible.

In May 2013, at a traffic light, the car vibrated and the Service Engine Soon light went on flashing for 30 seconds, then stayed on. I drove it to dealer the next morning, but the light went off by itself before I could reach the dealer, so no diagnosis was done.

In July, the light went on again, this time, no rattling. Drive was smooth, but felt slight loss of power. Dealer said it was faulty spark plugs, and replaced them. At 60k miles, even dealer thought it wasn't common.

On October 27, the light went on again. No rattling, smooth ride, slight loss of power. Dealer said it was a misfire on cylinder 3. The coil of the plug had corrosion. They cleaned it.

On December 13, the light went on again. Same as last time. This time, dealer performed leak down test, found out a misfire on cylinder 3, and 40% leak in cylinder 3. They recommended "car needs all exhaust valves and a cylinder head". It was quoted $3,300 for parts (cylinder heads, bolts, gaskets, valves, lube, etc.), and $2,800 for labor, so total $6,100.

I went to a couple local auto repair shops. They said another option was to rebuild the cylinder heads. All inclusive, $2,500 to 2,800.

$6,100 is awfully a lot. But I am wondering if $2,500 is a fair price to have the heads rebuilt?

Thanks!

Kenny

How much to just remove and install a new Reman Engine from MINI ? Would be less labor, no machine shop costs for the head, and a reman engine frm MINI is around $4,500K. Comes as you see here.


There are 4 available stateside, and plenty of them in Germany. 11000430231






http://www.penskeparts.com/DiagramsM...png?v=03192010

Ouch on the price.

I've done some wrenching on cars in the past, including our two MINIs. Brakes, belts, oil changes, control arm bushings, alternators and starters, things like that. Never any internal engine work to speak of. Got almost the same diagnosis on my wife's '03 this summer after having the check engine light come on almost constantly. I was getting misfire codes in cylinder #4. Shop we took it to did a compression test and their findings were a bad exhaust valve in #4 leading to low compression- about half what it should be. They also quoted us $3000 for the job.

Bentley manual in hand, I figured I could do the job and if I couldn't I wouldn't be out much by trying. Had a fellow MINI club member step up and we were able to work in his garage. He's a pretty experienced amateur mechanic and I benefitted greatly from his experience.

To prepare I spend about $200 at Way Motor Works on the various gaskets I would need plus another $75 on the special tool kit for taking the camshaft sprocket off. We worked together for about 2 1/2 hours and got the head off easily. I decided to have that head reconditioned; out the door it was $461 including valve guides on the exhaust valves, new seals all around and one new valve. Putting the head back on took about another 3 1/2 hours of casual wrenching. The car now runs perfectly- no missing, no leaks, etc. We haven't had a compression check, but it is not throwing any codes.

That price they are quoting is insane, and they are quoting way too many replacement parts. Any qualified machine shop should be able to regrind and reseat the good valves- they don't all need to be replaced. We told them we are keeping the car long term and do a job on the head that will last, and it was still only $461.

Assuming your car is not an S model your engine and layout should be identical to mine. If you are at all mechanically inclined or know a shade tree mechanic who is the two of you should be able to do the job yourselves. If you are feeling up to it I can answer any questions you might have.

Good luck with it.

Val

Budget for around $2k to remove and replace a motor. Remember that all of the accessories (supercharger, alternator, compressor, etc.) need to be swapped over as well...

Yes you can do yourself if you are on a budget and have TIME. There are allot of videos on Youtube.