Car is a 2007 Justa N12, manual. Was running great until.....

-27C the other morning, quite literally frigid. Car fired up fine, idled while frost was scraped off both it and the other commuter we use (~5 minutes, not enough to get to full operating temp when starting that cold). Wife left driving slowly, as instructed, for a couple kms to get everything moving.......then sequentially; 'oil light', 'engine light', stall. Restarted, 'lights' still on, moved 10' and stalled. Got 'the call'. Picked up wife, left car where it was, had AMA pick it up and put it in the driveway.

Fluid levels are all fine, no puddles (not even any drips). Pulled generic codes today (it's still bloody cold):

P0341
P0340
P0304
P0328
P0012

My code reader actually fires off the description for each, so I know what each means (generally summarized as: cam position sensor, cam position sensor, cyl 4 misfire, knock sensor circuit 1, intake cam position timing). I'm curious if anyone has seen this particular combination previously and if the symptoms and codes together point to a specific suspicion?

Car now sits in the garage and can thaw overnight. No urgency to get it 'live' again since we have the luxury of other vehicles to use, but ultimately love driving and autocrosing the little thing, so want to do this 'right'.

I'll check the battery then pull, clean and evaluate individual sensors, but my main concern is that collectively they indicate an underlying issue beyond their individual functions......any ideas are appreciated.

Happy Holidays!

.....car is now at 159xxx kms. Stock configuration other than stiffer rear sway bar, Koni FSDs, Sprint Booster.

Thanks in advance.

 

Sounds like it may have jumped a tooth on the cam chain. I hope not.

 

Hope not too! I might have time this afternoon to pull the valve cover and look......

 

That may not help you as there are no timing marks on the cam sprockets to look at. Everything may look fine and yet it's off a tooth, or you may find a bunch O broken timing chain guide stuff. I'll keep my fingers crossed that you have ice in the fuel lines. How's that?

 

Appreciate it.

I thought there was supposed to be index marking on the cams as referenced here (post#4, image 1): https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...am-timing.html

 

take the spark plugs off and stick long straws. rotate the engine by hand until the first straw starts going up while the second starts to go down. once they meet at the same height, you should be able to lock the crankshaft from the hole located next to exhaust pipe.
than look at the cam shafts. the straight edges should be on the sides and top. the middle streight side should be facing up

 

Never got far (yet). Pulled plugs to do a compression check.....cyclinder 4 plug is weird - insulator and core move independently of the threaded portion (both rotationally and vertically), so the gap can change constantly! It actually looks like there's blowby on the insulator above the nut portion of the threads (I'll try to attach a photo, but not particularly tech savvy, hence the oversize). That'd easily explain the misfire on cylinder 4! BERU 12ZR-6SP03 plugs replaced in May for what it's worth. No more time available today - maybe tomorrow.

What looks like blowby on the insulator


Gap at narrowest,


Gap at widest,

 

perhaps that solves the mystery!

 

Wow, that's definitely a plug failure. We're all hoping that was the issue, and it sure seems likely

 

Yea, thats looks like it.

 

Numbers are BAD.

152
112
72
15

I guess I know what I'll be up to when I'm not skiing this winter! Had hoped to get my Volvo 850 6 speed manual swap completed - oh well.

 

Oh no :( those low number.

 

Man, so much for Mr. Plug

At least you're capable of fixing her up, and aren't looking at scrapping it or paying a shop 5 figures. Volvo swap sounds cool!

If you figure out what happened I'm all ears, our Justa is at 65k miles and I need it to last forever. Coldest it's ever been started is ~0 degrees.

 

Yeesh - did a quick tally of generic parts cost to rebuild valves......anybody know of a head remanufacturer for the N12?

Parts are gonna run well over $1k for valves only - I'd expect to pay only marginally more than that for a reman head! Of course, this is the first major Mini repair I've experienced, so maybe I'm just (thankfully) not familiar with the associated costs. Always open to advice. Cheers!

 

Check rmeuropean.com for parts and realoem.com for part number. Valves will run you about 250 and head gasket and new bolts will run you about 100.

 

Actually, check http://furiousmethod.com/ for parts. RMEuropean is not always the cheapest, but neither is anywhere else. Though lately BMWMiniPartsStore has been hard to beat.

 

Thanks fellas, 8 months of Mini ownership and first legit issue. I'll pull the head on Saturday and see what, if anything else, needs attention before making the parts list and figuring out where to source stuff. Appreciate the tips.

 

Completely inundated with company since my last post - sorry for the delayed update.

Had 10 minutes today to at least pull the valve cover. Found this on intake side for cylinder 3 and 4:

Cylinder 4


Cylinder 3


Go figure that it quit running!

Cam 'looks' tweaked sideways (current orientation) just before the cylinder 3 carrier, this is NOT gonna be a quick head repair!

I will pull the head at next opportunity, but I expect more frightening images to be found on pistons 3 & 4 - which in turn would cause me worry about connecting rods and crankshaft damage. Anyone in the NW have a known good used complete N12 sitting around?

Holidays have been great until 30 minutes ago.

Best wishes for a Happy New Year everyone!!

 

I discovered the hard way that the cam caps (on an '07 MCS) are part of the head and not replaceable by themselves. Seems the cam journals are line-bored as an assembly for the cams. Maybe the N12 head is produced differently? Regardless, check out the bottom end before making any big decisions.

Talk with your local Mini parts guy about replacement engines, their engine prices aren't that bad, and usually preferable to a used engine. A knowledgeable indy shop can do the exchange for a much better price tho, unless you DIY.

 

Ski season is wrapping up, so I had a few days in the last week to perform open heart surgery and drop a used motor in. I never did pull the original motor apart beyond removing the cylinder cover to find the cam bearing caps cracked.

Regardless...used motor with good compression numbers, 92k kms, replaced: timing chain and ancillaries, crank seal, new rear main seal, valve cover gasket, pulled the oil pan to check for chunks (all good) so resealed it and added a magnetic drain plug. Tranny side got a new clutch and associated innards, new axle seals and a thorough scrub. The entire process isn't bad, I compounded the challenge by leaving the AC system charged and in place - THAT's another level of awkward I hope to never repeat....it means disconnecting a bunch of the bumper attachments on the driver's side in order to snake the plumbing in and out AND the AC compressor bolts are a serious PITA. Oh...the assortment of proprietary tools needed are another PITA. It's done, not sure it made financial sense, but it was too good a car to send to the scrap heap/part out.

Fired right up. Seems to be issue free. I have an Oil Catch Can kit sitting here to install and I'll order an inline coolant heater to install in the lower rad hose just because a warm motor is a happier motor than one that's ambient air temps when it's -33C!

Of course I bought Focus SVT over the winter and have started down the road of prepping it for autocross, but it's a long ways from ready and the Justa will serve admirably in the interim.

I regularly referenced here for all sorts of info as I went, torque specs in particular, but the odd photo for reassembly too - thanks.

 

When I first started modding my '07S, I connected a coolant temp gauge in the radiator hose, the one directly under the radiator. Turns out, this hose is more for emergency coolant --- it only flows when using "MAX A/C" or when the "pedal is to the metal". Now, this might be unique to the "S" version, or maybe only the early years of R56. But, if you plan on adding an inline coolant heater, consider putting it on the hose on the driver side wheel well --- there's a similar fitting as the lower rad hose to work with.

Glad to hear it's up and running again --- Enjoy!