Car has 34k miles, noise started about 2k miles ago, it sounds like a bad bearing or metal on metal rubbing sound. Brought the car to my mechanic for inspection, they found some piece of road debris had gotten wedged inbetween the belt and the motor and was causing the belt to wear out severely. They replaced the belt, friction wheel, noise remained... then replaced belt tensioner, noise still remained. At this point they told me it might be water pump but it appears to be functioning OK and labor cost would be huge to replace it...

I don't drive much so I dealt with the noise for a while then put the car up on stands in my garage to do the water pump myself. Replaced water pump, noise still remained. Took car to a different mechanic, independent Mini/BMW specialist, they couldn't pinpoint the source of the sound. However, they took the belt off and ran the motor for 30 seconds without belt and the sound disappeared, so they're confident its somewhere from the belt/pulley system. They then told me two things that kinda annoyed me:

1. They have gotten brand new friction wheels that were bad out of the box and caused some noise
2. This is a typical "Mini noise" and like the loud injectors can just be ignored/dealt with

I'm 100% certain this noise came up and is new in the last 2-3k miles and it pisses me off, it drowns out the awesome exhaust note from the JCW which is one of the things I love about the car, and at anything over 4000 rpm it sounds absolutely terrible/scary/like somethings going to explode. I have a hard time believing this is normal and isn't a problem, but two Mini mechanics have told me the same thing and otherwise given the car clean bill of health.

Should I attempt installing another friction wheel? When I removed it to install the water pump it felt like there was a lot more friction on the wheel than I imagine there should be, if I spun it as hard as I could by hand it would only rotate about 1/2 way around then stop, seems to me like it should be a free spinning bearing that would go much more than 1 half rotation when spun...

Any other suggestions? I'd like to be certain I'm not doing damage to my car while driving around and DAMMIT do I want this irritating sound to go away!

 

You are correct, the friction wheel should spin freely when in the service position. There is small tab that you pull and the wheel extends so that it is not in contact with water pump drive wheel. In that position it should spin freely.

​​​​Did you check the water pump drive wheel? The rubber surface wears out and may cause squealing.

 

+1

When a mechanic tells you this is how they all sound, know that they dont know anything. You should get your money back from the mechanic who could not fix it...

imagine, you go to a mechanic for a bad coil pack, and instead he tells you we need to replace the engine to fix your misfire...

A now friend of mine, had a similar issue, the replace all plug and coil packs and problem remained. he went to another mechanic and they told him it was a "probably" a spun bearing and he needs a new engine!!!!!!

drove the car to me and i used my special tools, EARS, and they led me to the belt. replaced it and no spun bearing anymore!!!

 

Water pump wheel looked fine to me; it definitely sounds like a metal rubbing on metal and not a belt/rubber squeal.

When you say it should spin freely, you mean it should spin around continuously for a few seconds after spinning? I can rotate it but even when spun as hard as I could it only made about 1 full rotation before stopping. Gut feeling is that it shouldn't be this way but have no prior experience with this part on the car.

 

TBH its a been long time since I changed my water pump, so don't remember how freely it spun... but in general any restriction to rotation would cause rubbing with the belt and hence noise.

The other element that could generate noise, is the belt tensioner. It seems similar in build-up so if the bearings are worn or dry, it could generate noise.

 

You can first off put the friction wheel in service mode and see if the noise goes away running it for a few minutes. This also eliminates the water pump. So then you will know if its those two, or the other parts the belt turns. Then diag it from there.

 

Thanks for the advice. I pulled the wheel and fender liner off and put friction wheel in service mode, noise seemed unaffected. If the mechanics said they pulled the whole belt off and the noise went away, what does that leave? Belt tensioner? Belt tensioner was replaced the first time I brought it into the shop...

I want an end to this mystery already!

 

My buddy went through all of this himself. He opted to replace friction wheel again with OEM and got a craven oil dipstick also. Proper oil level made the noise go away. He was 1qt low. Dealer told him using 1qt per 1,000 miles was within BMW/Mini spec.

 

Oil is topped up, didn't affect the noise at all... If the mechanic pulled the belt off and the noise went away, wouldn't that indicate it's not anything to do with oil as well?

If it's not water pump or friction wheel, pretty sure i've eliminated those as causes, and the belt tensioner was recently replaced so it shouldn't be that either, what does that leave? Alternator or AC compressor? Noise happens independently of whether or not AC is on.

 

Why dont you pull the belt like the mechanic did and reconfirm what they said. also the pulleys could be chipped. can post vid or audio of the issue?

where are you located?

 

I'll see if I can get some video tonight, problem is the intake/exhaust noise drowns it out when revving at a stand still, it's most noticeable when cruising or coasting in gear. Might be possible to get in-cabin video.

I think this weekend I may take the belt off. Somebody else suggested today to just try rotating everything by hand once the belt is taken off to see if it makes any noise or doesn't feel as smooth as it should.

I'm in greater Los Angeles area.

 

A couple video links that show the sound, first is outside the car by front passenger wheel where the belt is and the noise originates:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_...E42Tm5Xc2pQMEk

In cabin, letting 2nd gear rev up to about 5k then cruising and coasting a bit, you can hear it best after around 20 seconds:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_...WRYVWtrSDhTU1k

 

Thats the noise alright~ the mystery one that no dealer tech can find. When it worsens it will sound like a loose heat shield - it will flutter slightly more and more pronounced.
I swear these cars are never fixed 100%.
Don't give up and keep the thread updated.

 

This thread is pretty old at this point but I figured I'd post an update anyway in case it can help someone else... though not sure it will.

I had the car looked at by a Mini dealer, and after describing it to the service adviser they had me talk to the head service tech from the dealer. He checked the car over and said there was absolutely nothing wrong that he could find, and then the two of us went for test drives in my car and a completely stock JCW from the same year they had on lot. He pointed out that the other car made basically an identical sound that was only slightly less audible than mine. His opinion was it's just the sound that the timing chain on this engine makes, and that the later engines with timing belts do not make the same sound. He felt I was probably hearing it more due to the modifications I've made to the engine (open air intake, aftermarket intake/turbo piping, removal of cabin noise generator) altering how sound bounced around the engine bay and what sounds made it into the cabin. He said there's nothing to worry about here.

At the time I was a little dissatisfied with the answer, like the solution should have cost me some money , but a year and a half and 6000 miles later nothing has changed and nothing seems to be wrong. If it is indeed a sound from the timing chain, I plan on having my timing chain preemptively serviced in the next couple weeks so maybe that service will show some decrease in volume of the sound? Who knows, but I will post any findings so maybe it can help someone else.

 

hi ,late reply but I can assure you it’s the wheel that’s connected to the water pump with 3 10ml nuts, the rubber on it delaminates which causes the metallic sound , “yes” by looking it will look fine but buy a new one and you’ll see the difference,
Had the same problem myself
hope this helps if you haven’t sorted it yet

 

The description reminds me of the high pitched noise the friction wheel's baring makes when spinning. I bought my Mini with about 17K miles and it already was audible. I replaced the friction wheel due to a rattling noise 3 years later and noticed that the "squeaking" noise remained, albeit at a minimaly lower volume (the rattling also remained, but that had its cause elsewhere). The replacement was an OEM Dayco, identical to the one fitted at the factory.

Note: the friction wheel keeps spinning (and making this noise) even when it is not driving the water pump pulley.

Here is what the new, replacement friction wheel sounded like when new (and for more than a year or about 10K miles now). The sqeaking is best heard when the pump is not driven. It is completely gone when I lift the friction wheel off the crank pulley.

 

Holy crap! This is the EXACT same noise that developed on my r60 last week. 2 shops so far. I specifically asked them to check the water pump. Both said it was fine.

1st shop: nothing wrong. $90 please
2nd shop: it's your tensioner. $125 please. So I replaced that today and didn't help at all.

​​​​​​Still there, gets louder with RPMs by a lot.
definitely coming from the back side of the engine when listening on the passenger side.
I just called mini and ordered a new water pump pulley wheel and I'm on my way to grab it now. You ever get yours sorted?

 

Unfortunately, no. I have a new friction wheel and a new water pump pulley waiting to go in as soon as the weather is warm enough to work outside for a couple days. Considering I had a full service/replacement of the timing chain and timing chain tensioner done about 4k miles ago, if these replacements don't fix it the absolute only thing that it could be (and the only thing that hasn't been replaced which runs off the belt) is the AC compressor... I suppose keep an eye here and if I find any results I'll update.

 

Today it hit 60, so I decided to tackle this.I could not for the life of me get the pulley off the water pump.
I had to drop the engine a couple inches then I was able to break free the 3 10mm bolts on the pulley.
It sits on a raised bit that I think is just corroded on. Might have to hit it with a hammer or some PB blaster, but that (hammer) makes me a bit worried about the water pump. Guess I'll have to take off the friction wheel next time.

One lesson I learned was to take the bolts off via the right side if you are looking right at the pulley wheel dead on. When you lower the engine it lines right up and makes it a lot easier than the left side.
I fought with the left side for a good half hour before I realized I could attack it from the right. (Next to the friction wheel)

Total time to get it all apart, messed with it for half an hour then back together was 2 hours. I've gotten to be a pro at taking the top apart and dropping the engine a bit.

I'll try it again when I have more time and the temps go back up again.. 30s tomorrow... Yaaaaaaaaay

 

Whoops double post there.