Hello,

2009 Mini R56.

Help! the whole end of my number three spark plug has either broken off or has melted off! The car has 135,000 miles on it and has been burning through quit a bit of oil. When decelerating or at idle when you gas it there is usually a billow of white smoke. The car has been running fine. Yesterday the wife was on the way to Vegas from San Diego just pass Baker the check engine light came on then the half power engine light came on "Yellow" the car let out a big billow of white smoke and it just died. The car was towed home last night.

So the first thing i did was to scan the CEL these were the codes,
P0597 Thermostat heater control circuit open
P0300 Multiple misfires
P0301 Cylinder 1 misfire
P0303 Cylinder 3 misfire
P0304 Cylinder 4 misfire
P115C Mass air flow

Checked the oil level it was normal, but the coolant tank reservoir was half empty, they both were full when she left. I then proceeded to start the car it ran real rough i shut it down immediately.

Next step was to do a compression test my thoughts were maybe a blown head gasket hence the cloud of white smoke and the lower reservoir level. i started pulling the plugs. One, two, three didnt want to come out, it seem very hard to turn. i took my time getting it when i pulled it the end was gone!! the electrode and tab it was flat looked melted. 1,2 and 4 all are fouled with gas. I haven't went any further with it, i was going to do the compression test but am wondering where the rest of the plug is and if i will do more damage.

any help or advice would be greatly appreciated, can i replace the plug or will i need to pull the head? What the heck can cause the plug to melt? The car has been running fine just happened out of the blue.

I am suspecting valve guide seals and or turbo seal for the high oil usage.
Still have the original timing chain its on the radar to be replaced


Plugs 1 -4 left to right

#3

Thank you,

Cooper

 

Looks like a lean burn meltdown. Could be from fuel injector failure?

 

I've burned a couple plugs with no damage to the cylinder or piston. I'd just replace it if doing a compression test shows minimal differences. Maybe pull the fuel pump fuse while doing the compression test.

 

I'll bet it took out number 3 exhaust valve..

 

Yep one of the #3 exhaust valves gone i discovered it once i pulled the exhaust manifold. Am I looking at possible cylinder damage? is the valve head floating around in the cylinder?

I guess i'll find out soon removing the intake next. Also turbo has slop in it, its looking like a train wreck. Good thing is I have another car to drive.

 

Sorry to hear about your issues. I had something similar happen in cylinder #4. Car ran, but horribly. I bought it that way, with a suspected head gasket issue.
2008 MCS w/120k. Towed it home and pulled the plugs. The metal "hook" at the top of the spark plug was missing. I thought it was going to be an easy fix, just swap in new plugs. It ran better but not by much. Compression in that cylinder was at 30 PSI. I replaced the head gasket and there was a break between 3&4 plus some other issues. Put it back together and it ran a lot better but still rough. Leakdown indicated rings (leaked to oil fill cap) on #4 and I tore it down again and removed the piston. It basically crumbled in my hand. So I replaced that piston and all the rings and I should have it back together tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Anyway, a friend said he had seen something similar with the plug. Yours is worse than mine, for sure, but my buddy said it must have been super hot for that to occur. So not sure which is the cause and which is the symptom, or what happened to the spark plug or valve on yours. Through the turbo? Did it score the cylinder? Mine was clear.

The bright side: doing the work, even including getting into the bottom half, is not tough just time consuming. I had never even done a head gasket before. I got the Bentley and spent a lot of time on youtube. It's manageable. but there's a lot of parts cost, plus the head work, and that's if you got lucky with the cylinder wall condition. New engine or having even an indy do the work would probably not make sense.

Hope the rest of the new year goes better for you....

 

Well got to the bottom of things, I was hoping it would of been better than what I found. The cylinder head is pretty pitted the valve seat is still intact. The piston is pitted and there is a nice hole in it. At this point I think I'm done with the Mini ever since I've owned it, it has been one problem after another. I followed all the service intervals for it, I guess this was the straw that broke it's back. Maybe it's just for the best it died with a 140k miles on it like a old dog it lived longer than it should of. I don't have the time or money to invest in it and with no guarantee that something else won't **** the bed. I have a 99 jeep Cherokee with 280k and a 84 Toyota pickup with 250k both original engines. The mini is a time bomb.

 

Yep, another n14 bites the dust. I would move on as well, at least you got 140k miles out of it. That's a lot for a second gen Mini.

 

Figured the least I could do is share the carnage.

 

Oh geez. RIP little guy. That must have been a helluva racket....

 

 

Thx for posting pics of the damage. After everyone guessing the problem, is always nice to see what actually happened..

 

Did you at any point have the valves cleaned?