I know a lot of us here on the site do this ourselves ..... but it's winter and I don't have a warm place to work on the car. The dealer is 50 miles away so I looked for a local place that specializes in Mini's etc ....

Found a place a few miles from home that advertises Mini specialist and tools to work on mini's. Had timing chain rattle (this is a 2009 Mini Justa with 56,000 miles) wrote them asking if they had the tools to do a mini timing chain replacement (if necessary). They wrote back yes, they had the tools and training to do what ever I needed.

Dropped the car off that evening, authorized an hour of diagnostics ($100/hr)

Got call the next morning, I need a new tensioner and the cost will be over $600. When I asked why, I was told that they needed to remove the valve cover...

At this point, I can see they are going to charge me for the valve cover gasket (they needed to order all the parts I needed from the dealership) anyway, so I give them the okay to replace the tensioner.

Stop by the next day and ask what the chain slack measurement was, only to be told they don't have the tool to measure chain slack, at which point they take me out to the car (valve cover removed) and demonstrate the weak tensioner by bending the chain with a large screw driver.

Supposed to pick up the car today...

What would you do?

 

You do not need to remove the valve cover to replace the tensioner. On an N12 (which I have) it is located at the rear left of the engine. To access it you do need to remove the airbox and top of the throttle valve (three small bolts). This is an easy job, one hour tops if you know what you are doing, replace the tensioner with an uprated one and reassemble. No way I would authorise 600 for this job and no, they do not know what they are doing. The tool for measuring the chain slack is in the box with the timing tools, it is the dummy tensioner required to replace chain. They have lied to you from the start that they a) have the tools and b) are trained. The margins for a weakened chain are small, milimeters in fact. I replaced my chain/guides, lower sprocket, etc at under 60K miles after the first replacement tensioner had bought me a few months without the rattle, it was a waste of time and I should have gone for the chain. Perhaps it will keep you going until warmer days when you can do the job.

 

This guy does it correctly in a what I imagine is under an hour.

 

Thanks, I have the TSB and know the procedure. When I authorized the 1hr diagnostic I thought it was for them to measure the chain. The spec I read was 68mm or replace timing chain. Thought I read that the S gets a longer tolerance (72mm?) and a longer tensioner. I'm concerned that they will have put in the longer (standard now if I'm not mistaken) tensioner and put too much pressure (if the chain is in spec) on the 11 year old timing plastic.

 

The spec you are reading is milimeters, not NM. it is the length of the dummy tensioner screw from the flat head sitting outside the oriface of the tensioner on the block to the end of the screw in dummy bolt.

 

The uprated length and strength of tensioner spring will not cause any damage, of course it is only buying you time and worn chain and sprocket will keep wearing. It is important to know the measurement as you say so you are not putting a plaster on an already out of spec chain. I would be having strong words with your mechanics to get the job done correctly as per BMW guidance (if you can find that to hold under their noses even better)

 

I have printed out a copy. Not sure I trust them to buy the tools and do the work after they have misrepresented so much already. I think anyone reading this will understand my anger. Not sure how to deal with them. My experience is that yelling doesn't accomplish much, and with someone like this talking does even less.

 

The TSB was for the S turbo, not the justa. How much is that going to hurt my case? Doesn't seem like it should as the symptoms and the solution is the same. Arggg. Can't find a service bulletin for the non-turbo R56 engine.

 

Okay, I went to pick up the car and after about a half an hour of haggling he agreed not to charge me for most of the valve cover replacement. I think my next step will be to visit the department of consumer affairs website.

 

Forgot to mention, I hooked up a scan gauge when I got home ( 2 miles to my house and the car was now throwing a code 2187). This morning it was bad enough for the yellow check engine light and the car was almost stalling out at idle. No other codes on my scangauge II. I'm taking it to another shop i trust who is having a "mini guy" come in and take a look. Coincidence? possible, I'm hoping its not related to them removing the valve cover, but I'll find out on Tuesday when the car gets checked over.

 

Not a good video.

#1. He didn't check the chain slack!
#2. He didn't mention putting the valves at TDC
#3. I have seen some controversy about this last one, but he did not install the locating pin (Special Tool 11 9 590) to lock the position of the engine. which is clearly in the Mini service manual.

 

If you were to print the applicable repair procedure from https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/ , you probably won't see much difference between the S and Justa procedures. Granted, these aren't TSB's, but they are almost, if not identical to the dealer procedures.

 

Not any difference that I can see. I'm getting a 2187, hoping they just knocked some hoses loose somewhere and it's not coming from the valve cover. Of course life being what it is it my fuel pump might have bit the dust by coincidence.