HI! I am new to the forum, but I have owned my 2010 Mini Cooper S for about 3 years now. Within the last month I have has the timing chain tensioners, housing, assembly and chain go out. The oil filter gasket replaced and two weeks after that my car is back at Mini for the water pump and thermostat. There's 65k on it and a month after I bought it, used, the clutch went out. Luckily that was covered by Mini. I am looking for opinions on this situation....is there a good chance I will continue to have issues? Should I find a way to get a new car? I owe more than this one is worth on it now, but I am worried it will continue to go down hill from here and after $4000 worth of repairs....I can't afford more.
Thoughts?
Thank you!

 

First of all you're not the first person to have expensive repairs with a 2007 - 2010 MCS because of the N14 engine. I'm sorry to hear that you have had to spend $4,000 on the car.

As long as the car is not burning oil...I'd try to get a few more miles out of it

 

I believe you have all the major things covered , i have done all of those , and after that it was fine. Just change the oil regularly and check the oil level very often.

 

Sounds like my story. My transmission is on the garage floor right now, just replaced my failed clutch. I've dealt with everything you've listed, except the thermostat. The only other thing I've encountered is a failed high-pressure fuel pump, which is covered by an extended warranty. It's expensive outside of warranty.

I'm wondering how long the new timing chain and tensioner set-up is supposed to last... The first one was rated at 120,000 miles I believe. Mine lasted less than 40,000.

 

Wow, I am looking at a repair bill for virtually the same set of things, although my estimate is a bit lower at around 3000. I am trying to decide whether to junk the car. At least I will get some of it back in the class action suit. Thinking of taking it into a dealer to see if they will just do that part for free but I don't want to dog my regular shop.

 

To the OP, MINI has extended the timing chain warranty to 7 years 100,000 miles so you shouldn't have to pay, or you can get reimbursed.

The high pressure fuel pump may eventually need replacing and is covered 10 years and 120,000 miles for all vehicles. Mine failed after 55,000 miles.

You may need a new diverter valves at some point but they are less than $60 and you can replace it yourself.

You may need a new turbo oil feed/supply line at some point as the turbo heat cracks an o-ring in the line. There is a lot of labor to replace it but the parts are inexpensive. MINI had a campaign to add a small heat shield wrap a few years ago that helps reduce the heat exposure of that line.

Check out my posts in this thread: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-70-000-a.html

I think you've experienced a lot of the same issues many of us have. If I were you I would keep the car, just plan on replacing those failing parts periodically.

 

We had our engine replaced on our 2009 mini Cooper S in 2014. I thought it was due to timing chain. Now that there is a law suit pending, I went to look at the invoice and it states this:

"exhaust cam bolt broken, causing catastrophic engine failure. removed value cover and found exhaust cam gear bolt broken. Vacuum pump locked up. Replaced Engine as per goodwill".

We still had to pay $1,555.38. I thought I could claim this portion. But the description says nothing about timing chain.

Is any of the issues relating to the timing chain breaking first? It rattled and then locked up. It had to be towed. First to a non mini shop who did not want to touch it since it could be a warranty issues. Then we towed it to mini where it sat for days.

We have had other work done to, but this is the invoice which had the engine replaced.

FYI, I am not versed in anything mechanical concerning cars.

 

You got a smoking great deal getting the engine replaced for $1555. I've read on this site a time or two before about the vacuum pump locking up and causing catastrophic engine failure, but the vacuum pump seems like such a simple device (I've had one apart) that I don't see how it could lock up unless it ran dry of oil. I haven't seen any proof that a vacuum pump can lock up. I'd like to see photos of one that is locked up. Can you get the old vacuum pump and take it apart?

 

no, this happened in 2014. They told me it was low on oil and I was very surprised We follow the recommended procedures on everything and was recently in the shop

It made a very loud rattling noise first which I told them.

So in filling out this claim, they replaced many things on warranty including the timing chain since we already had it replaced once.

I also argued we bought the extended warranty package which basically the maintenance which would be performed under that would not be needed if we replace the engine. So I paid alot of money for oil changes.

So need some advise as to filling out this claim. Will it not be looked at since the description does not say timing chain was the cause? I questioned them at the time which happened first cause the timing chain was broken

 

I think you have no chance of filing a claim for timing chain reimbursement because the timing chain did not cause the failure even though the timing chain, guides, and tensioner may have been damaged when this happened. The vacuum pump is driven by the end of one of the camshafts. If the vacuum pump locks up then so does that camshaft, and of course the camshaft is attached to the timing chain which tries to keep going because it is driven by the crankshaft. So lots of parts get damaged when the vacuum pump or a camshaft locks up. I don't think that hearing a rattle before/during the incident is justification to say that the timing chain caused the failure. Surely there would be lots of noises when this happens.

Also it is doesn't sound like the $1555 you paid was specifically/solely for the timing chain. I assume that a new timing chain was included with the new engine. You didn't pay for the timing chain separately. Your bill apparently doesn't even mention the timing chain. What was the $1555 for specifically and how was it calculated?

It doesn't hurt to try filing a claim though. I do think they'll at least look at it, but they're going to look at your receipt closely. It seems like the timing chain was not involved in the incident.

 

A broken timing chain would not cause a locked vacuum pump, but a locked vacuum pump would cause a broken timing chain.

If you had an extended warranty then why did you have to pay $1555? Is it because the engine was low on oil so the dealership put some blame on you? Did you check the oil level yourself after the incident?

 

My suspicion is that the dealer says that the engine was low on oil causing the vacuum pump to lock up causing one of the camshafts to jam putting an extreme force on the timing chain, possibly breaking it, damaging the camshaft gear, and if the valves get out of time with the pistons they will collide. I am just curious what the engine oil level was at the time of the incident, so did you check it?

Too bad you don't have the old vacuum pump. I am so curious to know what a locked up one looks like inside. I think it would be easy to tell if it overheated and locked up because it should appear burnt inside rather than shiny. I replaced my vacuum pump at around 65,000 miles. The old one looked really clean inside. I don't really recommend opening it up because it may not seal properly afterwards. There is an orange square-profiled o-ring that separates the two halves. I reinstalled the old vacuum pump after disassembling and reassembling it, along with a new black o-ring that seals the pump to the head, but the orange oring between the two halves leaked even after clinching down the bolts. You cannot purchase the orange o-ring separately as far as I know so unless you use some sort of sealant you'll need to purchase a new vacuum pump.

There was more oil inside the old vacuum pump than I expected, so I wonder if that is a bad sign or just normal or if there is a flow restriction or internal leak somewhere. I wonder if the vacuum pump hydrolocks with an excess of oil and locks up or if it locks up by running dry of oil and overheats locking up. If the engine oil was low then it suggests the vacuum pump ran low on oil and overheated locking up. If the engine oil level was actually okay then perhaps the vacuum pump had some other problem.

So unfortunately there is no extended warranty on the vacuum pump, or the thermostat housing for that matter and the thermostat housing fails much quicker, but in the case of the vacuum pump it seems like encountering a low oil condition is the most likely cause of failure.

 

I just heard about the Class Action suit and the extension of the warranty to 7 years/100,000 miles. I own a 2010 MCS R56 with the N14. So I sent an email to the Director of Operations at the local MINI dealership, she asked for my VIN, emailed back and said that my car is not covered by the new warranty extension, and to call her to discuss things further. Haven't called her yet. My car runs fine, but I do notice some rattling noises upon start up coming from the timing chain and tensioners. I'm not sure what to do next. Oh, she did mention that MINI handles some of these cars on a case by case basis, maybe I should call her. I've got 71,000 on the car now and it has had two updates by the dealer; turbo heat shield and auxiliary water pump.