Whew! Good to know that's one less thing to worry about.

 

Speaking of the PCV, mine broke, I have to replace the whole valve cover with it lmao, at 54k miles!!!

 

I got the old boy back last friday and took him for a spin up to Northern CA for the weekend. He's got his pep back in his step and the gas mileage is noticeably better (averaged 35mpg at an average speed of 85mph- okay maybe 90). I guess I've been babying him too much- aggressive driving seems to be a regular requirement. Duly noted. :-)

It was a pricy fix, but what's done is done. We move forward. The upside is The MINI is driving like a champ, and it pushed me to get a 98' yamaha v-star to handle the piddly 3 mile commute to work, which seemed to be contributing to the carbon buildup issue.

 

Did they remove the head to do the cleaning? How much did it cost?

 

phxsteele, yup- pulled the head and sent it out for a valve job. Total for the whole job ended up being $2800. I think the valve job was in the neighborhood of $350.00 from the machine shop, so if you can do the labor yourself, you'll save a buttload of cash. I'm not mechanically inclined, and I doubt my landlord would appreciate a tear-down in the carport of my building. My mechanic isn't the cheapest, but I trust him. For what it's worth.

 

Just to be clear, pulling the head is not the standard for carbon build up cleaning from MINI's point of view. The BMW/MINI process is to use a combination wand that inject walnut shell particles under compressed air and vacuums it out with a shopvac connection at the same time.

The process is completed by removing the intake manifold from the car. There are threads here that talk about DIY solutions people have done. You can buy the hand wand tool. Others have pieced it together with parts from places such as Harbor Freight.

I think pricing is for a shop to walnut blast your intake valves is going to depend on your location and the shops around. In my area, I believe the dealer was $800-900 if I recall. I had Helix do mine at the Dragon this year and paid like $350 I think. Worth every penny.

LTMW has had group buys in Cali that were good prices I think.

Not sure if the original poster had other mechanical issues that were addressed by pulling the head. I just didn't want people to get the impression that carbon cleaning is that expensive of a job normally.

 

That is what I was going to say. Head removal is not necessary for carbon cleaning. I followed the diy thread and bought the materials for less than 70 bucks and did it myself. Runs so much smoother.

 

Correct- not standard for MINI/BMW, however I decided not to go to the dealership. Seeing as they did the walnut blasting procedure just over 25,000 miles ago, and when I took it in for the "recommended" oil change after 10,000 miles (waaaay too long, in my opinion) they suddenly found an oil leak worth $800.00. Two different dealerships, mind you. My confidence in the dealership way is shaken, to say the least. The valve job may have been old school, but I know it was done right, and thorough.

As far as the diy route, with a place to do it and some spare time, I'd have probably opted for that.

 

I just went through this recently (3weeks ago). In and out of the shop (mini dealer mechanics) for a long 2 weeks. The first time it was in, they said it could be carbon deposits. After week #1, it ran for one day before it started to act the way. My bill was 1,007.00. Ended up taking it back and it turns out that it was the fuel pump that was bad. And, and.....ready, hear this. It was under warranty!! So, do you think I should've received any type of money due to the issue was under warranty?!
Ok, ok, that was the icing on the cake for me. Not only did that happen. Just bad communication in general with the mini service department. Customer service was good...when ever you had someone to answer the phone. Just trying to get someone to help you was a mission.

 

Here's the DIY write up. Make sure you use the 0.20" tubing as specified and modify the Harbor Freight gun as shown. Several posters have tried larger tubing or other variations on the gun and it can drastically reduce cleaning capability by reducing the impact speed of the walnut shells striking the carbon build up. The set up described would clean a heavily deposited valve in less than 5 minutes. Good luck!

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ss-3-27-13.pdf

 

SO is this problem more in colder climates than warm ? Or is there just
more water from condensation ? I don't think the water would be any
issue and no need to trap that.

And is there any proof or documentation to show a OCC helps ?

I love my new car but the more I find out the more I think I'll be trading
it in 4 yrs to avoid breaking the bank on maint.

 

Number 1 your looking at the exhaust valves the intake is where the carbon builds.

Number 2 why is the head off if you dont know what your doing.

Number 3 what kind of gypsy mechanic put oil in their cylinders

they wouldnt do that at your local mini dealer

 

Ethanol does not cause carbon build up

 

hi,

does anyone know if this is covered under a CPO warranty? If not, is it covered under the extended maintenance plan?

Thanks!

 

It should be under the CPO warranty, just a $50 deductible. This is not covered under the maintenance plan (it should, like a clutch).

 

So, How much does this process cost if done in a shop? I don't have a shop and build pianos, not cars ;>) I should start saving now??

 

If you want to know what the procedure costs in your area (It's more expensive in high rent areas than in the boonies, like most everything else) why not call your dealer and ask?


Here in KC it ranges from $400 to $700 at our local dealer, depending on what all they do - the higher price includes updating the software.


The one sure thing I've seen that helps this problem is to switch to the newer valve cover with the updated PVC system, especially for those cars that are using copious quantities of oil.


I built a home built system to do this as a maintenance item on my car for about $150 (Including a $25 box of walnut shells) but I think the average owner can get it done for around $400 from an independent shop in their area.


Be aware that this issue is NOT limited to MINIs, many, many, many direct injected cars are having similar problems, so this is not an uncommon procedure anymore to fix, and it does not require pulling the head.


In the OP's case, I think since the carbon buildup was inside the cylinders, a valve job was called for, and he should invest in the new valve cover too, since he's had the issue in so few miles, he's obviously burning some oil.


The carboning of the intake ports is not caused by oil usage per se, but by oil vapors in the intake tract - driving it like you stole it will do nothing to help this - cause I run mine on track (which is far harder than you could ever do on the street) and mine at 50K is carboned up too. The problem is oil vapors deposited on the back side of the intake valves and in the ports, driving hard does nothing to clean that up.

 

Excellent advice. Too bad there are no Mini dealers around Lincoln. There is a BMW dealer. I guess they would know what they're doing. Perhaps Omaha? I haven't looked that far yet, as no problems are rearing their ugly head jobs yet, ;>) My broker gave me a name of a great mechanic who services his very nice Porsche, so I'll also give him a jingle. A private mechanic. I wish my brother in law lived here. He is a certified Porsche Audi master mechanic who also built the engine for the "Blue Flame" jet car that set world land speed records in Bonneville in the day. He's in Colorado though, so only can call for advice. He built up the Audi A-4 my son had until an old man smashed into him ending the Audi's life. My son is OK! It was a bullet with 275 hp, alum flywheel, comp clutch and some sort of way cool gear box. Sad to see it go. It would have spanked all our Minis on straits or curves. It was one of a kind. Sad ,but true.

Loving the mini! What a ride, what a ride!!

I'll pray for the lower end $ on this kind of job being in the plains. My 05 MCS has 69K and seems to run just fine, so hopefully the previous owner did the job before trading in, or at least in the last 20K miles. Of course, I don't know yet what I have to judge on performance. It's quicker than my old RX-7 and Honda CRX-si, and performs like the stats, but what does that mean? I'm always running premium no ethanol in it at Shell. Nice that gas prices have taken a huge drop in the last month. Great timing eh?

 

Lincoln has 260,000 people. Omaha area about 500,000. Game day at memorial Stadium = 95,000 people, the 3rd largest city in Nebraska! Outside of that, there's nobody out here in a very large state. Hence, the lack of Mini dealerships.