Hello, I have 2009 Justa Mini. Luckily, no real issues.

I am taking a Masters of Engineering class in Systems Engineering. This particular class deals with reliability. I have decided to write about the MINI. Can anyone help me to understand why so many MINI Cooper timing chains are breaking / causing other parts of the engine to fail?

 

my understanding is since the oil change intervals are so far apart, people are negligent and not checking their oil levels regularly and topping it off to keep it full. The tensioner for the timing chain's tension is hydraulically tensioned by the engine oil. If the engine oil levels are falling bc the car burns up excessive oil, the tensioner loses tension and your timing chain gets loose, skips a tooth on the camshaft sprockets, and bam, piston hits a valve, or it's way out of time that it takes a couple valves out which would then require head work, and new pistons and whatever else hit each other and broke

 

This is a subject that has been covered many times, in great detail. I believe you would find sufficient information for your research already exists in these forums.

You would probably be best off using Google to search these forums (keyword: northamericanmotoring) and read every thread about the timing chain issues and their reliability.

Just my 2€.