Well i am here to tell you mini of nashville is useless. My car is now in for mis-fire issues. This is there second crack at fixing it. They said it was fixed with a new fuel pump and it was not apparently. I have 4800 miles on the car now when they fixed it had 3000 miles. So in 1800 miles the car has broken down yet again. Now black smoke comes out the back of the car on start. The rattle is back. This time they are going to keep the car till they think they have it fixed. I am thinking i got a lemon in all honestly. They have tried new fuel pump that did not work. This is getting a touch iratating.
When i droped off the car friday for a review since i was going out of town i did not want the car to die half way through my weekend trip. They were giving me the whole we are getting alot of lights from the weather. I am not joking the SA actualy said the weather was causing CEL.

 

Hang in there! The root cause of this dust-up is a poorly designed $20 part (a thumb-sized hydraulic piston), probably sourced from a 3rd world country that puts lead in toothpaste. MINI is in the process of replacing a lot of those pistons world-wide, so shortages has been reported. Pro-active dealership service advisors who take the time to actually read the bulletins (remember, SAs are schedulers, not mechanics) have ordered supplies in advance, others haven't.

The good news is that the problem has been verified by BMW, an effective warranty fix (SIM-11-02-07) has finally been published, but many dealerships and their service advisors are still working their way up the knowledge curve.

I smell a bit of BS in your service advisor's comments. Once the timing chain rattle has been verified by the techs, they install the new tensioner piston, then measure the deflection of the timing chain at a given torque value. This procedure measures the accumulated wear caused by the loose chain on its links, the guides, and rail surfaces. If the chain deflection exceeds a given number, lots of timing chain system parts are replaced. However, the shop must first send the measurements (and some other information from the car's computers) to the regional BMW engineer, who then authorizes the changeout of worn parts.

You have a new car. There should be no significant accumulated wear on the chain, crankshaft sprocket, or guides with your low mileage. All your car needs is a new $20 piston, which is a quick process not much more complicated than changing spark plugs, and engineer authorization is not required.

Rip them a new one when MINI sends you the followup email questionaire.

Once it's fixed, enjoy the car! They are fun to drive.

 

the issue is the tech verifying the issue. They know just like bmw knows that all the cars will have issues. I have a video of it and the video shows my vin. This is not good enough evidence to them. I think this is lame as video evidence of the noise showing my vin is good enough in a court of law why not for a simple $20 warrenty claim i am not sure i get it. The $20 part saves them the 1000k worth of wear parts. To think the germans are supposed to be a logical people and they do some pretty stupid stuff

 

I got the car returned to me late last night via MINI re-unite and from the invoice they had to do the full monte on my car. They had the measurements at 68.4mm I just hope they used the correct part numbers somehow I lost all hope with my dealer.

 

"... they had to do the full monte on my car"

Wow! I would have never guessed a new engine would have needed a full swap-out of parts like that. What was your total mileage when it went into the shop?

So far, the Portland OR MINI dealership reports no "come-backs" on any of the cars with the full package. I had the package installed on my '07 MCS last month, and it purrs like a Honda on every start.

 

It had just turned over 4k the morning I had it towed in.

 

Mine measured 68mm and they did not give me the full monte. I thought the cut off was 69 mm. I already have the new tensioner and still have the start up noise. I suspect that wear occured before they came up with the tensioner fix.

I'm still trying to find out what the range of measurements is on the chain deflection.

 

i received an email from Long Beach today, apologizing for the poor service (after I responded to the survey they send out afterwards)... they offered to drive down and pick up my car and drop off a loaner... not yet decided on what to do... it rained here in southern ca this morning... and my car did it again... now all i do is rev the car up... and drive it until it goes away... im not sure it's worth the hassle at this point...

 

Marshall
per my copy of SI M 11 02 07 it states in
item 12: If the distance (A) is less than 68mm, then only replace the chain tensioner with P/N 11 31 7 598 956, as per Repair Instruction RA 11 31 090 ............
item 13: If the distance (A) is 68mm or greater, then replace the following components. Chain tensioner, Timing chain, Guide rail, Tenstioner rail, Sliding rail, Sprocket on the crankshaft, Bearing bolts for the tensioner and guide rails.

Hope this helps

 

As Yum Yum Driver can prove, it doesn't take more than a few thousand miles to do serious damage to the timing chain system with a defective chain tensioner installed. Remember what finally got BMW to roll out the latest fix was a rapidly increasing pile of destroyed engines due to chain failure. Unlike the '02-06 MCS Tritec engine, the '07-09 Prince turbo motor is not "free wheeling". The older Tritec engine used a cylinder head design wherein if the chain failed the pistons and open valves could not hit each other. Not so with the "Prince" engine design - a broken chain will result in catastrophic damage. In theory, timing chains should never break on modern engines and any abnormal noise from that system should be remedied pronto.

So yeah, definitely get that chain tensioner replaced asap. Print out your copy of SIM-11-02-07, hand it to the dealer, and tell them to fix it. Good luck!

 

This is great news. I just ordered from MINI of Nashville. My MA isn't real good about contacting me with confirmations of order slots, etc. I hope this doesn't carry over to service.

 

Actually the tritec uses a chain also.

 

i decided to give my dealer anorhter call today... i did not tell them of my history with them... hahaha.... you know what i got? "i do not know of any issue sir"... "where is it coming from"... "hmmm... i havent heard of anything"

she advised that i could bring it in again... leave it overnight... and then drive back up the next day to try and replicate it myself for the tech... i've given them reference numbers to no avail...

SOOOOOOO... i guess i'll have to find an incline... as that's worked... yesterday when i washed my car, it made the noise... i guess ill park it on an incline and have them wash my car early in the morning... just to make sure it does it for sure!!!

 

check engine light

misfire issues

cylinder head replacement

NO PARTS

car in shop since 4/30

disgusted

 

uh oh... im dropping off my car again today... i gots me a check engine light...

 

Damn! I didn't know that's what the noise I heard was as I live in SoCal so it's never that cold. However, I park on a slant and the only time it makes the noise is when it's pointed down hill.

Good thing I'm headed in for service tomorrow, I'll add it to the list.

 

People have heard it here in AZ once in a while so its not isolated to cold weather only climates. Heck my car did it twice this past year. I asked service and they know about it and said to bring it in if it did it again. Although its 106 out today so I highly doubt it will do it again anytime soon .

 

Marshall,

You've mentioned taking your car to Long Beach MINI.

I've had excellent service at South Bay MINI with SA Stacy W. and tech Brian White. Maybe you should give her a call and see what she can do for you?

In any case, keep us posted.

Jeff

 

So I left my car with the dealer overnight Monday, parked it nose down and all. Next day when I enquire on status, fully expecting to hear a response like "we didn't find anything" I was pleasantly surprised to hear they have a new timing chain tensioner on order from Germany.
I'd like to think that insisting they staple a document to the work order I made up with text snippets from Motoring File and other net sources helped.
The work order states they measured 64.5mm deflection in the chain vs. a max. allowable of 68mm, so first step (and hopefully the cure) is the new tensioner install.

 

Just dropped mine off with Stacy and Brian this morning, they are the best. Parked mine nose down last night and sure enough it made the noise this morning.

 

The term "cold start" refers to an initial start-up after the engine has sat for over 5-6 hours and cooled to ambient temperature, not frigid cold per se. If your engine has a defective tensioner piston (not all do), the internal seals may not hold it's normal extended position after shut-down, and it will "collapse" into a retracted position. This also apparently depletes the piston's internal oil supply, and it fills with air. It takes about 2 minutes of engine run time to purge the air out of the piston, during which time your timing chain is not tensioned properly. The resultant slack wave is impacting the tensioner guide, rails, chain, and sprocket. Damage is occurring when you hear that gawd-awful racket. Definitely contact your dealership and get the problem entered into your car's files. The sooner the tensioner gets fixed, the cheaper it is for BMW. The "full monty" repair is very expensive for them.

Parking the car in a significant nose-low attitude, which effectively tilts the engine to one side, tends to increase the chance of piston collapse.

 

Marshall,

How many miles do you have on your car?

 

Got mine back this week with a new tensioner (chain was in spec), haven't tested myself yet, but they said they did the morning I picked it up and no noise was heard.

Fixed a couple other issues I was having, Stacy and Brian are the best at South Bay Mini, I hope they never leave!