My wife was driving her 2009 Mini Cooper S home from work this afternoon and said she heard the engine make some awful noises and the oil light came on. She pulled over at the next exit into a parking lot. She called me and I left work to check out the issue. This is what I saw...











I checked the dipstick and there's not a drop left in the engine. I couldn't see much from under the hood except for a large black tube on the pass. side that comes up from the rear of the engine bay then goes down in the front. It had some oil that was coming from a fitting on the back side.

I'm not very familiar with these motors as it's my wife's car but I'm not very happy with this. We had to have it towed to a yard where it will sit until Monday then the towing company will tow it to the dealership first thing Monday morning on Mini's dime. Then we are going down there to have the dealership provide a loaner.

Anyone else experienced this type of carnage?

 

Nope, appears it blew out all the oil. Should be covered under warranty, if she stopped in time no major damage should have occurred.

If not, let MINI fix it and get a loaner. How sad.

 

Well she probably drove less than or right at a mile to get some place safe where she could stop.

I'm just curious HOW it blew out all the oil. It's always sounded like it had sort of a rattle when the engine was running especially at start up, but the dealership said nothing was wrong so I just assume that's how it sounds.

 

wow scary, keep us updated!

 

There have been several cars where the timing chain tensioner has backed out of the head - when it does it blows all the oil out of the engine thru the hole, since it's oil pressure that tensions the chain....

So, one of several scenarios here, they screw in the tensioner, fill up the oil and all is fine. or you get a new engine.....

Either way, they will fix it and it won't happen again, as the problem was caused by improper installation of the tensioner at the factory. They;ve since made sure they're all tight.

 

Post us back the results. You would think the tensioner screw would be a recall......

The front tires tell me you don't get snow...... well maybe this year you did.....

 

Whoa, not good. That's why I like oil pressure guages. Good luck !

 

Agreed, that's the sort of thing I never want to see under my car. Again, let us know what happened!

Best of luck -

 

ugly is an understatement. My guess is an ejected tensioner. Good luck!

 

Yes, classic timing chain tensioner failure. Not every engine has the problem, so it's not a recall thing. It is as if they had one guy who was installing the tensioner without torquing them down.

Dave

 

Right on the money. However they seem to have done quite a bit more than just screw it in and fill up the oil and a lot less than replace the engine. Overall I am quite disatisfied with the customer service. They did not clean the underside of the car and remove the front wheel to clean out all the oil residue like they said they did. And last night my wife arrived home to find a plastic cover dragging on the ground under the right front bumper. It had 3 screws that were supposed to be holding it in, but only 1 of them were screwed in. I was able to get one more back in, but the other was just not happening. I'm going back down tomorrow to speak with the service manager and let them know how unsatisfied I am with this whole experience.

Here's the invoice (The mileage listed is incorrect as well. It has under 14k miles on it.):

 

I think you definitely should go talk to the service manager....and definitely get the mileage on the repair order corrected, and corrected with MINI too. It could be important later.

So the repair order is pretty clear, when the tensioner backed out it let the chain get too loose and the pistons and a bunch of the valves got together and 2 exhaust valves and all of the intakes were bent. So, new valves, valve job, they pulled the pan to get the broken bits of the chain guides out and replaced all the timing chain parts. It's not clear, but it says the cam was worn, yet they didn't replace it according to the posted repair order - it also says it was sheared. I think they meant the cam drive bolts were sheared, but it's not very clear.

I honestly don't know how I'd feel about this car and the repairs, especially since they left so many loose ends, and didn't even clean the damn thing up.....

I guess I'd give it a second chance, but if there's another dealer in your area, I might consider changing where I get my car worked on in the future. If something major happens again I have to believe I'd be talking to MINI about a replacement car.

All this over an incorrectly torqued part.......

 

On top of all this the service advisor I was dealing with never gave me a "cause" until the day it was picked up. All he could tell me was they had to send the heads out and they were waiting to get them back, and that they had to do a valve job. I am not comfortable with this motor now at ALL. I am going to request that they either replace the motor or buy the car back.

 

Wow, sorry to hear about all of this. So you had the sold start death rattle and they said it was just fine? I had mine make the noise and I took video of it and they immediately asked to fix the car before such a thing happened to me.

 

I would absolutely demand a new motor or a buy back. I don't blame you. Actually.....I would demand a buy back. I wouldn't even want another MINI had this happened to me. There is no excuse for this. And now...you have to live with this for however long you are still making payments. No f_cking way!

 

It's getting sold as soon as we buy our house in May.

 

Can't say that I blame you!

 

My 2010 Clubman S did the same thing last night. Still waiting to hear from the dealer (they were great last night and took car of everything so far). But this was a replacement for my 2009 MINI which BMW had to buy back because of the timing chain issue I really hate to go through this again.
Riggz if you don't mind me asking, how long did it take them to do the repair?

 

Took them right at 5 days.

 

I just got back home from picking up my 2010 Clubman from the dealer. It was leaking oil, which I noticed as it left wonderful stains on my driveway and garage floor. The problem was- the tensioner bolt was loose, and unscrewing itself. Luckily, it hadn't come all the way out, which is what your's looks like.

From reading the posts on this problem, it's rather interesting to see that Mini is taking the approach of wait-and-see, rather than be proactive and fix the problem before the car ever leaves a dealership. Funny that we listen to all the hype about Mini being a cut above, but in reality it's just another generic car manufacturer at its core.

By the way, I asked the service writer what was actually 'fixed'. The answer 'The tensioner bolt was retorqued to manufacturer's specifications'. He didn't have an answer for the next question- 'If it came loose once, how do you know that this won't happen again?'

 

I had the same thing happen to my 10 clubman 2 weeks ago, now the only issue is the pass front wheel was filed with oil and it sprays it everywhere... guess I'll have to wait until its been spun out.

 

Because they know it wasn't torqued properly at the factory, but they don't know which engines that applies to. Remember, they buy the engines from someone else (Peugeot was it?) so MINI never touches them till they install them....

Talk about being pro-active, why not take your car in to your dealership and ask them to check yours, once torqued properly it won't back out again - that's pro-active to me, not waiting for your mfr to call you up or send you mail asking you to bring your car in so they can tighten a nut. Either that or get out a wrench and torque it yourself! I believe it's 45 ft lbs......

And Fire Capt, any reason you can't take your wheel off and clean it?

 

I just got mine back and it was the timing chain sensor had come loose. Luckily I was able to shut down the car right away, so I guess I dodged a bullet in that there was no internal damage was done. The chain tensioner was also replaced as part of the repair. My dealer was awesome to deal with and my SA went above and beyond my expectations on getting the car cleaned up and back to me.

 

incorrect. The engines are assembled by MINI at a place called Hams Hall in the UK.

 

Where is this tensioner? I've noticed this problem from time to time. Before spending time at the dealer, I'd be interested in seeing if I'm anywhere near 45 ft lbs.