Fire did not occur, but there is a risk. Many mini cooper models with turbochargers are experiencing a leaky oil feed line to the turbo after approximately 25,000 miles. Due to a poorly insulated rubber gasket. It is a manufacturing flaw, but mini has failed to acknowledge the issue. This is a fire risk. The oil is allowed to leak into the engine bay, and it can destroy the engine because mini coopers do not have an oil sensor.
2009 MINI Cooper S engine complaints
Page 3 of 4: complaints 41 to 70 of 80, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Was told by mechanic at dealership timing chain tensioner had been replaced while in for service in past but now it needs replaced another employee 2 days later says no record of it. I need to pay full amount. Too early for timing chain replacement to be required in a decent car. Defect. Needs recall.
I started the car and a loud rattling noise came from the engine. I drove about 5 miles and the oil check light came on. I decided to take it to a jiffy lube that was within 2 miles and then the engine light came on. By the time I got to jiffy lube the car didn't have any oil left. The car was serviced by the mini dealer only 4 months prior. Had the car towed 1 1/2 hours to the nearest mini dealer. Most of the damage was caused by the timing tensioner chain. The dealer said mini would cover those repairs but the turbo oil feed line was leaking too and I would have to pay for that. It cost me $900.00. I asked if the car had a heat on it and he said no but that I don't really need one. I thought there had been a service bulletin put out specifically because of the heat from the turbo causing this issue but he said it had nothing to do with it.
Fuel leak a/p mini service; not covered by extended warranty; after extensive research advised service representative of the reported design flaw in crimp device holding oil line connecting to turbo. Advised by independent mechanic turbo unit defective, needs replacement. Mini of fairfield returned vehicle in an unsafe manner with stripped bolts and improper placement of oil pan. After calling bmw of north america mini of fairfield decided to change oil lines without changing turbo unit. On driving vehicle noticed smoke coming from hood; vehicle revving in park, and a metallic sound coming from under vehicle; returned to mini service and after further evaluation (diagnostic fee $100)I was advised that car is safe to drive; I tried 2 different mini service departments neither would replace turbo unit considering the fire hazard as reported.
Check engine light came on....excessive carbon build up. Happened again at 68k miles ....
I purchased this car with 24k miles on it. It now has a little over 28k miles. It has been starting and running just fine, until the weather turned colder. Now if the car sits outside for a few hours with the temp below about 45 degrees, the engine rattles and sounds horrible when I first start it. This is a very loud rattle coming from the passenger side of the engine. The noise is so bad that I am afraid to drive the car until it warms up and the sound goes away. After a little research online, I am shocked to see how many people have this problem and that it is the timing chain tensioner and guide system. I wish I had researched these cars before making a purchase because now I own an expensive problem.
Mini cooper sent a recall for a faulty timing chain in my 2009 mini cooper. This is the 2nd timing chain repair in 2 years. When I had it in for the repair I informed the tech I smelled oil burning after the vehicle was running during a highway drive. They looked at the car and informed me the turbo lines were leaking which pose a risk if I left it unrepaired. The turbo line repair is a $1000 repair on a car with less than 35000 miles. The tech informed me that they were going to put a heat shield on the vehicle also as part of a recall. Perhaps this shield should have been installed prior and the line would still be intact.
Timing chain broke..I was driving on the road on my way home coming to a stop sign slowing my speed luckily to make a left turn when I heard an awful noise coming from the engine. I tried making my left turn when the light turned green and it started sputtering very slowly moving. I made it home sputtering..luckily was close to home otherwise I would had to have it towed. After some long and frustrating troubleshooting from a nice neighbor, he found out that the timing chain had broken causing several other problems. He also found out that it had very little or no oil. Which I had no indication from the car computer that it was even low. This may have contributed to the timing chain problem but again I had no car indication. It will cost me at least $7000.00 for cost and labor to fix since it is not under warranty or not even sure if it's covered...this is my 3rd mini..first one was a leased one and I upgraded to a mini s when the lease was over and leased another one. I bought this one when the second lease was over..ever since I bought this one..I have had so many problems with the engine. Everything is documented on how many times I have taken it in...so very disappointed with this one!!!!
Total loss of power as I was crossing a major highway, car towed to local bmw certified mechanic, shows timing chain misfire, needs total replacement with multiple components needing replaced due to timing chain problem. 3300$ worth of damage to engine. Apparent problem with timing chain on thousands of mini cooper and they have not called a recall on the piece. This was almost a major accident for me and is causing me thousands of dollars to replace and major inconvenience.
Upon startup of the engine, there is a loud noise coming from the engine. A very unhealthy sound. Sound is unusual for any gas engine, let alone one with only 57,000 miles. *js searched the internet for other mini coopers experiencing this problem. Many complaints all over the internet for exactly this problem. Many owners reporting early engine failure, as early as 12,000 miles reported by a mini dealer in maine. Most owners are seeing the problem with 40-50,000+ miles. The local mini dealer says the repair is not covered by warranty, and repairs are approx. $2,000. Timing chains usually do not need replacement even after 100,000 of use, some cars never replace timing chains until 200,000 miles. This car seems to eat timing chains around 40-50,000 miles.
Check engine light came on. Checked it and its the thermostat. I had replaced the thermostat 1 year ago and now again. Went to the dealership here in san antonio, tx and they told me their on back order. Apparently 17,000 on backorder! Its almost been a month and a half and my car is still in my garage with no definite answer from mini. There has to be a bigger issue that is being covered up by mini.
Started to hear a knocking noise coming from the engine compartment. Issue with the time chain. So bent out of shape that the chain almost broke. I have always kept on top of changing my oil and getting my car serviced everytime it need it so I don't understand why this would even happen. When researching my problem I saw that its extremely common for models since 2007+ to experience this. This needs to be recalled. There's no reason for a owner to have to pay 200-2000 dollars when they have done everything right with servicing and oil changes etc. Im just glad I wasn't on the highway when this happened to me because having your engine belt break in a busy highway doesn't sound safe.
Third complaint and counting..... I went to start my mini, only to notice it was leaking oil heavily under my car. I brought it to my repair shop who told me it might be the o ring. They replaced it and told me to bring it back a week later. I returned friday july 19th to have them look under the hood. There was oil everywhere. All over the engine. The seal was fine! It turns out the vacuum pump needs to be replaced and possibly the timing chain at a later date. The cost for the pump and labor is $574.00. So far I have spent almost $4000.00 on repairs. I don't have an estimate for the timing chain, I can only imagine. I only bought my mini in february at 49k miles and she's been in the shop longer than she's been driven. I don't know what to do any more and wish that bmw/mini would acknowledge that all r56 engines are defective. If I known I would have bought another better reliable car than a mini and that is coming from a person who loves my mini.
This is the second complaint I've made within six months of purchase: I was driving along the highway at 70mph when the reduce speed engine light came on. Before I had a chance to reduce speed the car came to a complete stop on the fast lane of the highway. The car behind me swerved as I managed to restart my 2009 mini cooper s and pull into the slow lane. I managed to avoid collision and placed hazards on. I got my mini to brady's auto repair. The mechanic told me that the loss of engine power was due to turbocharge failure on an original mini part. He said that bmw done a recall for the same part which is in the 2009 mini cooper s and couldn't figure out why they hadn't done it for mini. The turbocharge was completely replaced on my mini at the expense of $2778.47. I contacted mini which stated that there is no recourse and nothing they can do. I'm responsible for the repair. I am not happy with this at all as I had my two children in the mini when this incident happened and it could have lead to loss of life if the driver behind me hadn't taken action. I hope the federal safety agency does investigate this matter in all mini coopers.
Fan is barely blowing out of the front vents, the air is all flowing through the bottom vents. This happens intermittently. Heat and air-conditioning works fine. Only the air flow is limited regardless of adjustments to air flow settings or temperatures.
Cpsc: i1350251a. Mini cooper s 2009. Consumer stated that the car was brought new and have several issues. *ln the consumer stated because of the late recall, issued by bmw, the oil supply line was damaged and started to leak.
First noticed the rattle while driving the car. Everytime subsequently after that whenever I turned the car on I would hear a loud rattling noise under the hood. Car is a 2009 mini cooper s with 38,005 miles on it. Timing chain and assembly needs to be replaced. Dealership quoted me $5,000 to repair. The car was just out of warranty and mini USA didn't want to help out with repair cost. Seems like a lots of these fairly new cars have this issue. Dealership that quoted me said they had 5 they were working on just this week. They expected mini to issue a recall but were surprised they hadn't. Guys in the parts department were all to familiar with all the parts that were required to fix the problem. They had them readily accessible and expressed their sympathy of having to pay $$ to fix what unquestionably is a manufacture defect. Please help us give mini a friendly nudge into issuing this recall.
Turbo oil feedline / pipe failure, resulting in leak, possibly due to excessive heat.
The timing chain has an issue and rattles really laud. This is causing issues with the vehicles idle and speed during driving.
Mini released a service bulletin (campaign: sim 11 02 12) regarding faulty timing chain tensioner. At appx. 40k miles, my cooper s was taken in for service and it was reported there was a "rattle" in the front of the engine. The dealership replaced the tensioner under warranty. Now the same issue has occurred. I am being told the entire timing chain assembly needs replacement at an approximate cost of $3k. Mini has offered to pay 1/2 the cost. There is no explanation why the repair is not covered under 2 year replacement tensioner warranty; since this original issue was only partly addressed while in 50k car warranty. My mini now has 77k. Once warranty request is submitted from dealer to mini corporate, decision is final. There is no appeal. Failure to perform service will result in engine failure in near future.
Tl* the contact owns a 2009 mini cooper s. The contact stated that while parked, the engine fan failed to deactivate. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was contacted and informed the contact that the vehicle was not included in the federal safety agency campaign number: 12v008000 (engine and engine cooling). The approximate failure mileage was 49,000.
Tl* the contact owns a 2009 mini cooper s. The contact stated that she noticed the engine had a leak. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for inspection and they stated the water pump and the turbo charger needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified. The failure mileage was 75,000.
12/14/12: I drove home from work. I had no problems driving, but heard a bit of a cold start knock. 12/15/12: car didn't start in the morning. I immediately got the car towed to herb chambers in boston, where I had exclusively taken it to every maintenance check-up and issue I had since I purchased it new at the same location, even after my warranty had expired. 12/16/12: herb chambers performed a diagnosis for $135, and said that the timing chain was broken, which would cost $2,500 to fix. However, they also said that other engine parts may be broken, but they wouldn't know until they started working on the timing chain. As you can see, I was not happy at all with this inconclusive diagnosis. Do I pay $2,500 for them to then tell me it actually needs a new engine for close to $10,000, or do I tow it elsewhere? 12/17/12: towed car to german performance service for a more complete diagnosis, which showed that the timing chain and tensioner were broken, as well as most valves and other engine parts. We conclude that it is cheaper to replace the entire engine ($3,213 + $1,980 of labor = $5,193) than to fix everything individually, which would be more labor intensive. 12/21/12: I contacted mini USA to inform them about my situation and how unpleased I was with herb chamber's extremely vague diagnosis, as well as mini's major timing chain flaw. Mini USA completely ignored my request for the sole reason that I took my car to a 3rd party mechanic. They said that if I had stayed at the dealer (even though they gave me an incomplete diagnosis), that they may have helped me out. 12/30/12: I contacted herb chambers boston with the same concerns. They understood my points, but said that unfortunately they cannot force the manufacturer to do anything they do not want to do. As a small gesture, they did give me back what they charged me for their initial diagnosis ($135).
Vehicle was taken to dealership in feb 2012 for a rattling noise. Service center at braman miami said that they could not duplicate the noise, so it was assumed they found nothing wrong with the vehicle. Prior to this, the vehicle had been in the shop 2-3 times due engine malfunction light, rough idle at cold start and loss of turbo power due to leakage in turbo oil feed lines. This was repaired in early 2012/late 2011. In december of 2012, while driving the rattling noise of the complaint in feb 2012 intensified and oil light illuminated while driving. Car was pulled over to safe location. Once car was stopped, the engine malfunction light also illuminated. Driver checked oil level, which appeared low but within the marks on the dipstick. Oil splatter was observed on the hood and on engine. Rubber gasket feeding to engine was observed to be displaced where oil appeared to have leaked out. Vehicle was towed to braman miami. Service department reported that failure was caused by timing chain/tensioner issue. Service dept is charging 17k usd for repairs as it is not found to be under the scope of warranty of previous repairs to the turbo oil feed lines. Mini has been contacted to see if any relief can be provided as this seems to be a common issue with these vehicles.
Turbo oil lines leaking oil. No check engine light has being activated.
Driving vehicle heard some engine noise and observed red oil indicator came on. Pulled over and checked oil level, appeared to be low.. I immediately put in two quarts of oil only to see it all seep out and through both front wheel wells. Appeared to be an issue with the timing chain tensioner.
The timing tensioner on my mini cooper s backed out, resulting in a massive oil loss while at highway speeds. This is apparently a known issue by mini, but no known recall has been issued at this point.
Water pump for turbocharger replaced in may (recall) and turbocharger warranty extended via mini of america letter. Turbocharger failed in august, but mini of austin blamed failure on lack of oil changes. All oil changes performed by that dealership whenever the car told us it was due. Crappy response from mini of america as well.
Purchased used vehicle in june 2012. On todays date, upon cold start vehicle began making knocking noises as if lifters were involved. As car warmed up noise became less apparent, but prompted me to take to local mechanic. Mechanic advised that timing chain needs adjusting/replacing and needs to go to dealer (an hour travel). Upon perusing web info on vehicle and year, this issue appears to be a prevalent mafunction in this vehicle causing major engine failure.
Timing belt failure due to restrictor belt defect.
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