My name is Jim and it appears I am now the unlucky owner of a 2006 fJCW with 51,013 miles. This is not how I wanted to introduce myself. After having no luck in Colorado, I finally found a mini that I liked in San Francisco. I flew out on Friday to pick it up and began the 1200 mile journey home. I stopped in Elko, Nevada for gas Saturday night and noticed it was much noisier than it was the last time I stopped. My experience with Minis started on Friday afternoon and has stalled out after 560 miles. I have no tools with me, nor a service manual. I am 850 miles from home and >200 miles from the closest Mini Dealer or mechanic. The car seems to be running OK, but I am very nervous about driving it when I don't know what is causing the noise. There are no idiot or check engine lights illuminated, nor are there any obvious leaks. The temp gauge never went past the halfway mark. Oil level is good and was changed right before I bought it. The non-Mini dealer had the California emmisions test done, and it passed. I did go through a rough patch of dirt road on a side trip, and there is a chance I hit a rock, but I do not see any damage underneath the vehicle. I plugged the exhaust pipe with a shirt to check for exhaust leaks. There were no obvious leaks so I don't think that is the problem. The noise appears to be originating on the right side. It sounds like it may be under the valve cover, but there is little change if I remove the oil filler cap. I let the car sit overnight. When the engine was cold, the noise was minimal. But as the engine warmed up the noise level increased. I drove through the parking lot at slow speed and noted the noise begins to diminish around 1500 RPMs and is nearly indistinguishable by 2000 RPMs. Any and all help would be appreciated! I have attached a short video that I took last night. https://youtu.be/l_QY7jIqpfk
Jim, I can't offer you any type of help. I'm in Arizona and I have no idea what your problem might be. I can only wish you good luck in getting out of this predicament.
That was the first thing I checked. If there is any other information I can provide with my limited resources, please let me know. About the only thing I have right now is time.
Sounds are funny & often times very hard to tell where they are coming from. Good on you for checking the oil, you'd be surprised how many folks don't. You are in a tough spot. Does your insurance cover towing? If so have your car flat bedded to the dealer. Without knowing what the noise is I'd be afraid to continue the journey. You can take a long screwdriver & use it as a stethoscope to see if you can narrow down where the noise is coming from. The handle goes to your ear & the metal end touches various places to try & isolate the noises. Be careful of any moving bits & pieces.
I almost forgot ..... Welcome to Motoring Alliance !! Hope everything works out for you and you make it home ok.
Thanks for the welcome. I have a garage full of tools 850 miles from where I am doing me absolutely no good at the moment. I have use the screwdriver trick in the past. I've been trying to research this problem online on my phone all day, maybe it's time to go look for a screwdriver somewhere. My insurance covers towing up to 20 or 25 miles, but I have not found any BMW or Mini mechanics in this area. The nearest Mini mechanic is >200 miles from my current location.
Access to tools is quite limited at the moment. I did pull the plug wires and the sock spark plugs seem to be tight. There was no indication of anything leaking past the plugs from the combustion chambers into the spark plug tubes. I was surprised at how clean it actually is inside the tubes. I pulled the plug wires off of the coil and checked the connections there as well. There was some rust colored powdery substance on number three. It wipes right off of the coil terminal, my tap the plug wire a couple of times and the powder came out. Like loose rust powder. It did not actually stick to the terminal or to the clip.
Welcome to M/A, Jim! There are a lot of people here who might be able to help you with your problem, but I'm certainly not one you would ask. :nonod: That said, however, I wish you luck in finding how to fix your car and get back home safely.:fingerscrossed:
I did scrounge up a long screwdriver and do some listening. I hear pretty much the same sound no matter where I place the screwdriver. However it is loudest On the valve cover and head near cylinders one and two. I am happy to report that it did not sound louder on the nosecone of the supercharger! A couple of people have seen me messing with it and asked if they could help. The older people all say the same thing. It sounds like a valve that needs to be adjusted or a bad lifter. It has also been suggested that I could have a bad timing chain tensioner. I did pull the intercooler to look underneath and see if I could see any signs of anything leaking or blowing by. (I did not start the engine with the intercooler out.) Everything looked good. I was surprised at how easy the boots slipped it back on. I suspect I should replace those once I get it running. The boots on my turbo-diesel truck are really tight to get on and off.
Your YouTube recording is not playing well on my computer. I can only see/hear a few seconds of it. What I do hear sounds like some kind of compression leak noise. It doesn't sound like valve-train noise -- but, it is a few seconds of what appears to be a cell-phone video. If there is a valve-train problem, it seems like it would get louder with the oil fill cap off. The R56 "death-rattle" is noticeably louder with the cap off. At this point, I would think that ANY shop with a good mechanic would be better than no shop, even if the mechanic doesn't know MINIs. Ask the locals who the mechanic is who seems to be able to fix anything. Other than that, it seems that your only other option is to have the car towed home. I wouldn't drive it sounding like that. CD
Caseydog, Thanks for the follow up. You are correct, it is a cell phone video. I have uploaded two videos to YouTube. The first outside; the second was from the driver's seat. If you search YouTube for "Jim Swindler" I think you can find them. I am not a mechanic, but I have been working on cars for about 35 years. This one has me stumped. With minimal resources, there is little I can do. My hope was that someone would be able to tell me they had a similar problem and what the resolve was. Or at least point me toward available resources in this area. If I cannot find a rental truck and car dolly tomorrow, I will try to find a local repair shop. I have looked in the phone book and talked with a few locals, and the Chevy dealership is the only place recommended by at least two people.
A good mechanic is a good mechanic. If the Chevy shop is recommended, I'd say give it a shot. More than likely, there is someone there that will will have the mechanical experience needed to diagnose the problem, even if they don't have MINI experience. Really good techs/mechanics can work on any car -- and the best actually enjoy the challenge. Hopefully, you can find one of those people at the Chevy dealership. :fingerscrossed: The rental truck and dolly is another viable option. It certainly beats driving it home without knowing what's wrong. I'll be following this thread, and look forward to your post that says, "I'm home, and my car is fixed." CD
I like you am not a mechanic just have been working on cars a long time. From what you have described of the noise, where you're hearing it, and that it gets louder as the engine warms up it is going to be something that is effected by oil viscosity. My first thought would valve slap or a sticking valve or lifter. Do you have any idea of the maintenance of the car? How often the oil was changed? If the oil wasn't changed very often and cheap oil was used it could have gunked up (technical term) the valve train Any good mechanic can work with you to take the valve cover off and check out the valves. Then clean them if necessary. Did you notice any change in power when the noise started? If not I don't think it would be ignition related. I don't think your exhaust trick would have shown a leak ahead of the cat, but I could be wrong. So I would check the exhaust manifold for tightness and any cracks. I hope I've been some help or at least help others think of other ideas. Welcome and good luck.
Welcome to M/A, and good luck with your MINI. Rust on terminal 3 of the coil is a common problem. If you do eventually replace the coil and wires, genuine MINI is the only way to go.