After more than a year of negotiations, BMW/MINI has settled a class action lawsuit over the engine timing chain tensioner in some second-generation MINI models. The class action suit was initiated in March 2013 by plaintiffs Joshua Skeen and Laurie Freeman, both owners of a 2007 MINI Cooper S. The lawsuit covered R56 MINI Cooper S Hardtops, R57 Convertibles, and R55 Clubman from model year 2007 to 2010. The plaintiffs claimed the timing chain tensioner is faulty and over time can cause damage to engine valves due to improper valve timing. In extreme cases, the faulty tensioner caused the engine to quit when accelerating, sometimes in the middle of traffic. MINI issued a technical service bulletin for the issue but did not issue a recall or reimburse affected MINI owners, according to the complaint. According to Law360, BMW/MINI reached a “multimillion-dollar settlement†that would settle all claims. Class action participants will receive free extended warranties to 100,000 miles or seven years and will be reimbursed for engine repairs (typically costing $1,300 to $1,500).
If I still owned my '07 this would have been no help to me. My dealer replaced my timing chain cassette at 124K miles. Lucky I got it done before the "settlement".
On my previous 09 MCS it had the timing chain replaced 3 times in a year. Luckily it was all under warranty at the time.
It's a blurb in Law360. Have to be a member to read the entire article. The Daily Toggle posted it first. I grabbed it from them and had a lawyer acquaintance with a Law360 membership validate. The blurb - https://www.law360.com/articles/730588/bmw-to-pay-millions-to-settle-mini-cooper-engine-defect-suit
My '09 R55S has 71K, with a build date on Feb/2009, so the 'seven year catch' is gonna bite me. Maybe I can convince my dealer that the engine's about to blow!
Wonder when we'll get any sort of official statements regarding who is covered and what the terms of the coverage will be (i.e. similar to the HPFP coverage extension).
if anyone hear news on the timing chain lawsuit please post - just had to replace my engine on my 2008 S
Hang on to all your paperwork and receipts. At some point this will become final and then the process begins.
Sooooo.... If you weren't part of the class action suit..... You get nothing if it fails..... Is that how it reads? Orrrrr.... Does "All claims" mean there is some hope for future issues?
Not Found The requested URL /mini%20class%20action.pdf was not found on this server. Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request. Very interesting...
Now what? Do we contact Mini USA? Contact the dealer? I have the receipt for the timing chain kit install for $1100.00 plus.