2nd Gen R56 Cooper S Most liked posts in thread: P1497 after after new top end install

I have checked and rechecked all the plumbing/connections from the turbo to the intercooler to the airbox. I have tried spraying starter fluid anywhere I thought could suck in air to see if the engine would rev...but nothing.
Last night while troubleshooting the problem the valve train started making a bunch of racket. I shut it down and pulled the valve cover and found little tension on the cam chain. I pulled the tensioner and it was stuck fully collapsed. I will install the new tensioner and put it back tomorrow night. I'm sure I will still have the P1497.

 

I haven't been able to work on the car for a while. But had some time last week and found a cracked PCV hose, I pulled the intake ad found that the manifold gaskets that came with the rebuild kit were slightly slimmer than OEM. I replaced with OEM. After driving it a little it is now idling smoothly. But it is still trowing the 1497 code and under acceleration and going up hills I am getting pinging. If I take it easy the motor is quiet. I pulled the spark plugs to see how it was burning fuel and here is how they look.
They look ok maybe a little lean? Let me know if anyone has any ideas.
Thanks,
Greg

 

I thought I would write the conclusion to this story. After driving a few times the code cleared and the car was running and idling pretty well. But it started making a fairly loud popping noise when the engine was under load. Sounded like a backfire but was coming from the engine compartment.

I took it to my local mechanic that works on minis and he wasn't sure what it was. He said it could take a lot of hours to diagnose which means lots of $$$. He recommended a few things to try and sent me on my way. I was stumped.

I finally got tired of looking at it in my garage and decided to take it to Morristown Mini for diagnosis. I was amazd with what they reported back to me. They said my clutch pressure plate was coming apart and recommended fix for $4000. I knew they were full of $&%#. So I paid the diag bill and took it home.

I isolated the noise to the intake side of the motor. I pulled the the intake and the fuel rail and eureka! the #2 injector teflon seal was broken and fell off when I extracted the injector.

I replaced the injector for a grand total of $78 and it is running great!

Here is a pic of the injectors and the report from Morristown Mini. Don't think I will be giving them any more of my business.

https://goo.gl/photos/ZQeMJKwoWNa8WDx19