Colin...what code reader do you use? Is it 'dummy' friendly. OR...which one would you recommend if you had to buy another one. I am really new to MINIs, but I have no TRUST in my local dealer. I want to know what I'm looking at 'going in'. I DON'T like open work orders....
Those odd ball parts have served me well since 2013 Actually the only non OEM part is O2 sensor. The only odd ball thing was the fuel
Got here without issues. The customs officer was doing a cross word so my stuff came through without an inspection! LOL I started the Mini this morning to find it is worse than it was before! now the 3 cylinders happens a 4000rpm.....at least that is some progress. Also the engine has a lot of vibration from some place. I'm at work so that will have to wait until I get home.
I'd be drinking more than working without experiencing any positive results! You're a better man than most...
haha I might be driven to drink in the end! I think the missing element here is the Monkeys! Time to break out the monkeys..
Monday night I have to get my food in so I just got time to hook up the laptop and do some data logging. I ran the engine at idle, then up to 4000rpm and then dropped the rpm until the fault kicked in. I logged all the parameters but don't have a clue what they all mean. LOL. There are some interesting figures, like the ignition timing at 4000rpm is 34.5 ??? I need to do some research to know what I'm looking at . Cool stuff though.
What's interesting is Short term fuel trim (Bank 1, Sensor 2) reads 0% and Long term fuel % trim - Bank 1 reads 0% Both 02 sensor go 0% when the fault happens. This is what the dealer did/found: This is to inform you the tests performed by us in our service workshop We performed the protocol and performed certains RPM range test, and found mixture (air- fuel) too rich, so it produce strong combustion that change from one cylinder to another at a specific RPM. So, we think that the roots cause of the failure is electronic. Additionally, we also performed others tests as follow: · Fuel pressure test · Injectors nozzle check (injection volume and injection time) · Replacing injectors by another used · Spark plus cables testing · Checking coils · Deleted adaptative values · Engine compression measuring ·
Got a chance to read the data at lunch, the ignition timing is up and down at idle. from -10.5 to 15.6 then at 4000rpm a constant 34.5 until I drop the rpm , the timing goes to 3 and both 02 sensors voltage goes to 0 RPM Timing 02V short term 02V 4090 34.5 0.145 5.46875 0.61 4090 34.5 0.095 5.46875 0.6 4067 3 0 0 0 3063 29.5 0.765 -10.9375 0.635 3578 11.5 0.84 -17.96875 0.65 I thinking timing chain tension?
The chain is the original 130,000miles but the tensioner and guides are 2 years old but saying that the tensioner could be defective. Last night I changed the injectors, plugs and cam sensor. The cam sensor came out with some black grunge on it which I was surprised to see. I'm taking off the cam cover tonight weather permitting. I did some more data logging and found the ignition timing to be all over the place at idle and a constant 34.5 at 4000rpm. If the engine had a distributor I would have said it was that. what's nice about the data log is I can see what changed after swapping a part. The short term fuel trim went from -7.8 to -14.6 to -21.4 to -29.9 % after changing the injectors. I need to check if this is good or bad. Looks like the engine is running rich(as the dealer mentioned) based on this article on fuel trims. http://www.obd-codes.com/faq/fuel-trims.php
Last night I took off the cam cover to find the cam/rockers etc in good order. When I built the engine I timed the chain to the gold links and gear wheel marks. So to check the timing I turned the engine over to find the top gold link 2 teeth out from the cam wheel mark! Ah ha I thought the timing had jumped 2 teeth but after cranking the engine over several times I noticed the gold link and timing mark moved away from each other. After several cranks over the gold link and timing mark where 16 teeth out. Based on this I think the 130,000mile timing chain is stretched. Maybe the when the engine was going through the misfire this stretched the chain more and now the valve to piston timing is out so much the ECU cannot compensate? I did some checking online and a worn chain can trip the SES light and cause a misfire. http://www.agcoauto.com/content/news/p2_articleid/339 Seeing as the chain has done 130,000 miles it would not harm to replace it. Looking at the engine to chassis clearance I presume this is an engine out task?
The dealer does not have the part but Eminiparts came to the rescue! There is an engineer coming to CR next week....guess what she will be bringing.LOL
If I were you I would go ahead and replace the guides at the same time. You can buy the whole timing chain set as a kit for the "S" and I assume you can do the same for a "Justa" as well. 130K! Yeah, you probably need a new one.
Uh, that doesn't sound right.... The two sprockets/gears have the same number of teeth... so as long as the chain stays engaged on both, they should turn at the same rate. That's the whole idea of the timing chain... And if timing was off by that much, you'd be hitting valves with your pistons, if I understand correctly.
The guides/seals and tensioner have around 3000miles on them so I'm good in that area. Yeah we were with the same conclusion at work today that the valves should hit the pistons but if the chain was way too long wouldn't the gold link slowly creep away from the timing mark? although the crank and cam gear would be in the same position. The cam would be retarded quite a bit but not enough to hit the pistons. When I looked down at the chain in the guides I can see one side of the chain about 2" from the other. Also I was thinking if the chain was past the length of the tensioner the chain would be slightly loose which would account for the erratic ignition timing. The ignition timing is very erratic at idle (less chain tension) and at 4000rpm (more tension) the timing remains steady at 34.5 . Another thing is the fault only happens if I hold the rpm at a set point for about 30 seconds. blipping the throttle never brings on the fault. Another thing is I have this strange rattle/vibration that was not there before which could point to the chain resonating. either way I'm going to change it next week and start the strip down tonight. Exciting stuff!
My money is on the chain. I bloody hope so as this so called fun Mini is like the black hole for time and money! it will be all worth it and forgotten when I'm back on the road!
So I have to work today so no work on the Mini but I did get something done last night. You can see my Vee tensioner puller tool, a little bit of metal to take off the hub bolt. The chain 2 gold links are in the correct position at the bottom but the single gold link is nowhere close to the top mark! And the tensioner piston is fully out.