Timing Tensioner problems of the 2009 Mini Cooper S Clubman

Driving car to work and died as I was going through an 4 way intersection, car was in motion with multiple vehicles around me. I had to get out and push the car out of the intersection and off the road. Tried to start with no success. Car was low on fuel so suspected it to be empty. Called insurance to send someone with gas but still wouldn't start. Got the car towed home and investigated fault. Found the chain tensioner to have failed causing timing of engine to change and cause piston to hit valves and break the rocker arms.

I am the second owner of a Mini cooper clubman s 2009. It had about 50k miles when I first purchased this car. New to this make of vehicle, I did not put much attention to the nocking noise in the engine compartment. I came across a comment at the Mini forums where someone stated that this cars had a common diesel sound. In the two years that I have had this car, I have done a few repairs and people that have heard the sound have told me the same thing. "there is something wrong in the engine. " " that sound is not normal. " you got to take your car to the dealer to have a specialist check what's wrong in there. " I did not take them seriously because they were not familiar with these cars. I would tell them that it was a normal diesel sound. Sometime in February I received a letter regarding this issue. It is not a recall letter but instead is a "timing chain tensioner class action settlement claim form. " I have not had any repairs done to the car. If I spend over $1k to get it fixed, I may get refunded. Chances are that I won't. I have scheduled an appointment with my local dealer and they will checking the car for this issue. They did not tell me that they will make the repairs at no charge. Since it isn't a recall yet, I doubt the dealer people will be responsible for all cost. Let's see what happens but I am really unhappy about all this. First, valve cover. Then, fuel feed line, after that, vacuum pump, then the thermostat housing. Right now, tensioner chain along with vanos solenoid. I wish I had not sold my Toyota Mini truck I had back in the 80's. Not much technology. Which was ok. Just add gas, do regular oil changes and good to go with no worries of sensor, codes here and codes there. No recalls either. Make this Mini chain tensioner a recall and have bmv responsible for correcting their bad engineering. Why should the consumer have to pay?.

In only 8 months of owning my Mini: rattling at a cold start and during slow driving, then began making a hesitating, jerk type movement when I accelerated, then began making a louder noise. No indicator lights ever came on and there was never any indication of any type of leak (no lights, no fluid on the ground, all fluid checks indicated proper levels). No maintenance was due. 41,817 miles on it when I purchased it, I put under 4,000 miles on it since, only drive 20 minutes daily to work and back. Timing belt tensioner failure and guides, parts fell into oil pan and oil leaking. Cost me out of pocket $3,000 in repairs since the extended warranty I bought from 'warranty solutions' refused to pay, claiming it was negligence on my part. 'warranty solutions' is a scam too, but that is a whole other complaint by itself. The turbo heat sheild was also missing on my car. Mini dealership is horrible, so backed up, waited a week just to find out what the problem was and then would have had to wait another week for repairs. Had repairs done in 2 days at an independent shop. A call to Mini finds they do not acknowledge any defective timing belt system even though this has happened to numerous other Mini owners. Mini is well aware of this defect, yet they are not issuing a recall. There is a class action lawsuit against them for this. We all need to be reimbursed.

The problem first started as a noise when starting the engine in the cold. This "rattle" noise would continue until the engine got a bit warmer and then would go away. Everytime the engine started cold the noise would come back. I took my (now out of warranty) car to the Mini dealership for inspection and repair and the tensioner was replace. Unfortunately the repair did not last long. Only 2 months later the noise returned. I am still living with this "rattle" noise hoping my car does not burst into flames while driving. I can not afford the (over $1000) quote for repairing the timing chain assembly at this time. I feel, after reading through many many complaints on the internet, that this should be a recall and all timing chains of these vehicles should be replace. There is no reason that a car with less than 75,000 should need a new timing chain! I have never used anyone but my local Mini dealer to fix any issue with my car, I feel that Mini has let me down. I will be looking into joining the class action lawsuit againts Mini.

The timing chain tensioner backed out during morning commute and the car lost its oil and came to a complete stop. This is a recurring problem that Mini should address with a recall!.

This all started late 2009 or early 2010 when I started my Mini and it sounded like a diesel instead of a gas engine, after the car ran a few minutes the rattling sound disapated. I continued to hear this daily during cold starts so I contacted a Mini dealer who instructed me that there was a recall in the works for faulty timing chain tensioners but the parts were not available yet so continue to drive it since if other things fail it is under warranty. After a few weeks the tensioners were replaced and everything sounded normal again. Then I recieved another recall notice concerning possible fires in the water cooler for turbo? before I could get the vehicle in for the recall, in September of 2012 I noticed a very loud metallic rattle and extreme loss of power at 2,000rpm coming from the passenger side of the engine compartment and assumed it was the recall causing the issue. I took the Mini in for the recall oct 13, 2012 and mentioned the loud rattle noise-power issue, after having my car two days the dealer informs me that the tensioners/timing chain is out of specifications and creating the extreme noise and power loss. Dealer is requesting $2500. 00 to repair something that obviously has been/is an issue with Mini cars. I writing you because this situation was scary when I was trying to accelerate in fast flowing traffic conditions or crossing traffic and the power would cut out at 2,000rpm leaving me short shifting and struggling not to cause a wreck. It really needs investigated since there are so many complaints and safety concerns. Thank you.

Vehicle failed due to issue with the timing chain tensioner. This caused the timing chain guides to break and drop into the oil pan. Entire engine may need to be replaced. Engine failed as I was pulling out onto a very busy street (7th street in phoenix az) leaving me stranded and unable to move in traffic. The car had to be pushed onto a side street.

Tensioner failure 44,406 miles. Causing engine damage. Almost in accident because of failure. From dealer learned that and other Mini cooper s had the same failure. Mini knows of the tensioner problem and has not fixed it.

After complaining to the dealership 2 times prior, we brought in our Mini for service with a cold-start rattle that was related to the timing chain system. The dealership in st. Louis replaced only the tensioner, even though according to standard protocol (puma measure #10686850-13) they should have replaced the entire timing chain system. When the rattle returned a couple thousand miles later we brought it back and they told us that it was a "normal noise" and sent us on our way. The timing chain system eventually broke down, but because we were now outside of warranty they refused to fix it. I would advise anyone dealing with this issue to pursue the lemon law, because Mini is aware of the issue and isn't fixing it as they know they should. We gave them ample opportunity to fix the issue, and because of their negligence we ended up with a vehicle that didn't run.