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 Timing chain guide failure causes spun bearing?

 Created by: Jamiebirdie
Orig. Posting Date User Name Edit Date
Sep 22, 2020 03:35AM kenatminimania Edited: Sep 22, 2020 03:36AM 
Sep 21, 2020 09:40AM Jamiebirdie Edited: Sep 21, 2020 09:46AM 
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 Posted: Sep 22, 2020 03:35AM
 Edited:  Sep 22, 2020 03:36AM
Total posts: 2271
Last post: May 23, 2023
Member since:Dec 29, 2004
Cars in Garage: 1
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Sorry to hear of the troubles with your MINI and the shop...  Unfortunately, it is next to impossible to accurately diagnose a problem remotely when 'sounds' are involved...  

If the shop says there is physical play with the rods on the crank, then it would seem the noise is indeed rod knock from the spun bearing...

As for the broken chain guide - how big a piece was broken off, and was it in a location where it would impact chain tension? Not sure how this is related to the spun bearing....

If a shop had to perform the oil change 3 times, that would worry me...

 Posted: Sep 21, 2020 09:40AM
 Edited:  Sep 21, 2020 09:46AM
Total posts: 0
Last post: 
Member since:Sep 20, 2020
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Hi all!


I have a 2013 r56 non-turbo with 110,000mi. I bought the car with about 35,000mi on it, it had full service records and had been beautifully taken care of by the Mini dealer. I have also kept up on this maintenance. I recently started to develop this light slapping/knocking/ticking noise from the passenger side of the motor. At the time I needed my oil change done and so that was step one. During the oil change the crush washer had been over tightened twice in a week-long ordeal. So over the course of a week I had 3 oil changes with about 250mi driven on the motor. The oil looked fine each time. Nothing mechanically abnormal, no power loss, misfiring or CEL. Just that light tick that could be hear at idle. It did not increase with acceleration. In the back of my head I knew it was likely the timing chain. Off to the shop she went. This is where the HUGE ordeal starts.

While at the shop they told me that yes indeed, the timing chain guide had broken off, but the timing chain was still intact. They informed me that they could NOT find the piece of the guide that was broken. I reminded them of the three oil changes that week. They explained to me that they still want to investigate the motor because they believe the piece was sucked inside the motor. This suddenly went from what seemed to be an expensive, but common mini issue to needing to replace the motor due to a spun bearing ACTUALLY causing the noise. Not the broken timing chain guide. I told them I was not going to be replacing the motor through them and to deal with the original issue. They let the car sit through the weekend. Upon calling them this morning they informed me they did not have any intention of actually fixing the timing chain guide and were going to have me tow the vehicle out of there. I asked them to fix the timing chain issue and that if it limped in, id like it to be limping back out.

The issues I am taking is that there was never a CEL, power loss, misfire, or other mechanical issue aside from the slapping noise that could only be heard at idle and low speeds, never increasing with RPMs. Just a overly concerned mini owner being extra cautious and aware of the timing chain problems.

TLDR; I feel like they are lying to me about the timing chain guide causing a sprung rod bearing. Thanks for you time, opinions and efforts!

Images of the damage
https://ibb.co/fH5WyMb
https://ibb.co/f8q2xgc
https://ibb.co/PmQy55j