tappets on mini Cooper s turbo

[mjw0321]

Hi. My gfs mini has been playing up for a while. It seems to drink oil and often the power dips when you floor it. More recently it started making a lot of noise (almost like a hole in the exhaust) and performance dropped. It is in the garage now. The car has done 90k miles. The garage has said they think it is the tappets and that 16 need replacing at a cost of £700. Any thoughts/advice on this? I know nothing about engines so any advice or suggestions will be great fully received!

[mad4amanda]

lots of timing chain issues with these apparently try talking to an independent specialist like www.redoakgarage.co.uk last time my mercedes was in with them they were doing one.

[mjw0321]

They are saying it is 5 hours of labour. This seems very high. A Google search shows that on other cars it seems to be between 1 and 2 hours. Any thoughts?

[shoehorn]

Timing chain/guide/tensioners are as mentioned,very common faults on these.
I find the easiest way to tell is to look at the guide plate between the cams,to see if the plastic part is missing,which is usually the first casualty.

[Pumaracing]

I suggest you find another garage as quickly as possible because you're about to get ripped off in spades. Very occasionally a hydraulic tappet will fail but it's extremely rare. For all 16 to go simultaneously is utterly inconceivable. What in fact I suspect is happening is the high oil consumption is the real problem and the engine wear that has caused that is reducing the oil pressure to the point where the tappets are not operating properly - if indeed the noise is even tappet noise which it might not be.

Before doing anything else get the oil pressure checked with the oil hot, have a compression test done to see if the bores are ok. Then post the results. Do NOT let anyone replace the tappets as it will make no difference whatsoever.

[Pumaracing]

and?

[littleredrooster]

Pumaracing said:

and?

...and he's gone. Typical these days; posters desperate for advice 'Help me - Urgent' then disappear without trace and don't have the good grace or common manners to post the outcome or thank other posters for their help.

[shoehorn]

littleredrooster said:

...and he's gone. Typical these days; posters desperate for advice 'Help me - Urgent' then disappear without trace and don't have the good grace or common manners to post the outcome or thank other posters for their help.

He`s had to sell his computer to pay for a new engine

[thatdude]

The oil consumption is a worry - this could well be due to worn rings. I would insist on a compression test / leak down test. Tappets usually manifest as a...tappy noise. Does it sound tappy? Has the garage measured the valve clearances? If so, what are the measurments and how do they compare to spec (inlet valves usually have differant tolerances to exhaust valves) Usually valve seats wear causing gaps to close up, resulting in the valve being held open.

If it has a tensioner or camchain issue, the the timing chain could have jumped a tooth resulting in power loss but this might cause other issues (rough idle etc)

Start with the basics; how much oil is it using, why is it using it and is the compressin ok?

How to the spark plugs look?