Timing chain disaster

[WoodL]

Thanks for all the replies so far.

So EH have booked the car in with mini but the 1st space is 19th November. They are still trying to say we should pay the tow truck to mini but I complained and said it was EH who decided to tow it to a vaxhaul garage in the 2st place. The EH Branch where we bought the car are contacting us tmrw about arranging the tow to mini and hopefully they will pay.

They are saying they can only give us a courtesy car for 7 days from next Tuesday under the extended warranty ..our car wont have even hit the mini forecourt for them to look at it by the time we need to give the courtesy car back....do you think we can push for it longer ?

I have had a reply from citizens advice and they are contacting trading standards also.

I am going to email EH customer service and BMW tonight and tell them whats been going on as I haven't done that yetm

Yeah we have a full service history with BMW and hoping this goes in our favour.

The communication has been awful with EH and they keep telling us the wrong info. I went on to their customer service twitter page amd oh my word the complaints are awful..So so many!

I

[WoodL]

Would EH not have to cover a large percentage of the repair costs under the guarantee I took out for the mechanical break down cover ?

What do you mean by saying ' if 9k is the claim value ' ? Sorry my head is spinning from all of this. I bought a mini with full service history and took out the extended warranty thinking I wowouldn't ave to worry about all this and look where I am. I live in a ritual area and coukd potentially be left with my balance of my 6k loan and no car and £80 per week train fares for me and my husband to get to work if EH/mini don't agree to pay out or at very least meet us half way.
EH have booked it into Mini on 19th Nov for them to look as they advised us it had to go to mini? We didn't have an option in that. So not sure what you mean by take it to a mini specialist? EH have still never told us what damage has been done to the engine in any detail other than going on and on about the oil level and the timming chain has came off.

[WoodL]

So an update.

Found a Mini specialist garage and they have space to look at it next week. They said around £2500 plus labour to fix at a guess as seen one before....So not going to Mini now.

EH authorised us to use the garage for the guarantee repair and insurance towing the car to them today.

So what if they can't find the cause of the timming chain coming off? Is that possible? The oil level was at minimum and no warning lights so I just don't believe it's the cause but what else could it be?

What other things would not be classed as wear and tear to cause thid to happen to a 4 year old car?

[WoodL]

Not got there yet. It's hard enough to get them on the phone.They never made it clear we could take the car anywhere else other than mini until we asked So how can they say it's customer neglect if oil was topped up regular and was at min level as 1st mechanci stated. Its EH who are sayibgs its slightlt below. Even a slightly low level from the min surely would'nt cause the timming chain to break? ? No?

[WoodL]

I think they have drained the oil level as 2st mechanic disputing level with them...I hate them so much .

[WoodL]

Haha I meant 'the 1st mechanic' ..dam auto correct

It was a EH Vauxhall garage it was at. It has now been towed to a mini specialist garage by my insuramce (luckily they didnt charge us to tow it there as was 25 miles away)

What would the mini specialist mechanic find if wasn't the oil...what would cause this? EH have already said my service was due 3 weeks ago...I couldn't get booked in - and thats my fault ? So there using anything to blame it on us.

[WoodL]

MK1RS Bruce said:

Just a casual observation but there is no way the oil level being at the minimum or even slightly below it should cause the timing chain to fail.

At the minimum is still on the allowable scale and I would be very surprised if mini designed the car such that it self destructs as soon as the oil drops below the minimum on the dip stick. This is clearly EH trying to get off the hook!

Stick to your guns on this one, I have had a nasty experience buying a car with a supposed Full Service History in the past from them so they are are a bunch of crooks!

Another tact if you haven't already done it and the EH garage is a mini garage is to speak to BMW/Mini and highlight how bad the customer service has been!

What else would cause this to happen?

Can a low oil level actually cause this to happen ..how low would it have to be?

[WoodL]

Thanks everyone you have been so helpful. I will come back and let you know the outcome whatever happens !
L x

[WoodL]

The light never came on though . Oh well we will see what happens next week

[WoodL]

Finance company are the bank of Scotland! Dont think they will care

[WoodL]

Josho said:

I haven't read the whole thread but I currently have 3 vehicles with that engine in my workshop for timing chain issues.


It's common.

Yeah I have heard its common, I just need to ait until next week to see what the mechanics verdict is

[WoodL]

P700DEE said:

As 2015 it will have the updated chain sets so early recalls are irrelevant. Just because it is a chain driven engine they can still fail and the N47 has a reputation for it. Mines on 155K miles and still sounds sweet. I asked my independent about doing the chains and their opinion was don't bother. Its an engine out job and costs £1k. If it fails it is normally just a few bits need rebuilding and typically costs from them about £1.2K
It should be covered by the warranty, if not yet another reason never to take an after market one out!!!
Don't let EH fix. Don't take it to Mini main dealer, find a good local independent and get it fixed by them. Could be cheaper than EH fixing on warranty via mini if they don't fully cover the cost.

Hi thanks for you reply. I did post previously about that. It's now at a mini specialist garage -not mini or EH . Yeah well this the 1st 2nd hand car I have bought hence why I took the guarantee. I made sure it had full BMW service history but has meant didly squat. I don't think I will be buying another 2nd hand car ever again. They have quoted about £2500 plus labour to fix going on similar repair but he hasn't seen the engine yet. It's at his garage but no space till Wednesday to look at it

[WoodL]

It was proven my car had a fault replayed to supplying the engine with oil. Evans hakshaw paid 2 grand under our extended policy and we paid 1 grand of the bill even though I shouldn't have paid anything. They had my car for 4 months so just wanted it back

[WoodL]

They tried to say that because BMW charged more per hour than they did our warranty woukd only cover 2k of it... But it only said on warranty that repairs were up to value of car. I argued with them and I waited 4 months for the car to be given the go ahead from Evans Halshaw to be fixed so in the end I gave up arguing and paid the 1k