R56 2010 plate Cooper (N12)...severe engine rattle

[JPJ89]

Hi

Iv posted about this issue in the regional forums, thought i would ask in here as well. My gf’s Cooper (non S) has developed a severe engine rattle, sounds exactly like the ‘death rattle’ that can be found all over the forums, YouTube etc. but have not had the car officially diagnosed by anyone yet. The car is a 2010 plate with 61,000 miles on the clock, purchased 10 months ago with 58,000 miles and a good service history, oil currently halfway on the dipstick between min/max, coolant topped up and no signs of any leaking/overheating or anything else etc. The car also drove completely fine and had no warning lights or anything when the rattle occurred, but is now off the road and needing recovered somewhere to get diagnosed and repaired. There seems to be plenty of people have had the same problem looking online, if it is that problem (death rattle), has anyone on here had experience with this issue and the best way to go about things. With the car being nearly 8 years old we ideally wanting to avoid taking it to Mini if we can, but having trouble finding a local specialist nearby (Perth) to look over it and don’t really want to give the car into any old garage to have a go at it with it being such a vital part of the engine. Any advice would be great, cheers

[Rockster]

Best general advice I can offer is you need to seek out a highly regarded shop and put the car in its hands. This could be an indy Mini shop or a Mini dealer service department.

In the meantime I would urge you to avoid running the engine any. No engine with a severe engine rattle ever got better with more engine run time.

[Hothouse]

Watching your thread and hoping you get some suggestions for good local garage. Our 09 jcw will need the chain done soon and I too would value any suggestions for a good specialist up north. We are in Glasgow.

[JPJ89]

Hi, never had any luck finding a specialist that was local, visited a couple of dealerships and John Clark Tayside were helpful in assisting with the problem and any questions so the car was recovered to them last night. On Minitorque I was recommended a guy in Glasgow called Gerry at Performancetek, and another thread on here someone mentioned b & m centre somewhere in Glasgow, both a bit out of the way for us though

Edited by JPJ89 on Friday 12th January 08:35

[Hothouse]

Thanks for the suggestions. Look promising.
Good luck with yours. We took a few test drives last year at several dealerships and john Clark Tayside were by far the most straightforward to deal with. Hope their service team are as helpful for you.

[JPJ89]

Hothouse said:

Thanks for the suggestions. Look promising.
Good luck with yours. We took a few test drives last year at several dealerships and john Clark Tayside were by far the most straightforward to deal with. Hope their service team are as helpful for you.

The team at John Clark were really good with us, all sorted out last week with some better news than first expected anyway...turned out the engine knocking noise was down to the fan belt, great big chunk missing out of it! Was informed that Mini don’t have a recommended mileage/year interval for changing the belt in the service schedule, just that it should be inspected annually, so definitely one to keep an eye on if anyone has similar problems or just assumes that the belt is changed every 3/5 years etc as it doesn’t seem to be the case

[Rockster]

Thanks for the update.

A general rule with a flat belt with ribbing is tiny cracks across the ribbing is ok. If any ribs have missing material that's a sign it is time to replace the belt.

If you want a general recommendation, if the auto maker, or belt manufacturer, does not supply a change on miles or change on elapsed time, I would be inclined to replace any v-belt or flat/serpentine belt after 60K miles or 6 years.

When engines are tested for suitability for sale they have to cover 100K miles with no services other than engine oil and oil filter, tires, with coolant top ups allowed (maybe).

The engine survives this ok or had better to be certified for sale in the USA but it does it with stops only for fueling and engine oil/filter servicing. The car is driven on a test track at pretty high speed to reduce the amount of time and cost of keeping a team at the test track to service the vehicle and a staff of test drivers to take turns/shifts driving the vehicle. Even so the test run can take a month or more. (100K miles covered at 100mph 1000 hours and 1000 hours is 41.6 days.)

The v-belt or flat/serpentine belt obviously lasts for the 100K miles. But unless your usage involves non-stop driving at high speed with very brief stops the belt should be changed sooner than 100K miles.