2009 mini cooper clubman, timing chain and valve seals

[great white]

Well, the missus’ mini cooper developed a bad smoking habit last year before we put it up for winter.

Classic signs of valve seals going bad. Oil apparently dissapearing without many traces, smoking on start, after prolonged idle and on downhill overruns. Not destroyer sized smoke screens, but just enough you can see it when conditions are right.

The N12 (peugot designed) engine has a bad rep for cooking the valve seals until they are hard and then bypassing too much oil.

The N12 also has a rep for failing timing chains (although not as bad as the N14 and turbocharged N18). the wife’s N12 isn’t showing a lit of the signs of it going bad, but its up to the approx mileage where they cause trouble and since I have to rip most of it out to do the valve seals, I figured I might as well do a timing kit too.

As an added bonus, I gathered up lots of other parts over the winter I would consider “maintenance”. Hoses, belts, water pump drive, thermostat and housing (themostat is non serviceable on this engine, have to change the entire housing), etc.

The vacuum pump is run off the exhaust cam and also has a rep for failing and taking out the cam drive, valves, sometimes pistons, etc so that gets a new one also.

All parts are BMW originals or the suppliers who make the parts for BMW.

Then came the “special tools”. A special tool to lock the crankshaft. A special tool set to lock the camshafts. a special tool to remove the “valvetronic” springs, a special tool to remove this, a special tool to install that, etc, etc, etc. I’ve bought more “one time use” tools for this French/German engine than I have for any other car I’ve worked on. Once again….ugh.

My back will only let me work a couple hours on concrete floors, so this is how far I got today:



Basically, got the valve cover off. Seems like not much done for a couple hours work, but it was a major plastic PITA. That bloody thing was buried under more one way plastic clips and interwoven parts I just can believe. Theres also the German tendency to “over-engineer” everything they build (look up the history of the tiger tank if you want to know more about “German engineering”), so theres hidden fasteners everywhere, more one way clips than you can count and everything (and I mean everything) is plastic, which has “heat hardened” and gone brittle. Fun as heck to get them off without snapping and there were one or two that just weren’t coming apart in one piece….ugh. I HATE plastic parts underhood.

Time to lay down for a few hours. Back on to it tomorrow, but this German designed, French engined, British assembled car is one major PITA to work on!

Fun to drive, but gawd help you if you ever have to work on it.

I did get a couple quotes before getting in to it myself. lets just say that even after buying all the special tools and parts I’m still several thousands of dollars less than the quotes. After seeing the nightmare under the hood, I understand why it is so expensive to work on….

 

[Martin W]

It’s great you are able to do this yourself. The way they keep making vehicles ,it’s getting harder and harder to do though.That’s a pretty big job, even for a dealer mechanic.Hence the high cost.If it’s not under warranty,it’s hard for a mechanic to make any money these days
Cheers
Martin

 

[DavidR8]

I keep seeing higher mileage Minis for sale out here and have just about jumped on a few but wrenching on new vehicles is kinda terrifying.
Good on you for digging into it!

 

[great white]

I keep seeing higher mileage Minis for sale out here and have just about jumped on a few but wrenching on new vehicles is kinda terrifying.
Good on you for digging into it!

Well, its not really “terrifying”, its more that the days of 1 fuel line and 4 bolts to remove the fuel system are long gone.

Its just more and more labour and more and more dealer/oem tools and literature.

Heck, you can’t even buy a service manual for this car anymore. Its all computer programs and licensing from oems. And its not just an import thing anymore, my 2016 F150 is the same: all digital service info.

 

[pdentrem]

Other than oil changes, brakes and tires, servicing modern cars is a horror story even to the dealerships! All the special tools and machines required is $$$$$.
I remember in 1990, we looked at GM Topkick and to become a servicing dealer was way over half million with tools, equipment and the mandatory inventory!
Pierre

 

[great white]

Man, what a pita!

an hour worth of work and all I’ve really gotten done is remove the passenger wheel and inner wheel well. Three different fasteners holding it in there and the majority of them are plastic screws or nuts. Not one way “christmas tree” push fasteners, literally plastic screws and nuts.

lets just say that plastic fasteners in a wheel well makes for some….interesting…. Language trying to get them out without destroying them. So far, I’ve been about 75% successful at saving them.

Got to be the stupidest car I’ve ever worked on.

Now I remember why we all scattered when the front desk took in a volkswagen, bmw, audi, peugot, etc. nightmare to work on, everything wither fights you, breaks or needs a special tool….and everything is packed in so tight you are gonna loose some skin. No way around it…

 

[great white]

Well, this thing is being even more of a "B" than I thought. I spent the entire day working on it and all I managed to do is get the crank locked in the service position and the cams locked.

Allow me to explain:

On this engine, you have to lock the crank in place before performing maintenance. It's how you phase the cams to the crank. In order to lock the crank, they have a hole in the transmission bellhousing that you are supposed to slip a pin into and a smaller step on the pin is supposed to lock into a bore in the flywheel.

Tool:



Bellhousing:



Seems simple enough right?

Wrong.

First problem, It's nearly impossible to line up the bore in the flywheel with the bore in the bellhousing so you can insert the locking pin. It's made doubly difficult because the cams (like any engine) run half speed to the crank. So on one alignment the cams are positioned properly, on another they're not. The cams have to be positioned so the part numbers are up and on the right piston stroke. If you're alone, forget it. You can't see the bore hole and turn the crank from the damper bolt at the same time. Physically impossible. I had to give the wife a crash course on how to work the ratchet and had her turn/bump the crank for me.

Second problem, the bore in the bellhousing and flywheel are pretty much a precision fit. Very little leeway to get it home. Now, take the car and run it for 10-12 years in any outside environment. What do you think happens to that precision hole in the aluminum bellhousing? Yep, you guessed it: corrosion. Enough to make it nearly impossible to work the alignment pin in. As if that's not enough to bake your biscuits, there's not enough room to get anything in there to clean out the hole. The bellhousing is pretty much hard up against the oil pan, enough room to slip the pin in on at a slight angle and that's about it. So you have to just try and work it back and forth to clean the aluminum oxide mess out, using the pin itself to scrape it out as you work it back and forth. So push it in a mm or so, pull it out, blow out the scrapped off corrosion, repeat until you can get the pin all the way in.

Third problem, the "rod" on the alignment pin is pretty much made out of al dente spaghetti. So as you try and work the pin into the bore, the rod will eventually fatigue and snap off. Not to mention, the rod will bend like a coat hanger if you actually do manage to get the pin in and push into the flywheel bore hole. So I ended up grinding the original useless "handle" off the alignment pin and making a new one out of 1" x 1/4" flat bar. Cut to length, then bore a hole in one end and a touch of mig. A little final shaping on the grinder and it's good to go.

Then, after about 45 minutes of back and forth with the wife turning the crank (remember, it's precision fit and you have to get it EXACTLY on that 1 degree radial of the full 360 degrees it can turn or it is NOT going in) and the alignment pin is in. The cams are lined up and the lock bars are installed.

So pretty much and entire day and I got the wheel off, the wheel well liner out and the crank/cam locking devices installed.

Yeah, this thing is going to take a couple weeks to get the timing chain and valve seals done if this is any indication. What a PITA!


I'm beginning to wonder if I should have just spent that extra 2-3 grand and had it done at the shop......F'n BMW/Peugot.

 

[pdentrem]

Cheaper to buy another car!

 

[great white]

Cheaper to buy another car!

LOL! You're not far off. We only paid 5500 Cdn for this little ripper.

They wanted significantly more, but the transmission had troubles going into 2nd gear. So I beat them up by several grand pointing out that it's actually a BMW transmission and if anything is wrong, it was going to be thousands upon thousands of dollars to fix. Got it home, took the shifter pivot assembly apart, cleaned lubricated and adjusted and now shifts perfectly fine.

Sometimes it pays to be "handy".....

 

[7milesup]

lets just say that plastic fasteners in a wheel well makes for some….interesting…. Language trying to get them out without destroying them. So far, I’ve been about 75% successful at saving them.

I no longer try and save those plastic fender clips. The amount of money for a kit to replace them is so infinitesimally small that it is just better to replace them.

Universal plastic fender clips.