Hi All,
This is my first post so ill introduce the car! It is my girlfriends 2010 Mini Cooper Mayfair 1.6l petrol (i believe its the N12B16 engine). Over the past 6 months or so she has had a strange issue where when coming to a stop, and engaging the clutch, the car cuts out. This doesnt happen all the time. We had noticed that it was drinking a bit of oil but from my own experiences with BMW engines over the years, I didnt think it was abnormal or excessive (maybe 1 litre every 2000km).
I taught her how to use my BMW diagnostic reader and it was throwing two codes; 1) related to the Brake vacuum pressure sensor, and then another related to the Vanos exhaust actuator movement. These two codes never appeared at the same time. She brought it into her local mechanic in Cork city (not a mini specialist) who came back with the following diagnosis:
"Essentially there is metal filings in the engine. The oil on the dipstick is clean but the oil in the
engine has metal filings. The oil pressure is way too high. It’s idling at 5bar when 1bar is normal. Said this is disturbing. The vanos units also have the metal filings in them. They swapped them around and it’s running okay currently. But they said they high pressure is like high blood pressure my car is essentially heading for a heart attack. They said it’s going to have a catastrophic failure at some point. They value the car at €2500 and said that the cost to fix the oil pressure is unknown and it could cost more than the car
Now, this was a concerning diagnosis. I asked her to contact the BMW specialist that I have used and she has used in Dublin (bloomfield garage) who are also very knowledgable on minis who said based on what the other garage said, it sounded like one of two things; 1) vanos motors are breaking up 2) timing chain (not the casue as I have plenty of experience with timing chain failure.....).They said they would have a proper look next time shes home.
My question for the community is what to do from here? Is sourcing a replacement engine difficult if the diagnosis proves to be as dire as first thought? How much should she expect to pay for a replacement engine? Any and all advice is welcome!
Thanks in advance for your help