[GTmini]

Last night when driving home, my friend and I stopped by a gas station. When he left his door open while going in, I noticed that there is a pretty loud metallic rattle (like a loose bracket kind of sound or some sort of metal shaking around/against metal) coming from underneath my MCS (just passed 4K miles) at idle. I couldn't really tell what area it was coming from...seemed like the right side, but that could easily be just because that was the door that was open. Has anyone else experienced this?

I have yet to go out this morning and see if the problem is still present (perhaps I'm it was just a one time incident?). It was first time I've ever heard it, but usually my passenger door is never open while the engine is still running.

I'm not very excited about the prospect of having to drop my MCS off for service again already...especially if it's something simple that I can fix myself. At this rate I'll end up making a dealer trip every month or two for something.

[stellablade]

It does sound like a similar problem to whatI had. The noise was most prevalent at idle or when crusing down hill at 20-30 mph. Initially they diagnosed it as a flex along the exhaust system. They replaced it only for the noise to return a few weeks later. They then replaced the catalytic converter, which was found to be loose and rattling, all has been well since. Touch wood.

[kshapiro]

MINI addresses a "rattle under floor area" that may be "caused by the exhaust hanger hitting the heat shield, or by shift cables contacting the heat shield."

Thye say to check for clearance between the left side of the center exhaust hanger. If it's less than approx. 10mm clearance, carefully bend the heat shield to gain more than 10mm clearance. Then check the shift cables where they come out from behind the under floor heat shield to see if they are contacting the heat shield. If they are bend the heat shield slightly down to prevent contact.

[GTmini]

cool, thanks...I'll be sure to check that out sometime.

I checked for the noise on Sunday and no more rattle...go figure

[GTmini]

OK...this weekend, this noise finally popped up again and a friend and I narrowed it down to that it only happens when the A/C is on. Since I've been running without using my A/C for so long b/c of the bog, it's been months since I've heard it, but my friend is an A/C-loving freak and the second he hops into my car, he'll always turn the A/C on. After peeking "under the bonnet" it seemed as if the noise was emmenating from the belt/pulley area, but I couldn't accurately pinpoint it. I'm guessing it's something that is affected by having more load on the engine when the A/C's clutch engages, but I have no idea what could cause that kind of noise.

Anyone else had this? It would be nice if I could at least narrow it down to a certain system before I take my car in for servicing...in general it would just be nice to know what's going on, period.

[NEMINI]

could be the a/c clutch/pulley itself ... bad bearings perhaps.

Have your friend start the car with the AC off ... you listen under the bonnet to make sure there is no noise .... after confirming this have your friend turn on the AC ... if the noise comes when it is turned on then I'd be pretty sure its the AC clutch/pulley

[GTmini]

That's exactly what we did, so I'm 100% certain it's directly correlated to the A/C being on.

I almost have to laugh at the thought that my car might have two completely different rattling clutch problems simultaneously...my friend started placing bets on how long it will be before my first catastrophic failure.

[GTmini]

We have a winner : bad AC pulley and tensioner assembly ...it was replaced over the weekend.

At least that's one less horrible sound my car is now making