I have an 07 MCS with the JCW tuning kit. After a cold night, the engine makes a loud rattle sound (as if something is loose) but will go away as soon as the engine heats up. I have heard this could be a common issue, but has anyone had the same problem and is this something MINI fix under warrenty?
Sarah i have had a read through of the link, not all the pages but a fair few. I have this issue and after reading the various posts i am not to worried about the rattle issue. It seems mini have accepted that there is a fault and will rectify it under warranty which is great.
I am worried though as i bought a 07MCS from a mini dealer 2 weeks ago and it has the mini cherished warranty for 12months. Has it ever occured where a 2nd owner who has a warranty from mini cherished has had the issue resolved under the additional 12month mini cherished warranty???
I have just rung the dealer local to myself, and his first question was how old the car was, when i told him he said that it was out of warranty, i corrected him and told him it was under 12month warranty with mini cherished, has taken my number and says he will ring me back, as if he has gone away to see if my car is covered under warranty or if he can get out of fixing it????
I spoke to my local dealership last week and left the car in on Tuesday night so they could start it up on Wednesday morning to hear the rattle. I then got a call on late on Wednesday to say that the car needed a new timing belt chain, tensioner and software upgrade. I have just picked her up and only time will tell. I have to applaude my local dealer for their customer service considering the car is 2 years 8 months old and i bought the car privately! They kept me up to date during the two days and also showed the good service to a car bought from another franchise. I strongly recommend anyone with the same issue gets the same work carried out. Thanks for the feedback.
I reckon it should be covered but if they try to wriggle out of it then try to contact the previous owner to see if the cold start rattle was present when they had it. If it was then the fault was present when sold and you've got 'em! I take it that the car is an early 07?
You are right not to be too worried, Spike seems to have done well
Not sure if the Mini Cherished warranty will cover it, you'd think it would though...
As you've only had it 2 weeks tell them you want a full refund if they won't sort it and don't take no for an answer.
Not many people have had problems resulting from the rattle but the worse case is the timing chain will break/loosen potentially totalling the engine. Mine was one of the early fixes and we had to wait 2-3 weeks for parts from Germany in which time my dealer didn't allow me to drive the car and supplied a loan vehicle, just in case.
UPDATE, Car booked in for Monday they will keep it over night and then start it on Tuesday and see if it rattles, this annoys me a bit, mini know there is a problem so they should not have to hear the fault themselves surely they should just do the work?? just to be safe i video'd it on my phone rattling away like a diesal so i will show them that.
As per Spike i have to say Mini service have been good though, i bought it from Stratstone Mini in Doncaster, but they aint my local dealer, so i rang Bateman BMW at Grange as they are. They are sorting it all though and are more than happy to do it all under warranty, if they weren't i was going to tell them they could have it back then and i'd have a refund.
I'll let you know how it all goes, from what i have read they seem to have this issue sorted now so the fix should cure it, im a bit worried though as my car has done 21k miles with the rattle, will it have suffered excessive wear?? some say it does and some say it dosen't??
I bought my mcs about 4 weeks a go, and it had 1 weeks manufacturers warrenty left and obviously the 12 months cherrished. I had this rattle and recorded it on my phone as it didnt do it evertime. I phoned my dealer up and told them about this rattle and that they could drive the 25 miles to mine to pick it up and bring me a courtesy car while they were repairing it. They did as i asked and fixed it under warrenty. It was the cam chain tensioner. I had good service from my dealer
Yeah mine has about 3month manufactuers warranty left having looked into it a bit more, and then the 12months cherished, i hear what your saying about making them pick it up but all they are going to do is drive it back to the dealership, if it breaks on the way there, with them driving it or me, then the result will be the same, fixed under warranty, so id rather drive my car myself than give it to some monkey to blitz back to the garage in. or did they load it onto a low loader???
Mine is getting a new tensioner and a re programme, i asked if they were going to measure the cam chain to see if it was in tolerance, they said they wouldn't, erm wont it have stretched if the tensioner has not been doing its job properly????
Cant fault the garage itself for the service etc but are BMW trying to achieve the cheapest fix possible? yeah they may solve the rattle but what about any damage to the chain and engine that has alreday occured???
Yeah the picked it up on a trailer. i obviously didnt know what the rattle was at the time so i was being causios, as id only bought the car 4 days previously, i wasnt gonna take any chances.They gave me a clubman diesel for the weekend and i was impressed, 72mpg i averaged, although it was a little slow.
Fair one then, if they picked it up on a flat bed, i dont like letting others drive my cars regardless of the circumstances.
They must have a thing about Clubbies as courtesy cars as i got one too. A cooper petrol though, not impressed, it turned 40MPG, and that was driving it like a nun, to get any pace out of it used a shed load of fuel, and that gear change indicator is rubbish, idont know if you can set the parameters of it within the computer but it had me changing up before 2000 revs in every gear, this meant that i was changing into 6th at about 40mph...............Rubbish.
Anyway i have my MCS back and all seems good, picked it up last night and it got a good test this morn as it was -4 when i left the house and there was no rattle, i'll keep an eye on it over the next few months and wait and see.
Hi
I bought a 07 MCS in Jan this year. I have had 2 or 3 cold start rattles. The car is garaged every night, so it is not really cold, but still have experienced the diesel like rattle. I reported this to my Mini dealer. They have been up front and asked me to monitor the problem. They said that BMW want to look after their customers and would not walk away from the problem even if the car was outside the warranty period. Re-assuring to know.
Apart from a small dash noise from the glove box side, the car is great. Not sure that I have found any suspension though!!! Was it fitted to this model?
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They kept me up to date during the two days and also showed the good service to a car bought from another franchise. I strongly recommend anyone with the same issue gets the same work carried out. Thanks for the feedback. 
