Hello everyone,
I appologize in advance for the really long post.
I have had a 2007 R56 Cooper S for a little over 2 years now, and problems have been slowly building up... The previous owner gave me all the papers from official repairs and services and the car seems to have quite a few things fixed before I bought it:
-Timing chain and chain tensioner
-Water pump
-Thermostat
-Turbo oil line (they also added the shielding plate)
A few months after I bought it, it started to ocassionally sound rough at start up, almost like it had the dreaded death rattle, however this appeared to be completely at random, it didn't matter if it was cold or hot, dry or humid outside. Sometimes it happened 3 or 4 days in a row, sometimes it could go one week without doing it, and when it did do it, it would always go away after 5 or so minutes.
I have also had a constant oil leaking/burning (learned recently it's leaking) problem since I bought it, and it kept getting worse. Recently I did an oil change and noticed the o-ring seal on the new oil filter was considerably thicker than the old one, and after this oil and filter change the car seemed to stop leaking oil.
However...
Since the oil change everything seems to have started going wrong... I started smelling oil inside the car after the car had heated up a bit and was stationary, it also seems to be coming from the vents, if I turn off the ventilation I can't smell any of it. Some time after, the car started making a weird whine when I started it up, this always happens when starting it up when the engine is cold, lasts only about a second (it accompanies the engine starting sound).
The engine also started making hissing sound constantly, and when I shut it off it did a sort of decompressing sound for a while. Looked around the forums and found out the valve cover was to blame, so I replaced it and at least that part seems to have been fixed. When I replaced the valve cover I looked at the timing chain and guides and they seem to be perfectly fine, so I'm guessing the ocassional random rough noise is not the death rattle.
While I was replacing the valve cover I also noticed an oil stain on the ground, dripping from the huge bolt that seems to hold the exhaust right bellow the engine, the ******* was leaking oil again, and it seems to be coming from around the oil filter cover area, like before. As if this wasn't enough, the engine started going a bit chokey at idle, this happened on the last run I did with the car before I replaced the valve cover and still happens now. When I tried driving the car after replacing the valve cover I also noticed that it would go all jerky after I took my foot off the accelerator, acceleration however seemed to be fine. This jerkyness and the idle roughness seems to have smoothed out quite a bit after the run, but it still isn't as smooth as it should be.
While searching for possible causes for the rough idle, I came across a few comments that mentioned it was the vacuum pump that was leaking and caused that issue. Sure enough, the oil leaking seems to come from the vacuum pump, but I still have to remove it to confirm this.
There is another thing that bugs me however. When I replaced the valve cover, I noticed the intake camshaft was looking considerably drier than the exhaust camshaft, and the bit near the HPFP even looks a bit on the toasty side. This puzzles me to no end and makes me worry that there's even more problems looming.
Could changing the vaccum pump actually fix the rough idling? Could this also have anything to do with the "death rattle" like sound I hear every now and again? The oil leaking didn't happen every single run, I could go over a week without the slightest change in oil level, and the next few days lose almost a quarter of the indicator, so could they be related in their apparent randomness?
And should I worry about this camshaft? I'll include a picture showing the intake camshaft (left) and exhaust camshaft (right) so you guys can take a closer look.
Thanks in advance for all your help, I'm going nuts over this and I'm gonna need all the help you can give me.
I appologize in advance for the really long post.
I have had a 2007 R56 Cooper S for a little over 2 years now, and problems have been slowly building up... The previous owner gave me all the papers from official repairs and services and the car seems to have quite a few things fixed before I bought it:
-Timing chain and chain tensioner
-Water pump
-Thermostat
-Turbo oil line (they also added the shielding plate)
A few months after I bought it, it started to ocassionally sound rough at start up, almost like it had the dreaded death rattle, however this appeared to be completely at random, it didn't matter if it was cold or hot, dry or humid outside. Sometimes it happened 3 or 4 days in a row, sometimes it could go one week without doing it, and when it did do it, it would always go away after 5 or so minutes.
I have also had a constant oil leaking/burning (learned recently it's leaking) problem since I bought it, and it kept getting worse. Recently I did an oil change and noticed the o-ring seal on the new oil filter was considerably thicker than the old one, and after this oil and filter change the car seemed to stop leaking oil.
However...
Since the oil change everything seems to have started going wrong... I started smelling oil inside the car after the car had heated up a bit and was stationary, it also seems to be coming from the vents, if I turn off the ventilation I can't smell any of it. Some time after, the car started making a weird whine when I started it up, this always happens when starting it up when the engine is cold, lasts only about a second (it accompanies the engine starting sound).
The engine also started making hissing sound constantly, and when I shut it off it did a sort of decompressing sound for a while. Looked around the forums and found out the valve cover was to blame, so I replaced it and at least that part seems to have been fixed. When I replaced the valve cover I looked at the timing chain and guides and they seem to be perfectly fine, so I'm guessing the ocassional random rough noise is not the death rattle.
While I was replacing the valve cover I also noticed an oil stain on the ground, dripping from the huge bolt that seems to hold the exhaust right bellow the engine, the ******* was leaking oil again, and it seems to be coming from around the oil filter cover area, like before. As if this wasn't enough, the engine started going a bit chokey at idle, this happened on the last run I did with the car before I replaced the valve cover and still happens now. When I tried driving the car after replacing the valve cover I also noticed that it would go all jerky after I took my foot off the accelerator, acceleration however seemed to be fine. This jerkyness and the idle roughness seems to have smoothed out quite a bit after the run, but it still isn't as smooth as it should be.
While searching for possible causes for the rough idle, I came across a few comments that mentioned it was the vacuum pump that was leaking and caused that issue. Sure enough, the oil leaking seems to come from the vacuum pump, but I still have to remove it to confirm this.
There is another thing that bugs me however. When I replaced the valve cover, I noticed the intake camshaft was looking considerably drier than the exhaust camshaft, and the bit near the HPFP even looks a bit on the toasty side. This puzzles me to no end and makes me worry that there's even more problems looming.
Could changing the vaccum pump actually fix the rough idling? Could this also have anything to do with the "death rattle" like sound I hear every now and again? The oil leaking didn't happen every single run, I could go over a week without the slightest change in oil level, and the next few days lose almost a quarter of the indicator, so could they be related in their apparent randomness?
And should I worry about this camshaft? I'll include a picture showing the intake camshaft (left) and exhaust camshaft (right) so you guys can take a closer look.
Thanks in advance for all your help, I'm going nuts over this and I'm gonna need all the help you can give me.