[mike1967]

you can rotate the vanos with some force agaisnt a spring that thats it back to its start position every time, on start up both vanos will get loaded with oil pressure controlled by the valves and have a on idle slightly moved off the stops and as engine revs harder they rotate more,
2.6degrees on top sprockets will be a lot on the longer parts of chain to bottom sprocket, you need a locking kit and lock engine off correctly.. or if were me and car has done 60k plus on that chain kit just repalce it before it lets go and turns a £300-£800 depending on who doe it job into a 3k for new engine job, look at the chain tensioner how much of the end of the plunger can be seen measure it, a new chain kit will be around 5mm worn out 10mm-14mm

 

[mike1967]

Thanks Mike. The car is only on 49K so it does seem early for a new chain but regardless it's an 07 plate so not a young lad anymore.

How can I check the tensioner length, please? I don't think I can see it from with the valve cover off. Do I just remove it, or then it will spring to full extension?

below link is best way i can help you with out spending the afternoon typing
https://hausofminis.com/2015/05/is-...ing-chain-on-your-2nd-generation-mini-cooper/

as for 49000 miles i have seen them gone at 24000 miles before on turbo cars, my theory behind this is, when car new new owner dont know that those engines use oil by design low friction tech so they run them under the full mark and thats the big issue,, that engine you must treat the max fill mark as the min level never want ot to get much under it, as when do the chain dont get enough oil to it, the cams might not get enough oil to them so causes drag on the chain, also the oil gets very dirty on 20k service times then add to this someone runs the oil low even less oil to keep clean and can over heat the oil this breaks down sooner and wear just gets worse,
turbo cars dont tend to get much past 70k on chain when they are looked after and driven at lowish revs.. bmw mini decided the fix was to produce a tensioner that is twice the length as the standard ones as a fix, but that just moves when the rattle begins and not when the out of timing engine starts eating its self from heat etc, the real fix should of been a duplex twin chain system like bmw used back in the 1990s on 2.5 tds engines

 

[mike1967]

I had a quote from my favourite garage of £660 inc. VAT for a timing chain replace. Ouch! I thought it would be about a 3 hour job for a practised garage. I guess I'll do the job myself. Are there any unexpected 'gotchas' I need to prepare for?

will need a special locking tool with chain dummy tenioner 27mm thin spanner the cheap ebay locking kits are hit and miss i have a couple and when compared to a £200 draper one can be 2 to 6 degrees off time, £660 is fair price i no Peugeot main agents on same engine £850 ish,, one ideal would be buy a good one then rent it out take a online deposit off people before postage maybe might even make a few quid off it.

 

[mike1967]

Whats' the dummy tensioner for?

27mm thin spanner for the aux belt tensioner?

i did refrain from any joke reply lol,,

so you remove old chain kit and then slide new one in with bottom sprocket held by the chain and guides clipped together and put all the guide pins in and vanos sprocket on loose and the bottom sprocket loose, so all sprocket can free turn on their shafts,, at this point you use a dummy tensioner,, ie its same as spring one but has a threaded bar to manually set the amount of pretension force on to the chain tension guide,, ie just enough that it dont flex the guides in any way , at that point can set sprockets to 20nm torque wrench,, then remove locks and turn engine by hand 4 times over then relock and check if all locks drop on to the cams after setting the crankshaft pin,, if does i always insert the spring tensioner and repeat this for peice of mind,, if dont match up then either to much force was on the dump tension tool or not enough,, ie its trying to match the load of the sprung loaded tension with the manual one when setting it,,
i know this all sound alien complex but its just a process, the first time i ever done one i got it wrong but caught before running the engine or doing up the stretch bolts etc,, check re check it this dont cost you a penny just 10 minutes of time,, ie must be able to lock crank shaft then just drop the cam locks in to place when checking timing always final check before doing stretch bolts up is try with spring tensioner in place,,

 

[mike1967]

I haven't retimed the engine yet but I was having trouble finding the cam stretch bolts without buying the Vanos gear and sprocket too. However I just found them by using the part numbers from RealOEM. So in case anyone else needs it the intake Vanos strech bolt is 11367536087 and the exhaust sprocket strech bolt is 11367545863.

ocean bmw plymouth sell them over counter £2.90 ish

 

[mike1967]

the joys of them, as chain was out very clearly after getting timing back right it will either need a few hot to cold runs to get ecu to reset its self, after this if still doing it then finding whats been taken out more than likely by it be out of time. ie the cat or and upstream 02 sensor could even be a ecu issue for the 02 sensor as on psa cars have seen the 02 sensors get so hot they melt and dead short back to ecu, all maybe's,

 

[mike1967]

Thanks for your help Mike, it's good to have you on this journey!

I'm doing a trip from Kent to Birmingham and back this weekend so that will give the car plenty of running and warm up.

ideal buddy glad to have helped,, i noticed the locking tool you used a link below shows the kit that also covers the turbo engine and allows for the vvt on inlet cam shaft,,
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/S-XN12P-...=123485606524c3506cdae59e46b5a73b1eb71d36a02b

 

[mike1967]

at 49000 miles that engine is well on its way to needing a chain kit just to get that out there and i would not do what you have done with retiming up a stretched chain as tensioner will be on its last legs, that fault code is a breather or pcv leak somewhere, maybe the rocker cover is leaking or the solid plastic breather pipe has split or the connections are leaking somewhere, the best way to find these leaks is smoke test, i have a cheap £20 disco smoke machine and add ultra violet in to the solution and change the inlet with it see where it leaks.

 

[mike1967]

for adaptation reset could do a hard reset as per below
How to reset all ecu's

this procedure is called a power latch

firstly turn on the ignition not engine running,
open bonnet remove battery positive lead and then turn off ignition.
then touch the positive lead to earth,this powers down all ecus and resets erasing intermittent faults in the process.then reconnect the battery lead.
if the vehicle doesnt start straight away leave the ignition on for 2-3 mins as it has gone into anti scanning mode.

IMPORTANT PLEASE READ CAREFULLY
upon starting the vehicle DO NOT TOUCH THE THROTTLE allow vehicle to idle until cooling fans cut in to allow the engine ecu to reset correctly and reprogramme the learning curve,then drive in all gears upto 4,000 rpm accellerating steadily.

as stated this resets all ecus so any electrical faults caused by conflict errors in programming will be erased and fixed.if the fault is still evident there is a problem that will need further diagnosis

 

[mike1967]

push the start stop button so has no lights on dash and disconnect the battery and go through the process

 

[mike1967]

the car ecu's are all switched on from when you unlock the door with key fob the body control module switches it all to life it stays alive for 3 minutes before shutting off so whether it has a button or a key is neither here nor there, the point of discharging the circuits by the process are all the same,

 

[mike1967]

you put fob into dash press start button as to turn on ignition ie all fuel gauge comes to life etc,, at this point the ignition is definitely on, then press the button once ie this switches off the ignition leave fob in dash then disconnect battery and cross them,, thats the beginning of it thought that would be fairly straight forward to work out on a car with a start button and not a key you turn, the fact the button does away with the rotary movement of a key but still does the same thing,