Timing chain

[Sheilz]

Any suggestions. A colleague has just bought a 60 plate basic Cooper with no frills. Has 50+ K on the clock. During drive up to Aberdeen from Kirkcaldy car was making a bit of noise which I can't really describe. I've heard it but can only say it's definitely not a normal Cooper growl. She had it into Arnold Clark today and they said it was the timing chain and needed a new water pump. Has anyone ever come across this issue with minis. In particular the timing chain? My understanding was these were generally infallible in these cars. She's a bit gutted at having to fork out for repairs after 3 days of ownership. Any ideas stone?

[Track Ali]

The timing chain tensioner is quite a common issue on second-generation MINI's I'm afraid. It does tend to be more of an issue on the turbo-charged engines but it can fail on the Cooper engines too.

[MINI William]

As Ali has said the timing chain is a common thing on the R56, granted more so on the turbo Cooper S and JCW but it has been known on Cooper’s also.

[DigitalLemming]

If she's only had it 3 days and it was bought from a dealer of some sort I'd be straight back to them either getting them to repair it or rejecting it as unfit for purpose.