Another Total JUNK BMW/Mini Cooper N14 Engine Teardown, Dead at 107k. These are the WORST! #Dejavu

The cam gear was installed backwards, you can see locators used to center it on the cam.

I love how the pistons are smiling at you while you’re disassembling them

"Geographical sensor" That's a new one for me. I'll have to remember to ask the guy at the parts counter next time I'm in there if they have one in stock. See how long he will search the computer before he gives up and says they don't show any in stock.

Thanks for my Saturday night entertainment Eric. Happy Fathers Day to all the dads out there.

Yes! Saturday night is complete. Some people go clubbing, I watch engine teardowns

There's a channel that I sometimes watch called "The Hydraulic Press Channel", where they crush stuff with a 300 Ton press. You should contact them to find out if a water pump from a car engine is crushable with a 300 Ton press.

I usually love the sound of head bolts loosening on basically any engine, but on this one they sound absolutely horrible omg

At 14.13 you can see the offset of the cam gear which was forcing the chain into the head. Also explains why the aluminium carrier for the top guide fractured. When the bolt is undone for that sprocket you can see it all jump forward. Previous mechanic ruined that engine…

I’m glad he removes the cram craps off.

So I might be alone when saying this but I don't need the carnage. I actually really just enjoy your commentary. It's why I keep watching.

One bent bolt on the oil pump was funny adding a second one was hilarious.

One of my friends worked on Renault engines fitted to Nissans in the UK. He has always bought Hondas himself. He took great pleasure in telling me every time a new disaster was discovered. He saw a lot of engines replaced under warranty. Happily he retired just over a year ago. My brother's A-class plug in hybrid has a French engine, fortunately he leased it through the UK NHS, so he can give it back in about 9 months. He says his next car will be a Toyota hybrid.

Timing had been done and camgears were installed wrong way! Those parts in pickup were from old guide. I think that it lost timing tension and went in lean(maybe jumped a tooth?), and then they started just throwing parts at it like the vvt solenoid without getting it any better because codes were probably from timing correlation and it had new chain so it can't be that 😅

20:05 How my hip sounds after I mow the lawn

Blue to the rescue!! 21:13

These engines aren't great, they are overly complicated in my opinion but a majority of major problems are due to owners not looking after them and the service intervals being far too long. I've got the later N18 engine, it's now on 107k miles, it doesn't burn any oil, it doesn't have a timing chain tick, it idles perfectly smoothly and I've not had any issues with it over my year of ownership other than an o2 sensor which is a easy cheap fix to replace. If you want this engine to last, it's not a bulletproof engine that can be neglected, it needs to have it's oil changed regularly every 5000-7500 miles, regularly check your oil level cruical for the vanos system, the timing chain is not 'lifetime' one of it's issues is that the chain will stretch (that is crap design) but since it has variable camshaft gears, it will try to adjust the camgears to counter the stretch and if the stretch is bad enough you will get a vanos code for maximum movement reached or a timing code, the idle might also get lumpy or sound odd but my point is there are warning signs to get it changed, get it changed as you would a timing belt, If you are looking to get one and it runs werid (lumpy idle), has a timing chain tick or noise, consumes oil, just run away and find one that has been well looked after with regular oil changes and serviced had any issues addressed quickly rather just ignored and carry on looking after it and it will look after you back. Fed up of countless people buying cheap neglected mini coopers and then blaming the engine. Yes it has its issues but driving it around with a check engine light, hardly ever changing the oil, timing chain rattle (and not replacing it with that obvious warning sign), ragging the crap out it and also remapping them with rubbish generic remaps isn't a fault of the engine but of the owners.

Whoever did the timing chain maintenance on that engine should never be allowed to touch a car again.

In nearly 20 years as a professional mechanic, there are only 2 engines I’ve seen that had to be replaced because they bent rods without any external cause/failure. One was a BMW N20 and the other was an N13. When I say no external cause, I mean they weren’t hydrolocked, they weren’t modified/tuned, the fuel injectors were fine (not leaking), they’re just junk and bent a rod because they’re too flimsy. In both cases, it caused a slight knock, a vibration and misfire codes for the cylinder with the bent rod (because of lower compression). Both engines had less than 100k miles.

I hope one day a teardown of an Mini N18 can be done. I've been looking at 2011-2013 Coopers recently, I know the N18 addressed a number of issues that plagued the N14.

Always a pleasure to see a new episode. Cheers Sir 😊