N18 Timing Chain Kit for a Mini Cooper S in Uprated

A timing chain kit: the later Mini engine, which is better than the N14 and is not immune.

We are an independent parts supplier. We are not BMW AG or MINI, we are not appointed by them, and BMW and MINI are their trademarks. What we sell are parts that fit those cars, described as such. Every listing states the chassis codes and engine codes it fits, the production date range, which quality tier you are buying, the labour time the job actually takes, and whether the part needs coding to the car before it will work. Where a part is only made in plastic by the factory and fails because it is plastic, we say so and we offer the metal one.

Specification and fitment

• Fits: Mini Hatch R55 R56 R57 and Countryman R60
• Engine: N18 Mini Cooper S
• Production dates: 2007 to 2019 depending on chassis, and the guide specification changed in production. These cars change mid production, sometimes twice in a model year, and two cars built four months apart can take different parts. Send us the last seven digits of your VIN with the order and we check the part against the build record before anything is dispatched. It takes us two minutes and it is the difference between a part that fits and a return.
• Quality: redesigned where the original failed. On this site that usually means metal where the factory used plastic, or a reinforced guide where the original wore through, and the specification says exactly what was changed
• Part number: cross referenced to the original equipment number for your VIN and confirmed before dispatch. We do not publish a single number against a listing that covers several build variants, because that is how people order the wrong part
• The failure this addresses: The N14 in the R56 Cooper S has the timing chain rattle everybody has heard about, and the tensioner alone rarely fixes it once the chain has stretched. It also carbons up on the inlet valves like every direct injection engine of its era, which is a walnut blast rather than a part. The N18 that replaced it is better and not immune.
• Labour time: five to seven hours from the front of the engine
• Coding: no coding, but the adaptation values want resetting with a diagnostic tool afterwards or the car will run on the old learned figures for a while
• Also needed: engine oil and filter, a sump gasket, a rear main seal if it is weeping, and new stretch bolts throughout. Every one of those is in the kit
• Torque: all stretch bolts are single use and the angles are in the instructions. Reusing a timing bolt on one of these engines is how a good job fails at 3,000 miles
• Weight: approximately 9.8 kilograms
• Warranty: two years or 24,000 miles, whichever comes first on the parts, and two years on our labour where we fit it
• The symptom: a rattle from the front of the engine on a cold start that quietens after a few seconds. It gets longer, and then one morning the chain jumps a tooth and the valves meet the pistons
• Do not wait: on an interference engine, which all of these are, a jumped chain is a cylinder head at best and a whole engine at worst
• Locking tools: the kit includes the camshaft and flywheel locking tools, which are otherwise about two hundred pounds to hire
• Oil: the swarf from the worn guides is circulating in the oil, so the oil and filter are changed as part of this job, not afterwards

What arrives

• the timing chain, guides, rails and tensioner
• sprockets where the kit includes them
• every stretch bolt, all single use
• the timing cover gasket and seals
• camshaft and flywheel locking tools
• printed instructions with torque figures and angles
• the labour where the fitted option is chosen

Fitting

Five to seven hours from the front of the engine, which is within reach of a confident home mechanic with the locking tools, and those are in the kit. Choose the fitted option above and we do it at our workshop, with the old parts kept for you to look at, photographs of the wear, and the adaptation values reset before the car goes back.

Which version to buy

Four words get used loosely in this trade and they mean different things. Genuine means in the manufacturer's box with their part number on it. OE means the same part from the firm that actually makes it, in that firm's box, usually 30 to 40 per cent cheaper. Aftermarket means somebody else's version, which is sometimes as good and sometimes not. Remanufactured means a core stripped, measured and rebuilt to specification, which is not the same as cleaned. Every listing here says which of the four you are looking at. On a timing chain the tier that matters most is the guide material. The original plastic guides are what failed, so the uprated option here uses the revised specification rather than the part that was superseded for a reason. If the car is going to be kept, buy the uprated guides. If it is being sold in the spring, the OE supplier kit is the honest middle.