I have had a tapping noise from my engine on start up pretty much since owning the car. Asked BMW about it and got the usual 'it's part of MINI's characteristics'!

This morning I noticed the tapping was rather prominent starting up from cold. Depress the clutch and the tapping disappears, take you foot off the clutch and back it comes. Drive to work which gives the car plenty of time to warm up and the loud tapping has gone...

Is this normal? I expect I am worrying over nothing just because I am out of warranty now! Advice would be appreciated.

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I heart DERV!
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I get that often... Frightens the life out of me sometimes... Might be worth checking your engine oil though as it may be down slightly...

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His:
BMW Mini Cooper S Black and blue all over
Seat Leon FR 2.0FSI Turbo

Hers:
Fiat 500 White and Kitty all over

I have a noise as I pull away from a stopped position if the engine is cold it’s not a tapping more like if your cam belt was going I asked my friends who work for mini he had a look at the car and said that it’s a common fault with the older models and mini brought out a modified flywheel and clutch something.
Some of the mini were recalled, I called them yesterday finding out that mine wasn’t recalled and all I got was its going to cost you blah blah blah and they couldn’t give me a reason why mine wasn’t called back in.
He did mention you can live with it it’s not damaging the car in anyway.
I give my mate a call today and find out if he has ever had a tapping noise and might be able to give you an update if I can make it to the meal.
Mark

Odd noise... I get a similar thing with my dads mondeo! It goes away after depressing the clutch although now (about a year after it first did it!) its occuring more frequently and doesnt always go away when pressing the clutch...

Hopefully something has just worked its way loose and it just needs tightening... Perhaps get an independant garage to take a look?

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Back in the fold... but being tempted out again...

Cheers Mark!

I also get a noise from the belts, it makes one hell of a racket. If they did introduce a modified fly wheel and clutch I'd imagine it would have already been fitted to mine as it was built during the final year of production of the R53.

The tapping noise is rather worrying I have to admit. I checked the oil not so long ago and it was virtually on max but it's probably worth me checking again! It's just been serviced (25k miles) and MOT'd would oil have been looked at then?

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call mini up and they can tell you if its been fitted

its not a problem, I believe its just a transmission noise... not that loud but does go away when you depress the clutch as you are disengaging it from the drive.

the other noise others are reffering to is a small squeek when moving off usually first thing in the morning. As far as I am aware its not a big issue and causes no long term issues,

Thanks for the advice, perhaps I am worrying over nothing. Cheers!

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I heart DERV!
///M Sport has landed...