Timing chain and head gasket problem - advice please

[antspants]

1st post in this part of the forum so be gentle

My wife's car is a 2007 Mini Cooper with 55k miles on the clock.

Couple of weeks ago she was stranded on the motorway after the car lost power, she looked in her mirror saw clouds of smoke, pulled over lifted the bonnet and had to put out a fire

So I had a mobile mechanic come out earlier this week and diagnosed that the fire had only melted the edge of the rocker cover and the oil leak was coming from the rocker cover gasket. Tubes where the spark plugs go were full of oil as well which he said explained the smoke.

Today I've had the rocker cover and gasket replaced as well as the spark plugs. It's now running but not very well, if revving it sounds ok, but stalls as soon as the revs drop, and he's identified a clicking rattling sound.

So the diagnosis was that it need the timing chain replacing and a new coil pack (no.2). However my wife also mentioned this morning that she's been having to top it up with water a lot and the fan kept coming on, this had been going on for a while apparently.

So new diagnosis when I mentioned this is that the head gasket has gone, and I still need the other stuff doing. When he removed the coolant cap there was a lot of pressure and he said he could smell fuel/engine, rather than just coolant, and he suspects that exhaust gas is making it's way into the coolant tank and water leaking out the same way.

Please ignore any misuse of technical terms, I'm no mechanic and just repeating what I can remember.

Anyway reason for posting...having spent £400 today and with an estimate of £6-700 for what else needs doing, I just want to double check if the diagnosis sounds right and whether this is likely to be all I need to spend, or if it's just the start of throwing money at it. It's only worth £3,500-£4,000 so there's a limit to how much I want to spend on it.

Thoughts?

[Elliot2000]

So it had an oil leak from the rocker cover which caught fire? Definitely flames or just smoke?

If it ran fine before this rocker cover problem and now runs poorly after, then maybe rocker cover isn't sealed and is causing an air leak which would cause it to cut out at idle, or maybe the fire has damaged some wiring or sensors?

They are well known for water/ coolant leaks from the thermostat and coolant pumps so it may have been just this causing the coolant loss.

I would definitely recommend getting a second opinion - preferably from a mini specialist.
It's also easy to confirm a head gasket with the right tools rather than guessing like it seems ur mechanic has done. If u r goin to spend that kind of money then u want it confirmed and not just on a hunch

[antspants]

Elliot2000 said:

So it had an oil leak from the rocker cover which caught fire? Definitely flames or just smoke?

If it ran fine before this rocker cover problem and now runs poorly after, then maybe rocker cover isn't sealed and is causing an air leak which would cause it to cut out at idle, or maybe the fire has damaged some wiring or sensors?

They are well known for water/ coolant leaks from the thermostat and coolant pumps so it may have been just this causing the coolant loss.

I would definitely recommend getting a second opinion - preferably from a mini specialist.
It's also easy to confirm a head gasket with the right tools rather than guessing like it seems ur mechanic has done. If u r goin to spend that kind of money then u want it confirmed and not just on a hunch

I'm not sure about the running fine before or not as I rarely drive it. However I'm sure I recall driving it once and commenting to my wife afterwards that it felt like it was going to stall at idle. She said she'd never noticed and tbh I forgot all about it until now.

There were definitely flames because she had to put the fire out, but it was only small. It looks like it must have only just started because the only noticeable damage was the rocker cover had melted very slightly at the front. There was no damage to the wiring inside the rocker cover.

I'll ask them to check the head gasket properly and confirm it definitely needs doing before committing to having it done.

I'll also see if there any Mini specialists local that can have a look. I'm sure if I take it in Sytners I'll get stung with an inspection fee which could make a decent contribution to having the work done.

Thanks.