Countryman 1.6 Petrol

[SSG1000]

Looking to buy a car for my wife to travel to work in. (15miles a day).

She’s had her eye on a Countryman, but wanted to check if the 1.6 Petrol (11-plate) have any known issues?

[Jamescrs]

My wife had one previously on a 14 plate and we owned it for 3-4 years and it was faultless in the time we had it, it didn't need anything more than usual servicing and maybe one set of tyres in our ownership, traded it in a couple of years ago as she wanted the newer shape Countryman with more power so bought a Cooper S version on a 68 plate.

No complaints about the earlier Countryman for reliability

[SSG1000]

Out of interest, do they come with logbooks or are they registered online?

I have been looking at a 62 plate and there is only a sheet with service internals but no stamps or actual service book?

[Dimebars]

Timing chains (I think they're chains) may be an issue

A previous colleague of mine owned one with this probelm

[georgeyboy12345]

SSG1000 said:

Looking to buy a car for my wife to travel to work in. (15miles a day).

She’s had her eye on a Countryman, but wanted to check if the 1.6 Petrol (11-plate) have any known issues?

Yes there are known issues with the timing chain and tensioner, failure of which essentially destroys the engine. Also the high pressure fuel pumps fail on them, which are also expensive to replace.

[wiliferus]

My OH had a 10 plate 1.6 Cooper in a hatch. It was faultless as such, only needing routine servicing, but despite being 10 years old and only having about 60k miles on it, the cam chain developed the death rattle. It had a FSH and in her ownership (3 years) it had been serviced within schedule several times at a decent BMW Indy and quality fully synth oil used. Part ex’d it sharpish.
I think the cam chain on that generation is a ticking time bomb regardless of SH.

[anonymous-user]

From what I understand this engine is the Peugeot 1.6 as fitted to the 208 GTi. It is known for being utterly terrible, I believe timing chains are burnt out valves are common.

Salvage Rebuilds had one on their channel last year with a burnt out valve that they tried to fix. From what I understand they never managed to get it running properly and ended up sending it to auction as they didn't want to sell it on.

Avoid.