MINI Cooper Peugeot engine: which MINIs share the Prince engine with PSA

Origins of the MINI Cooper Peugeot engine

BMW and PSA announced the cooperation on 23 July 2002, and the first engines came in 2006. PSA produces the components at Douvrin in France, and MINI and BMW engines are assembled at Hams Hall in Warwickshire.

BMW directed the engineering. The Prince uses BMW’s Valvetronic variable valve lift on the intake side and a timing chain, and the turbo versions add direct injection and a twin-scroll turbocharger. In the MINI it replaced the Tritec engine of the first generation.

Which MINIs have the Prince engine

MINI gave each version of the Prince its own code. The engines went into the R56 hatch, the R55 Clubman and the R57 convertible, MINI’s own bulletin lists the R60 Countryman with the N16 and N18, and the R58 Coupé and R59 Roadster use the N18.

BMW fitted its own version, the N13, to the 1 Series from 2011 and the 3 Series 316i from 2012. The MINI codes and their years:

• N12: 1.4 in the One and 1.6 in the Cooper, 2007 to 2010
• N14: 1.6 turbo in the Cooper S from 2007 to 2010 and the John Cooper Works from 2009 to 2013
• N16: 1.6 in the Cooper from 2011 to 2013
• N18: 1.6 turbo in the Cooper S from 2011 to 2013, succeeding the N14

The Cooper D with a PSA diesel

The Peugeot link reaches the diesel too. From April 2007 MINI sold a Cooper D with the 1.6-litre DV6, the diesel PSA developed with Ford, and the R55 Clubman offered it as well. In 2011 MINI replaced it with BMW’s own 1.6 and 2.0-litre N47. Check the engine code before you order diesel parts for a Cooper D from around the 2011 changeover, since the two engines come from different makers.

The Peugeot side: EP3 and EP6

PSA started using the family in 2006, and the Peugeot 207 was the first PSA car to receive it. The 1.6 EP6 went into the 207, 208, 308, 3008 and 508 and the Citroën C4, DS3 and DS4, and the turbocharged EP6DT and EP6DTS were sold as the THP 150 and THP 175. The 175 PS version served both sides: the Peugeot 207 RC and 308, and the MINI Cooper S from 2007 to 2010.

Timing chain bulletins on the Prince engine

MINI issued service information on the timing chain tensioner more than once. SI M11 03 11, revised in April 2012, covers R55, R56 and R57 cars with N12, N14, N16 and N18 engines and R60 Countrymen with N16 and N18, all produced up to November 2011. The tensioner seal ring was too soft and could leak oil, and dealers fit seal ring 11 31 7 631 972 in place of the one in the tensioner box.

SI M11 04 13 of January 2014 describes a service action for N14 engines built from November 2006 to May 2009, where a weak tensioner spring could cause a rattle on a cold start or at idle. A punched-out code 61 on the B-pillar label shows the action was done.

Both bulletins come from MINI’s service information, archived by NHTSA. The parts catalog gives the part numbers, and the repair procedure lives in the service information.

Comparing Prince parts across BMW ETK and Service Box

ETK lists a MINI engine part under an eleven-character BMW number, and Service Box lists the Peugeot or Citroën counterpart under a PSA reference. A shared design gives you no shared number to search.

To compare, decode the MINI in BMW ETK and the Peugeot in Service Box, open the same assembly in each and compare the drawings, the maker’s reference printed on the part and any dimensions the catalogs give. Versions differ inside the family: the 155 kW John Cooper Works engine was used only by BMW.

VINsearch opens BMW ETK for MINI and Service Box for Peugeot, Citroën and DS on one login, from $5 for a Day Pass. Decode both cars before you swap a part between them, since each catalog confirms fitment only for its own VIN.