2010 Clubman S: I'm sorry if this is a "re-run" but I emplore you fellow mini clubman owners for help. Long story short, after my car started running rough over the wknd. I took it in and the turbo is shot. Not only am I still under factory warranty, I also have an extended that covers me until 100K (currently at 49,418). They are claiming that I missed an oil change at 19K and had it done at 32K and that this was "owner neglect" and that it would not be covered. Ok... I cried in my rental car. I am a very conscientious owner. When I saw there was no oil change schedule when I got home and read my manual 2 yrs ago, I called my salesman. He said "mini (the car itself) will tell you when the oil needs changing and based on each individual driver. Based on that, I had the oil changed only when I went in for the service (as indicated that quick second on dial 1 when you start your car) and if the oil light comes on.

The dealer says the computer shows that at 19K a red light came on indicating some kind of engine ck that needed to be done. Even he admitted that it's very brief, does not stay on, and I probably missed it. This is soo ridiculous. We all know that this car lights up like a xmas tree if you don't have enough wiper fluid and every minimal thing in the world, and won't go off until you've corrected the problem! How can this major indicator come on for a "second" and then dissappear!??. Obviously it should stay on until the problem is corrected.

After talking to a mechanic who is a friend of the family, he found a TBS dated Jan 2010 and updated in March 2011 indicating that these turbos are defective (I'll paste at the bottom). He said that one missed oil change would absolutely not have made my turbo fail. He said it's a design flaw and that he would bet the lines were designed too small so much so that that oil is not getting to the engine or whatever.

It appears, though, it may only cover minis made up to 12-15-09. My mini date of production is 1-1-10, 2 weeks later. The service mgr. is trying to work w/the regional rep to get it covered for me. I'm preparing for the worst and am soooo angry. Mini/BMW is obviously aware of this problem. During all the times my car has been in for service, why was this not brought to my attn? They know, but they're betting they can pull one over on you and make you pay. They've had my car since Monday, I'm in an Enterprise rental and am waiting for the final word.

Do you believe I may have any success presenting this as an argument even though my production date is 2 wks. after? Again, I have not seen the March 2011 update. Maybe it includes 2010s and beyond now. Any advice you can offer would make me grateful. Thanks (sooo sad and stressed). I can't afford the repair which I was told is $2k for parts alone, who knows for the service. sigh...

This Service Information bulletin supersedes SI M11 03 08 dated July 2008. designates changes to this revision
SUBJECT
Turbocharger Failure - Oil Supply Line Blockage
MODEL
R55 (Cooper Clubman S) with N14 engine
R56 (Cooper S) with N14 engine
R57 (Cooper S Convertible) with N14 engine
Vehicles produced up to December 15th, 2009
SITUATION
The customer complains of loss of performance and turbocharger noise.
CAUSE
The turbocharger oil supply may be restricted, causing oil starvation and resulting in the seizing of the turbocharger assembly.
PROCEDURE
Upon replacement of the turbocharger assembly, always remove and inspect the oil supply lines for blockage or restriction. Ensure that the lines are not collapsed or kinked. Replace the lines if a blockage or restriction is detected. Inspection of the oil supply lines will avoid repeated failure of the turbocharger assembly. In addition, a protective cover should be installed on the supply line.
PARTS INFORMATION
Part Number
11 65 7 534 454
11 65 7 603 484
WARRANTY INFORMATION
For information only
Protective cover (1)
Description Quantity
Oil supply line 1 Cover 1

 

Please keep us posted on this.
I sure hope that MINI/BMW takes care of this for you.
If I read your post correctly, you were not informed that you had missed an oil change?
How could they neglect to tell you this?
I agree that the service light is very brief when starting the car, while less important issues show alarms.
I know if it's cold outside!
If I miss an important service appointment I want an alarm to go off.

My 2009 Clubman S falls under the category mentioned.
I will ask about it when I take Little Wing in for service on Friday.

I have read stories of MINI agreeing to fix problems on cars that are out of warranty.
Good luck.

 

Hi little wing, thanks for your reply and I will post my outcome. Again, my mini is still under the factory warranty AND I have an extended up to 100k. The bottom line is that mini knows this is a design flaw and the repairs of these turbos are coming back to bite them in the rear. They are looking for loopholes under the disguise of "customer neglect" to get out of paying for this very expensive repair. My service record is impeccable. Even if I did miss an oil change b/c of not seeing that brief "warning light" it's more likely that the issues raised in the TSB are the cause and not ONE missed oil change that was eventually done later when the more obvious and constant oil change light came on.

 

Sadly, the way I read the OP is that the oil change was missed. The TSB does not cover the date of the car, even if it is only 2 weeks outside of the deadline, they isolated it to those dates using some sort or reasoning or logic.

If I were int he same position I would be pissed too and really bummed, hoping they would help out some. But, by the book it sounds like they are not at any fault and it is owner neglect. Sorry to hear about this. It is reasons like this that they are now going to a 1 yr 10k mil oil change interval.

Beyond the mileage, how far apart, time-wise was the oil change? It sounds like the first oil change the car got was 32k miles...that's really long.

Has it had an oil change since 32k? If at 49k now I will hope it was recently changed or is about to.

 

It seems to me depending on how diligent your SA/Service manager making the case with Mini USA. Of course there are protocol that they need to follow but if the car is under warranty Mini should take care of it.

Our SA and service team has been amazing with our Mini and they do care to follow up. Hopefully, your SA will work out the situation for you.

 

@yetti96, looking over my records, it does seem that the first oil change was at 32K. My oil indicator light never went off and it usually does and stays on. That's how I know to take the car in. On top of that, my car has been serviced several times in between. The key read for sure should have advised of a needed or up and coming oil change right? Also, one of the service advisors, I would think, would have mentioned an oil change needed soon after the 13K service. Usually that is in their notes ".... advised customer oil change to be done at $19k etc. LIGHTBULB!!! I just remember asking the SA at 13K if I needed one and he repeated the fact that the car/indicator light would come on if I did. He said depending on how "you" drive, you can go quite some time w/o an oil change.

I too am used to changing oil every 3-5k miles but again, not wanting to do something to my warranty I stuck with the "mini oil light indicator method." I did not want the dealership to throw in my face I changed the oil too many times should something else have happened to my car. I think the lack of oil change schedule in their maintenance books is really a catch 22.

It's not a final no just yet. The 800 mini customer service mgr. is now involved and tells me she is working with the dealership and the regional rep to see if we can come to some kind of resolution. Guys, I'm a good car owner and I swear I NEVER saw any oil or engine indicator lights go off until apparently, it was too late

 

@Dozuki01: I hope you're right. I'm not out of the game yet. The svc. mgr. told me to day that even if "mini" does not want to step up, they are going to do what they can to help me out of this situation. BTW, my mini looks exactly like the one in your pic except mine has black rims. :-)

 

How do you like your black rim I just installed my black rim last weekend and did not have time to update the pic yet.

Good luck with your turbo and let us know how it turn out. Hopefully, the dealer will honor the warranty or may have to take action.

 

@Dozuki01 I don't care if I have green rims w/polka dots I just want my turbo fixed!!! They're ok. I think I would have liked a diff. style but at this point I could care less! Thanks for your well wishes, I'll keep everyone updated!

 

I'm not sure if this will help here is a link to the Gen 2 Technical Service Bulletin put together by"TheCheatOSX" member. You can take a look at section 11 Engine - The SIM 11 03 08 related to Turbocharger Failure.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-database.html

 

Here is a post recently that the OP contacted MiniUSA for help and it worked out well.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...placement.html

 

@Dozuki01, 10:32 a.m. Thanks. I did call Mini USA today and spoke w/a service mgr. there as well. She is supposedly working w/the dealership, etc. to work on a resolution. I hope my story turns out well to AND I'M IN WARRANTY! Fingers crossed for me all, thanks

 

You don't change the oil for 32K and you think the turbo has a design failure?

BTW, even tho MINI says change the oil when the light comes on, it also says clearly in your owner's manual to change the oil once a year, and you didn't even do that.

Seems like common sense should have prevailed here, and if I were you I'd pay for my turbo - MINI did nothing wrong here.

You can try and blame your SA, your MA, the moon or anything else, but the responsibility is yours.

IMHO.

I'm all for making MINI or any other mfr honor the terms of their warranty, but when it's blatant like this.......

 

@minidave: First the oil was changed within the first year. I was driving very long distances at the time and put an above average amount of miles on my car. Second, I may have made a mistake, an honest oversight but the turbo clearly has had issues. Third, I'm not BLAMING anyone. I'm saying that the turbo has problems and that on oversight in changing the oil may not have been the primary reason for the failure.
Fourth, I'm not schucking responsibility, I'm stated the reasons for the possible oversight and that mini should work with me under the circumstances. Sixth - blatant? I already stated the reason for the possible missed oil change and even asked the SA about it.

Seventh - feel better now you've "told me?" I thought the purpose of the forum was to be helpful and informative not to chastise someone who has pontentially made a human error in their car care and maintenance. Maybe this stuff comes second nature to you but it does not to everyone, just trying to get my car working again dude, pardon me.

 

I think the purpose of the forum IS to be helpful...........and honest.

The only issues your turbo has comes from you not changing the oil as required by the manfacturer - how is that a design or manufacturing fault?

You didn't follow the rules, now you want us to help you figure out a way to not pay for your disregard of them.

In essence you want us thru higher warranty costs passed along and higher parts costs or higher vehicle costs to pay for you laziness and incompetance.

You buy an expensive car and then you don't do the most basic maintenance that you admit that you do for all your other cars, and somehow it's this cars fault?

You're trying to find a scapegoat, and asking us to help......

Man up. Pay your bill.

 

If your statement is true, then MINIdave is correct. You can't blame the car for not alerting you to change the oil. Unfortunately, it looks like owner's neglect.

 

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...1#post77529177

VWVortex loves the OP.

 

Laziness, incompetence….wow, that’s quite an assault on someone’s character based on a 697 word post regarding one mini cooper service incident LOL. I guess I learned pretty early in life that honest and straightforward doesn’t have to be synonymous to rude and unkind. But alas, it never fails, there's always somebody looking to put someone else in their place. Guess today I’m on the receiving end of minidave. Big picture, you can call me whatever you'd like because again, this is only a post on a thread. It’s cool I know who I am.

 

Put you in your place?

How so?

You asked a question, but you didn't like my answer because I didn't agree with you.

You manage to get the oil changed at a regular and reasonable interval on your other cars.

What else would you call it beside laziness or incompetence? Use whatever euphemism's you'd like but the result is still the same.

You screwed up, why should I and every other MINI owner have pay for it?

You want MINI to "work with you", but what you mean is "I don't want to pay for my screw up"

Just because you don't like my honest answer does not make me the bad guy here.

Man up, take your lumps and move on.

 

This happened to my sister's BMW, the oil indicator never came on passed 18,000 miles so she took it in and they found the faulty computer/indicator unit. BMW ended up keeping the vehicle for over 2 weeks replacing the faulty units and diagnosting the issue. During this time, we were looking into lemon laws in CA, but luckily BMW was able to fix the issue and now the indicator works as designed. Maybe you should ask them to check the computer/indicator since it didn't come on at all. I hope BMW/Mini make it right for you, good luck!

 

@petery. Thanks for the insight. I will def. ask them to look into that for sure. In fact at I think around 13K I asked them about an oil change and they said it was too early and that I should continue to wait for the light. I had an interim service before I hit the 32K for something else random and said "hey, I still haven't had an oil change." No one at my dealership seemed to be worried and continued to tell me to wait for the light. Also, each time you go in they do that 32pt inspection and at no time until now when it's an issue did an oil change problem or suggestion to have one come up. Because they're covered and "free" I don't think they will do them unless there is some kind of indicator to do so which, as you suggest, if my car has some kind of defect in that regard. hmm...

I know I've made every effort on my end to be responsbile with the maintenance of my car. Again, thanks for the suggestion, still waiting to hear back! :-)

 

Same thing with my BMW the dealer said to wait for the indicator (mileage) to count down. Even on the mini you can check to see when the service is needed each time you start up the car. Once the mileage counter passed it showed negative value. At least that is how it works on my BMW.

Anyway, the whole point here is that you missed one oil change and you did not have low oil indicator came on. Does not seem that you neglected it on purpose, abused or mis handled the car in anyway.

 

@Dozuki01 Hi there and you are right. The mini does show a countdown to service just like your BMW. Mine is not at a negative AND..... I got the call I was waiting for!!!
Mini has agreed to cover the repair under warranty!!!

The service mgr. went to bat for me and kept climbing higher up the ladder until he got the approval. He said that he knew I had an impecable service record and he believed for some reason or another the oil change just got missed. When I go to pick my mini up, we are going to have an indicator light refresher lesson to make sure I'm aware of any quick indicators. It's also a good way for us both to make sure no indicators are defective as in the case of Petery's sister.

From this experience I will just insist the oil gets changed every 5k miles minimally and if they refuse because they feel it is too soon, I'm going to request that a note is placed in my computer file and on my customer copy indicating that.

Thanks for recognizing this was not purposeful neglect as I have been completely honest about my situation. And for everyone else in the thread rooting for the best outcome for me and offering their suggestions and advice, my sincere thanks again!!!

Case closed!! Guess I'll actually get to sleep tonight, lol!!

 

Yeah for Mini and your dealer!

"Plan fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed."

 

Yes they rock. You know how important those cust. surveys are - - need I say all 10s on the way!!! Prov 15:22 I know that's a scripture and a true saying indeed!!!! :-)