I just bought a 2006 Mini Cooper S convertible with 50k 6-speed 17" wheel package. I was wondering what I should be looking at as far as maintenance - I've read about the engine mounts, power steering pump, etc. The car spent most of life on Chicago so I'm sur that it has seen some salt. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

I hope I'm not the only one to mention this on the outset, but, PICTURES.

Check out soopercooperinfo.com for a growing list of independent MINI service shops and hundreds of very useful links to all things MINI. Use the search engine here to find answeres to about any question you might have. Keeping it looking it's best, scour Detailing 101 and look to Octaneguy for an authority.

All the bad things you read about in here are just a handful of equipment failures out of thousands of MINIs on the road.

Start motoring and, oh yea, post some pictures.

 

Not sure if you've checked this already, but the thermostat housing is prone to leaking.

 

Do you have the complete service history on the car yet? If not, you can try to track that down first. Once you have that, you can continue to follow the car's maintenance schedule. The regular maintenance schedule runs too long between oil changes (about 15k miles or so) for some, so they change oil and filter more frequently; sometimes choosing a 7.5k or a 5k mile interval.

For tracking down service history a Carfax is just a start because it doesn't provide the details. I got the service history on our used MINI by contacting the dealer that originally sold the car. Service history may be harder to find if the car was serviced by an independent shop.

Harder to say what should be done about problems reported by others that haven't happened to your car yet.