my wife just picked up her 2011 countryman s with 20k miles....in two days the check engine light has came on and gone off at least once, found road gravel rattling in the chrome exhaust tips, another rattle under the dash....but she loves the car and I can say it is quite fun to drive

 

Welcome!

Would love to know how gravel ended up in you tailpipes. Any idea? Previous owner have a gravel pile at the end of his driveway? Odd.

 

the dual wall chrome tailpipes are open on the front side, and cupped all the way around allowing little stones to get in but not get out...I took the car for a proper test drive last night, dunno if that is where it came from or previous owner.

 

Ah... yeah, I forgot there is enough of a gap between the pipes and the chrome tips to get foreign objects in there.

At least that is one of MINIs many rattle problems easy to fix!

 

Check engine light could be that gas cap was not closed properly. I would also check with your MINI Dealer on the thermostat recall. If not done, it needs to be taken care of. Other than that you should be ok. Have 20k on Betty and she is just fine.

Good Luck and keep motoring.