Hi all; on the search for new or used clubman, have a great wholesale contact, want to find out what to watch out for. Have been lurking, and some owners are venting that even with extended warranty, big out-of-pocket expenses were recurring. Don't even want to think that those cars are on the wholesale circuit, but they probably are... Want a fun clubman S that can take me & my 2 weimaraners anywhere we want to travel (oh, yeah, husband, too). Have my heart set on british racing green.

 

We've got an 09 Clubman S with about 85K miles. No big problems but the tensioner problems and the carbon build up are both issues of the second gen cars.

Other than that, we love our Clubman!

 

Thanks much; Do you just pay someone to clean the carbon build up, or is it something a DIYer can do? Hubby loves playing w/cars, ripped apart & rebuilt Triumph spitfires in his day, can do just about anything mechanical, and is an electrical engineer, so he can diagnose if he can get ahold of codes. He may not want to mess with the carbon build-up, but I can hear him now, "sure I'll do it; how often does it need it?"

 

Carbon build up is hard to nail down as to when it needs to be none. I'm sure there are plenty of threads here on NAM and on MA about the build up you can research. Personally, I do a seafoam treatment every 3months and that has been proven to reduce/remove the build up. It can be done by the average mechanic, but having a pro (not necessarily a dealer) would be my suggestion.