Hi,

My 2012 Countryman S All4 with manual transmission and 15k miles makes a rhythmic (on and off) medium-pich whining sound at highway speeds with the engine under load. The sound, which seems to be coming from the right rear of the car, appears to be afffected by outside temp - the colder it is, the more noticeable the sound. Unfortunately, it's usually a lot colder where I live than it is where the dealer is located, which is why the same noise that drives me crazy every day is barely noticeable whenever the car visits the dealer.

Although the sound is annoying in its own right, my biggest concern is that it's a symptom of a serious mechanical problem that will at the very least cause premature wear and perhaps even - probably the day the warranty expires! - result in a costly repair.

The dealer, Motorwerks MINI in Minneapolis, has taken my concern very seriously and put forth a great deal of effort and expense to diagnose and solve the problem. As evidence, they just replaced the final drive/rear differential. Unfortunately, by the time I had finished half the 300+ mile trip home from the service dept yesterday, the outside temp was in the single digits and it became clear that the problem was (gulp) still there.

Here's some additional information about the sound: It's most likely to make an appearance at 62-64 mph. RPM's don't seem to matter - it happens in 5th or 6th gear. There's also sometimes a lower pitch version of the same rhythmic sound that seems to come from the left rear of the car at 70-73 mph.

I realize this is a little geeky (OK, a LOT geeky), but I tried recording the sound with my iPhone. Road and wind noise made the sound hard to hear clearly, so I did my best to filter out the background noise, which resulted in something that admittedly resembles the sountrack of a submarine movie. Still, it's the real thing. If you're up for a challenge and would like to take a listen, I posted the mp3 at http://goo.gl/AnzYE.

I will be ever-so-grateful for any and all ideas.