Purchased a 2009 S Clubman last month for my daughter. Had it a week and timing chain/guides/tensioner failed. I'd never done anything beyond oil changes and tackled it myself. After a long, hard road, she's BACK on the road. Learned a lot about the car and fixed numerous other things along the way. Hope to learn and share here. I've been disappointed by reliability, but after having owned several sports cars I can say I've never driven a car that's more fun than the Mini.

 

Welcome to NAM. The MINI sure is a fun vehicle to drive. You'll learn a lot as you work on it. If you ever have any questions or need anything in the future please don't hesitate to let me know. Enjoy your time here.

 

Very sharp car. I'm assuming the chain was fixed under the warranty/settlement? How many miles on the Clubman? BTW, welcome to NAM. I can promise you and your daughter have many miles of grins ahead of you!

Drive Hard. Drive Safe. Keep Grinning.

 

Thank you. I researched, ordered parts, and repaired the car myself. Unfortunately, the 7 years expired in August and I purchased the car in September. It only had 59,000 when we took possession and it has about 61,000 now. I tried to get Mini and the closest dealership to help, but they pretty much stonewalled me. I wish I could hold you to that promise! Now that I own one and I've read so much about them, I'm aware they are not very reliable. I do plan to keep it because my daughter LOVES it, but it's on my bad list. Any further significant trouble will be the final straw and this will certainly be my last BMW or Mini.

 

Will do. Thanks.

 

Let us know if you need any help! We have over 40 years with this brand on the street and track, and working with the factory. In fact, we had the first new BMW MINI in the USA!

Drive Hard. Drive Safe. Keep Grinning.

 

As long as you teach her to check the oil every week she should be fine aside from the next thermostat failure, or water pump (if it hasn't gone yet), or high pressure fuel pump. Those as well as the timing cassette are the most common failure points, so you've already tackled the biggest of the problems.

It'll have it's quirky failures just like anything else, but if you or your daughter are thoroughly pleased with the car you'll have to put up with some sass, but all used cars have their demons.

 

I'll handle all the maintenance. I'm sure at some point I'll teach her the basics. While the car was down I replaced the water pump (ALL METAL part), turbo water pump, thermostat housing, spark plugs, serpentine belt, all the gaskets involved, etc. I test drove it a few days and turned it over to her. It seems to be running smoothly. She's named the thing Nigel, so I'm going to have to tolerate some sass. She'd be heart broken if I sold it and replaced it with anything else.

 

Sounds like you've taken care of most of the common failures, so she should have many miles of worry free fun ahead of her!

 

We will be picking up our 2010 MC tomorrow. The owning one week and having the timing parts go bad has me nervous. How many miles did the car have on it?

 

It had 59,000. I've read about it happening as low as 25k. Look, I don't want to discourage anyone, but please educate yourself. Get on Google and YouTube and search "mini timing" or "mini timing chain" or "mini tensioner" or "mini rattle" and you'll see it is more often than not. Not to mention the laundry list of other issues- water pump, thermostat housing, turbo water pump, fuel pump, on and on. I smile every time that car moves and I LOVE driving it. Minis are super sharp, but I would pass on another one.

 

Here is some background info that can help:

http://new.minimania.com/Mini_Cooper_Cold_Start_Rattle

https://www.forthepeople.com/class-a...chain-lawsuit/

Drive Hard. Drive Safe. Keep Grinning.