Driven my cooper 3 times!!
 

Okay so I bought a 2007 mini cooper s. My first drive, I drove to my daughters 60 miles away. On the way back I shredded the belt. Pull into Goodyear and $600 later I have a new belt and friction pulley. So then I head home 60 miles away away. Guess what again shredded belt. So my son a mechanic (mind you not a mini mechanic) says let me look at it. So we replace every pulley. Yes even the crank pulley. And who ever replaced it before stripped a bolt. So to remove yes he took the dreaded middle bolt out. So with the book he puts it all back together. And OMG now the 2nd spark plug is getting hit. The car doesn't turn over. Now I know it goes 1,2,3,4 from passenger side. And firing order is 1,3,4,2. So anyway I had him load it on a trailer and take it to mini 60 miles away. They call and tell me the 4th valve is shattered! And they are recommending a $15,000 engine. I ONLY PAID $3950 for the car with 102,000 miles. It was running fine before this. Can anyone tell me how the 4th valve can be shattered? Thank you and recommendations would be appreciated.

15K or an engine??? Somebody's smokin' something they shouldn't, besides, a stripped bolt indicates whoever worked on it before didn't know their a$$ from a hot rock.

Yep Mini cooper of Plaino, TX.

So called them back. Asked if they would open it up and do a valve job on it. Here's what they said, " No, because they could open it up and find other things wrong with it. Then close it up charge me for all that then just to put a new crate engine for $15,000 plus labor." So my husband asked what is your labor rate? "We don't have one we charge by the job." Then they said, "if you don't want the new engine we can put you in contact with our finance department and get a new car." So I'm picking up the car taking it home. Buying a remanufactured

Engine for $3500. And dropping it in. Any inputs?? Thanks

This is one heck of a story for joining the forum ...

Welcome to the forum.

The remanufacured engine is the way to go, unless there is another Mini dealer near ya to confided in. If not, consider this a project with you and your son.

Re-manufactured with a warranty? If not a reliable source with a good warranty I'd walk away from the car and take my lumps. Then again I probably wouldn't have bought that car in the first place. My last used high mileage car cost me way too much money over the years with little satisfaction. It of course was a BMW.

Hi and welcome to NAM!
I am sorry your life with a Mini Cooper, got off to a horrible start!
Sadly you got screwed several times!
You need to find a good Indie Mini Cooper mechanic shop. There is no room to have a poor result in the future!
I am wishing you the best result, so you can enjoy, what Minis offer us. It is second to none!

WOW! Just to let you know what type of BS the Dealer is trying to pull, the Brand Spanking new MOPAR 6.2L HELLCAT SC EFI COMPLETE FACTORY CRATE ENGINE is $15,000.00.

The MINI Engine Assembly - Re-manufactured should sell between $5,500.00 to $7,000.00 and you can find units pulled from salvage yards for around $3,000.00

Best of luck.

Motor On!

since your son is mechanically inclined, have him remove the valve cover and take a look what's inside...you can also do a compression test to verify the dealer's story. lastly, aside from ebay, you can search car-part.com for engines. they're cheap.

The 07 hardtops have the N14 engine. Some have had no issues, many others curse the day they ever heard of it. Did you do any research on the car prior to buying it?

There are several wrecked Minis out there with good engines! (with totaled bodies)
Find one and swap the engine in yours! I seen them for $1500.

Yes I did alot of digging into the car before getting it. The problem all started with the belt. I even had the car fax on the vehicle. So I knew the timing chain had already been changed. And everything that was done to the vehicle. Thankfully the previous owner only used authorized mini dealers for every thing done to the car. (Well except what ever dealer stripped the crank pulley bolt, so we had to take the center bolt out.) Which is where my headache started.

The answer to the crank pull strip out is helicoil!