Hi, new here and just purchased a '15 VO Cooper S 6-spd with 48k (kilometers), been having a blast with it so far, and reading the forums learning what I can.

This thing loves to hang on to revs unfortunately, any of you had that tuned out? I know a lot of modern cars suffer from rev hang. When shifting 1>2 or 2>3 at a reasonable speed, you pretty much just have to let the clutch out which decreases the revs. Not great for the clutch but what can you do. I get a 'clunk' in the front doing this... anyone else experience this? Motor mount? End links? any common culprits? The pass side motor mount appears okay, no leaks visible. There is also an occasional clunk hitting bumps around town which may be related...

The drivers interior handle ambient LED is burned out/failed, can you buy these ambient lights separately? Just pop off the door card and replace the bulb?

One last thing, I'm new to mini. It seems there is no 'scheduled maintenance'... you just sit there and wait for the computer yell at you. Is that what most of you all do? Or is there a schedule anywhere you guys are following? For example, I'm somewhat skeptical that 1 yr/15000km oil changes are good for anything long term...

Thanks for any help or advice!

 

Welcome to the NAM family!

While my MINI is a 6spd auto, I did have a manual loaner car at one point from the dealer and actually found the clutch to be quite progressive and predictable in its operation? That being said, I'm sure every car is in a different state of adjustment (these cars have hydraulic self adjusting clutches as most modern cars do), and you may still be getting used to the particular adjustment point on your car. Give yourself and the car some time to bond :-).

I also owned a 2013 VW Beetle with atrocious rev hang, so I know exactly what you mean, and you're absolutely right - you need to feather the clutch and gas a lot more to make it smooth, versus dumping it (like you can on some NA sports cars, like a Corvette or Porsche for instance). My advice would be to try and let the clutch out even slower, but just slow enough to make a smooth change. As you said, you don't want to ride the clutch.

Also, I believe if you have the sport driving mode option on your car and you switch to that, the car will match revs for you...pretty handy if you ask me.

Bulbs haven't burned out yet on my car, so I can't really speak to your bulb question, but I would assume it is as you say (remove door car, find part on a site like ECS and replace)

For the scheduled maintenance, if you have never owned a BMW Group product before it does take some getting used to. BMW calls it CBS (condition based servicing) where the ECU is constantly monitoring how you drive and storing that data back to the key so that when you take it into the dealer they can charge you lots of $$$ to take of everything the car "thinks" it needs. It's built for sheepish owners with more $$ than common sense.

My advice is to do any maintenance you feel comfortable doing on the car yourself - for everything else, take it to your own independent MINI/BMW shop who has experience working with these cars.

That being said, I have been to my local dealer a few times and they always do quality work and treat me right (even if they are pricey).

You definitely want to get the oil changed every 5000-7500mi. With the turbocharger, these cars generate lots of heat and wear through oil like nobody's business.

Hope that helps you, and once again, welcome to the club!