Hello everyone, new member finally making an introduction after a fair amount of lurking, reading and digesting on NAM. Must say it's been a ride in itself and I've managed to learn and potentially save a fair bit of money thanks to all of you guys.
Quick intro...
Bought a 2012 R56 MCS a couple of months ago with 62,000 miles...and...a rebuilt title (gasps and will explain more below). The guy seemed pretty decent and showed me some pictures of the previous damage, which was a quite heavy side swipe on the drivers side door and front quarter. Allegedly no frame damage, no airbags deployed and nothing more than cosmetic. He'd bought it at an auction in CA and shipped it to Miami, but told me it was too small for him and his family (makes sense as the back seats are no good for anyone, Hobbit or otherwise).
Apart from some wear and tear (trunk latch rubber disintegrated and aerial rubber surround falling off, oh and sunroof shades totally buggered), it looked like an incredibly clean car. Engine bay was pristine, interior in great shape, electrics all working normally (at first), test drive felt good etc etc. Some ropey looking tires and we were looking good.
So things went sideways quite quickly after this.
Same day I bought it I took it to a recommended mechanic for a once over, oil change and fluids. He said all was well and that I'd bagged a good deal...woohoo...
500 mile road trip then became slightly more challenging with massive misfiring and rough idle the following day, smoke from the exhaust and all round unhappy looking lights on dash and CEL etc etc
Local random mechanic said that the spark plugs 'looked like they'd been set on fire' and proceeded to change them. After this seemed like a small rough idle on a cold start, but much better.
Ah, now I forget to tell you the other fun thing. A few days after buying it I would get this bizarre things where it would be cruising along quite happily in 'D' and then would change into 'DS' and then change back and so on. I found that popping it into Neutral and then back into 'D' would kind of get it back on track, but this only got worse and would cause the gears to up and downshift as it went back and forth between 'D' and 'DS' every couple of seconds. Slapping it into manual would actually solve any gear change issues and I then took it to the local MINI dealer to try and get to the bottom of things.
Here's where the rebuilt title really shines. So the guy I take it to was all sweetness and light at first, telling me that $380 dollars later after their extensive specialist MINI diagnostic check they would have the answers. They scanned the key and some error thing came up for him about engine temp or something. Anyways, I get a call three days later and the guy actually said 'this is a rebuilt title and has been messed around with, so you need to take it back to the streets where it was fixed..' - I mean come on 'the streets'...really!?
However, he said he did me a favour and changed the Footwell Control Module under the extended warranty and that none of his mechanics could replicate the D to DS issue.
Side note - since that time I have never had a repeat of that gear select issue
So I take my 'street MINI' to an indie mechanic who actually specialises in our little beauties and all their quirks and he gave it a once over too. Somehow the oh-so-professional dealer managed to not see a perished seal around Air Intake Hose, so got that replaced quickly and got a sort of clean bill of health at that point. According to him there was no weird repair, no issues stemming from previous accident and I'm good to go.
OK I know I've rambled on enough now, so I'll summarise the last couple of months.
Bought an Ultra Gauge and fitted that - best purchase ever.
More misfiring and rough idle
Thanks to NAM and epic MINI community, plus various error codes popping up on the UG I found that the HPFP was on its way out
Somehow managed to convince the dealer to replace under warranty (phew)
Replaced absolutely knackered rear control arm with huge crack that no one had noticed until last week - even the useless guys who put new tires on a few weeks ago.
Changed all rotors and pads because it was squeaking up a storm
Ongoing issues; chewing through oil like there's no tomorrow. A quart every 500-800 miles I think and I have a small leak which is dripping down to the floor and making me sad. My mechanic says that it would be a $3500 fix as he'd have to take out the engine, flip it upside down and sort out this particular gasket or seal (sorry I am trying to learn more mechanical basics, but still a bit in the dark with the technical side of things), so it's a massive labour cost. So that is a bit of a sh*t show as I bought it for 7k and have already pumped maybe 3k into it so not feeling warm and fuzzy right now.
Despite all this I actually love the car, I'm from Oxford originally and live about 15 minutes away from the factory so I feel like I have to forgive some of the madness. \
So that's us in a nutshell, sorry for the novel and here's a rubbish pic so you can visualise. (PS she was specced with the JCW aero kit from the dealer and the rims aren't curbed, they are just poorly plasti-dipped and scuffed from the tire change unfortunately)

 

Welcome, nice MINI, i had the R112 wheels iin black and the JCW body kit. Really completes the look and if you need anything I am here.