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Glad to finally join after getting lots of great advice from NAM members. I have a 2007 mini cooper S purchased a couple of years ago with 55000 miles and it literally was a little old lady’s car. It is pristine. My issue now is with 82000 miles I now have zero compression on cylinder 4 and looking at $5500 minimum for a rebuild(including timing chain, water pump replace while doing it). I only have about $1100 in the car due to insurance payment on minor accident that I repaired(long story).
should I spend the money for the rebuild or call it quits? New motor too expensive and rebuild as much as rebuilding mine plus added costs of installation. Not my daily driver but love the car. Is it worth it?
Do you have any emotional attachment to the car? If not, dump it and move on. If you do, maybe get a slightly used engine to throw in, and then do a tear-down and rebuild for power and durability?
Not attached really but need something more economical to drive and save gas vs my 6.2L GMC truck. The prices of used cars outrageous so if I can be in this with a rebuilt engine at under $7000 trying to justify. Is this just the beginning of woes and more repairs to come? Tough to decide and thanks for the feedback.
can you get a borescope into the cylinder? Its possible to be a broken valve. If that's the case, a head rebuild "could" be all it needs, and would be much less expensive compared to an engine rebuild...
Glad to finally join after getting lots of great advice from NAM members. I have a 2007 mini cooper S purchased a couple of years ago with 55000 miles and it literally was a little old lady’s car. It is pristine. My issue now is with 82000 Tutuapp9Apps miles I now have zero compression on cylinder 4 and looking at $5500 minimum for a rebuild(including timing chain, water pump replace while doing it). I only have about $1100 in the car due to insurance payment on minor accident that I repaired(long story).
should I spend the money for the rebuild or call it quits? New motor too expensive and rebuild as much as rebuilding mine plus added costs of installation. Not my daily driver but love the car. Is it worth it?
Boroscope showed pistons and cylinder walls in good shape. Camera with mirror or folding camera back 180 degrees on itself makes the diameter too large to fit in spark plug opening so can’t see valves. 🤔🤔🤔
Glad to finally join after getting lots of great advice from NAM members. I have a 2007 mini cooper S purchased a couple of years ago with 55000 miles and it literally was a little old lady’s car. It is pristine. My issue now is with 82000 miles I now have zero compression on cylinder 4 and looking at $5500 minimum for a rebuild(including timing chain, water pump replace while doing it). I only have about $1100 in the car due to insurance payment on minor accident that I repaired(long story).
should I spend the money for the rebuild or call it quits? New motor too expensive and rebuild as much as rebuilding mine plus added costs of installation. Not my daily driver but love the car. Is it worth it?
Tough choices. With used car prices up (but coming down) you're looking at likely some amount of money to replace the 2007 S. And you have to be very careful -- and likely spend more money than you would like -- to get a car that would not require much if anything in the way of fixing things to bring the car up to a satisfactory condition.
The flip side is an engine rebuild -- done right -- can be expensive. And if not done right can be expensive twice...
But if the car is otherwise sound a rebuilt engine can resurrect the car and provide you with many many more miles of good service life.
I certainly 2nd jaremka's point about clearly identifying what's causing the low compression. If just a head job required...
Have to ask how long would it take to recoup any money you spend on this car, its engine, or replacing it, by what it saves you on fuel for your GMC?
Back in 2018 I used a 2018 JCW as my "daily" -- I had a 60 mile work commute -- to keep the miles off my 2018 Hellcat. Driving both the same the JCW got around 30mpg vs. 15mpg for the Hellcat.
That was some fuel savings. Roughly 2 gallons of gas per day M-F. Or 10 gallons a week, 40 gallons a month. At $4/gallon that was $160 a month in fuel savings.
But the JCW cost me around $33,000 not including CA tax/license and insurance. Just the purchase price alone would offset the $160/month fuel cost for 206 months or 17 years...
Yes, there are other costs associated with your using your GMC for a commuter vehicle. But the MINI will need insurance, licensing, services, and eventually tires and brakes, etc.
Of course, I am using the cost of a new 2018 JCW to make an estimate of how long it would take to recoup what it cost vs. what it saved me in gas for the Hellcat.
You have to make a realistic guess/estimate as to what you'll have in the MINI (or what you will spend to replace it with a suitable vehicle) and how long it will take you to recoup this.
remove the valve cover and make sure you don't have a broken valve spring [causing not enough pressure to seal a valve] , give the cylinder a couple of squirts of oil then do another comp test, if comp comes up you have faulty rings if no difference then probably a burnt out valve
Depending on location, take the head to a machine shop, get replacement valves, stem seals, headmaster, bolts, and have them clean the head, and then rebuild it for you.
the shop I use, would charge me about $400 in labor, and parts are on me to supply. They would do a full tear down, machining, and rebuild for me. Hope that helps.
After months of trying to decide I am going to sell the mini as is and not rebuild the engine. In the meantime I found this little gem. 2010 Clubman S with only 28000 miles. 1 owner and spotless. They even threw in the factory 16 inch wheels with the factory run flats that have no miles on them. Thanks for all your advice.
Looks nice, and low miles. Looks like it has the bigger JCW accessory rear roof spoiler? Still has the N14 engine, so you’ll want to take good care of it.
Nice find on the Clubman. Looks like you're getting hooked on MINIs. As njaremka says you're still working with the N14 engine so keep those oil changes up!
Original wheels and tires from 2010? Those tires might be a bit shot.
And if you have time, space, knowhow, tools, inclination, funds and motivation you could turn the 2007 into a rebuild project. Sadly, I lack some of those necessities.
