So I was all ready for a road trip this morning. Stopped and filled up and got out on the Freeway. About 30 miles into the trip, cruising at about 70 mph, my car starts bucking pretty hard. At first I thought it might have been something going on with the cruise control so I turned it off. Car was still bucking. I exited the freeway and pulled into a gas station. I left the car running and popped the hood to do a visual inspection. Nothing. The car idles fine. Called mt dealer and they asked me to drive it over to them. They said they thought it would be ok since I didn't have any lights come on. So I drove it 35 miles to the dealer where the car completely died when came to a stop. They are looking at it now. I hope it's nothing major. Wish me luck.

 

Luck! Hope it's a simple fix!

 

could be worth a call to the gas station you filled up at, see if anyone else is reporting issues. I can't remember when it was, but some fuel supplier around here, had an issue with over sulfur-ing their gas. They ended up paying of car repairs, but it made the local news due to the extent of it.

 

Apparently a ground came a loose where my cold air intake is mounted. They tightened the bolt, and are charging me $130 bucks. I won't be back in town til Friday so I will deal with it then. Not sure how I feel about this.

 

$130.00 !

What's the deal? Wouldn't this be covered under warranty service? I would be pissed, this is definitely a charge that should be covered by warranty.

 

I sort of feel the same way. There is a ground wire attached where my after market intake mounts. I remeber removing and reinstalling it when I put on the intake. I can sort of understand them pointing the finger at me, but I think $130 worth is an awful lot to tighten or replace a tiny little nut. I tightened the thing back down and that could have been any other ground and it would have covered under warranty. The ca intake has been on the car for over 3k miles now and I guess just came a loose. Atleast the majority of cm owners will not have to worry about it.

 

Is the cold air intake non-MINI aftermarket part?

 

New Countryman, a ground came loose, if this is an aftermarket cold air intake, then you are in for a dime or two. If factory it would be warranty.

Talk nice, they might just call it good-will warranty, if they don't find another dealer.

Don

 

As far as $130 goes, how much effort did they spend looking for the problem? If all it took was tightening a bolt you could have done it yourself when you had the hood open.

 

Sounds like a labor charge for time spent running down the problem. Once they determined the trouble was on an aftermarket part, warranty went bye-bye.
I'd be nice for starters, 'cause they just might cut you some slack.
Otherwise, $130 for a couple of hours of "mechanical work" is actually reasonable.

 

The bolt that was loose was not aftermarket. It was factory. The new cold air intake uses it as an attachment point. So far as time spent, it took them about an hour to call me. I understand the reasoning behind it I just think it is a bit excessive to charge me that much money to tighten a nut. As I said before, I have driven 3k miles with no problems. Whose to say that any other could have come loose. I am getting charged because this is the one bolt I touched. It angers me to think how quick they are to blaim after market equipment. Thank god it wasn't any more major issue or else I would be left paying a much higher bill. I am going to chalk this up as an unusual event and hope for free work next time around.

 

Glad everything worked out and it was nothing Major. This is a hard call i guess. that is what worries me about putting something aftermarket, but I guess lesson learned.

"Always check all aftermarket parts first, before bringing it into the dealer."

 

OK, that makes sense now! Since it was aftermarket and it had required the ground connection which came loose, it would not be a warranty issue.

The $130.00 sounds reasonable since they most likely were charging you the mechanics time to diagnose the problem, not the labor involved with tightening a bolt.

That is the problem with any aftermarket item that is not installed by Mini dealer. They can always claim it was an issue with someone or something else. Best not to go aftermarket until the warranty is gone.

 

Well I'm glad it wasn't serious, and I hope they give when you are sweet to them...

But just to Hijack for a second, I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE ANOTHER COUNTRYMAN AROUND ATLANTA!!!

What dealer you use? North or south?

 

$130 seems excessive.

 

Hey, I'm in Atlanta. Bought from Global. I have seen 3 Countrymen--1 was Cosmic Blue (parked), One was white-no stripes (before I took delivery) and the third was Royal Gray, I was driving past a Moe's and her people were getting out to go eat. Since those sightings WEEKS have gone by and I've only seen Clubmen, hardtops and a few convertibles. How about y'all?

 

It could have been Rupert pre-stripes!! I saw a black one on the interstate today. Waved like crazy, but no response. I've seen tons of the other mini's still no waves though! Have you heard of the Atlanta minis scavenger hunt?! It's the 18th we are really going to try to make it! Theres a blue one around the PTC area, but I always see it from a distance and can't tell any distinguishing marks... The elusive Countryman!! haha!!!

 

Would you have been driving Rupert on Johnson Ferry Road in East Cobb about first week of Feb?
I have waved at lots of MINIs but only had a few return waves. Yesterday I passed a cute yellow hardtop at a traffic light pointed north--I was heading south--and he took a huge double take. That was fun
How did you hear about the scavenger hunt--do you belong to the Mini Club in metro Atlanta?

 

Nope that wasn't Rupert... I'm mostly on the south side, and downtown ATL.

But yeah I have gotten some of the funniest double takes and all kinds of people want to talk to me about him. One lady driving a convertible mini at the gas station came over to see "what is that?!" I was like and you call yourself a Mini owner?! HAha!!

I'm not a member... Yet... but when I say I obsessed over my car for 2 months, I mean read EVERYTHING Mini I could get my hands on so I found the site and my MiniPerson is a member and invited us too. I am not totally sure how many Mini events we will actually go to but a scavenger hunt is so much fun and a Mini scavenger hunt is probably AWESOME!!!

 

Well, report back if you go!

 

Sure, $130 seems steep, but please consider that is was not $130 to tighten the bolt – It was $130 to diagnose the problem and then to resolve it by tightening the bolt.
Like Leader and others wrote: Not too bad if they have an hour or two of someone’s time in this.
Sorry, but glad it was nothing more substantial.