I have to have a crank sensor replaced and Global in Atlanta will not cover under warranty because of mods. This will cost me 300 in labor and $50 for the part. This is among a list of service that one would not expect that I have paid for oput of pocket. I think my car is doing about 215 -220 WHP. THere is a benefit to warranty. I have probably put out about $1000 for "non warranty items" though hat is just a guess I have the receipts but have not looked them up.

JCW HMMMMMMMM

 

How in hell is a crank position sensor affected by mods? I'm simply baffled by that one. You appear to have accepted the inevitable fairly well, however.

 

THey are adamant I think I will take it up with MINI USA but now I need the car fixed for autoX school on saturday

 

your running 210 plus!

just add or consider the 1,000 of repairs into/as part the cost of your mods.

Reality check - go drive your MCS - redline all of the gears and you will won't remember anything about 1000 worth of repairs.

Seriously - thats the price for performance.

 

hmmmm........ I'm guessing it was the Whalen shift ****. I am curious as to what Mini USA's response will be. Keep us informed.

 

Once you start modding a warranty car, just be ready to do ALL the work on you car. The thing that sucks right now is that there arent enough junkyards full of mini's to pull parts off of.

My car is 2 months old, and I'm already getting throwout bearing noises. I just got done reverting my CAI back to stock due to worries that International Auto would deny my transmission warranty when I take it in

Anyone who's been building engines, or modding cars for a while will find out (or know) that modding your car will usually shorten its engines life...thats just something you should accept when modding your car.

 

Bob,

When my starter worked loose recently, it tore up the teeth on my lightweight flywheel. And Global MINI would only install a stock flywheel - didn't want to hear the F word (Fidanza)!

So I lost the lightweight flywheel and paid a fortune to lose it...

But I knew the risks when I modified the car. It's STILL miles ahead of a JCW!

FWiW - replaced with Alta 3% overdrive lightweight crank pulley, and 16% M7 (thanks to Chad at Detroit Tuned), kinda sorta to compete with the former 19%/lighweight pully rig... And it survived a hot day at Talladega...

Although not as responsive as the super lightweight pulley, it's stil not too shabby... And apparently able to withstand some tortuous temps and revs...

IMO - the JCW advantage is resale value. In that realm, it smokes the most desirable, highly modded car out there!

 

Off subject

My car had throw-out bearing noises from day one. Nearly 30K miles and no problems - still noisy...not any worse. FYI

michael

 

The only mod I could think of that would directly affect a crank sensor is a "lightweight" crank pulley. The loss of the factory harmonic balancer leads to increased vibration and many posts on this forum reporting their new pulley keeps loosening/nearly falling off. Theoretically a 19% might generate frequencies outside the range a stock balancer can handle if you are particularly unlucky.

If BMW thought the harmonic balancer was unnecessary I think they would have chosen to save $5 per car, don't you?

 

Bob does not have the lightweght crank pulley.

And no, I think the reason they (BMW) did it, is in spite of what they were told by the relevant engineers at Chrysler (if you trust the folks at Alta and Detroit Tuned - and I do - I actually spent some time with Chad in Detroit recently).

But we could be wrong - time will tell

 

Did you ask them about a UUC lightweight flywheel? They sell them in the parts department at Global and they do installs there.

Sorry for all you people at Global. I contributed to a lot of your problems with Global. Just mention my name David to any service person there. They all know me. Global has really gotten strict with mods. I had some problems with my car last year, and hired a lawyer and BMW ended up purchasing my vehicle back, paying for all of my modifications (including things like pulley). I ended up making money on the deal. Global had spent over $8000 trying to fix the problem. When they broke apart the car, a Regional Tech (the blond German guy) found it had a pulley. They removed the pulley and everything worked. Then the Regional manager came down hard on Global, and it was reported to MiniUSA. Needless to say, they are getting strict. In fact, the Regional Tech was at global a few months ago, when I was there and he had a cow seeing the Black Dinan MCS in the showroom.

 

Jim,
I know Bob did not have a crank pulley by his sig, but I (and now David) were trying to point out the dealer could claim the 19% voids the warrantee. OT: I'll bet you'll have a lot fewer belt problems at the track with your 16+3% than the 19% crowd, and that's the route I would have gone if any brand of 3% had a balancer.
Old-time drag racers who use superchargers like the 8-71 would never dream of running without a balancer because they know how violent the pulsations from a roots blower and gilmer belt can be, and they don't like replacing broken parts all the time.

 

Hey Guys,

What i am really pissed about is that I like to take 3-4 hr drives in the mountains and now I am concerned about reliability. When the crank sensor goes bad the engine turns OFF.....and does not come back for about 20 minutes for about 20 minutes and on and on.

Also, I have not had my car since last Wed night......holiday and all. I should get it back tomorrow.

I think I might go with the Pilo crank pulley and the 16%....what the heck.

My scoop should be here and go on soon....Peter said it shipped a few days ago.

The ball buster in this whole thing is the car is /was running very strong. To Jim....when we cleared the code with the new Cat-back all hell broke loose and the car ran about 20% stronger than you experienced.

I love my car......I'm just frustrated....temporarily.

Jim, I'll see you on Saturday for my driving school debut......this should be funny.

Bob aka SpiderX

 

As a bit of info a local dealer here was able to deny a engine warrenty claim do to a 19% pulley being installed. The owner did not think to remove the pulley before sending the car in which turned out to be a VERY expensive mistake.

Randy
M7 Tuning

 

Is it possible to re-install the factory pulley? I'ts my understanding that its heated and press fitted.

 

Chrysler and mini do not put a harmonic balancer on NON Supercharged Cars. It is only when you start boosting that the Balancer is considered required by BMW/MINI.

 

hp = $$$$$

more hp = more $$$$$

What's the hard part to understand?

p.s. It would be nice if it were free though. That's the purpose of bench racing.

 

IT's a hall effect sensor. It's a frigging piece of metal! (A votage gradient is induced across a piece of metal with a current running though it, by a moving magnet or ferrous metal).There are NO moving parts. There are NO ACTIVE parts. This is just BS. The shock of a cylender ignition, or ping to the onset of knock that has the timinge pulled back (and we've all had that happen on hot days) are going to have much higher acceleration gradients than the vibration. Remeber, the vibration kills the crank, and the belts. but the amplitude of the motion is reduced by the ratio of masses (big block, small crank).

It makes me sick.


MINI USA, IF YOU CAN READ THIS, LEARN SOME FRIGGING SCIENCE TO BASE YOU WARRANTEE CLAIM DENIALS ON!!!!!!! YOUR JUST PISSING OFF YOUR BEST ADVERTISERS, THE MINI ADDICTS! THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COINCIDENCE AND CAUSE. ITS YOUR BURDON TO SHOW A CAUSAL LINK, NOT JUST PROXIMITY TO A MODIFICATION.

If I were a laywer, I'd be starting a class action based on systematic denial of warrantee claims and fraudulent assignement of cause! I'd never have to work a day in my life again. All us mini drivers would get a coupon for $1.29 in service work, and I'd get like $30 million. Too bad I'm a physicist, and not a lawyer.....

 

You would not need to go to stock. As part of his argument the customer stated something like " JCW cars have a pulley ". Mini responded that the size was different. Had he put a 15% on he would have had a good shot at getting it covered. Mini would have a real tough time proving the differance between a JCW pulley and a 15% was great enough to cause damage.
Randy

 

You know when you bought your car from BMW/Mini, you signed away your right to take them to court. Its that arbitration agreement you signed when you picked up your baby.

 

LONG LIVE JCW

 

Word.

 

I think a defient dealer would argue that the JCW pulley is a 14.8% (not 15%) and as aggressive as can be safely installed. Also some B.S. about the JCW supercharger and head being designed to handle the additional heat and pressure produced by the JCW pulley.

 

Sure warrantee and resale value.
Also limit to what the car will ever be.

Different strokes, different folks.

Matt

 

You were the one to post that you would argue to the dealer that your mods were similiar to the JCW kit. Good Luck!