2014 F56 - 2 issues recently

1. not reliability per-say, but recently had to replace the a/c condenser due to a rock-chip; there's been a lot of construction on the highways to work, so I'm assuming that was the cause. expensive repair ~1500 CAD, got insurance to cover most of it..

2. every fall/spring -when the temperature is around 10 - 20 degrees celsius (50 - 60 F) - my mini would occasionally die at idle on cold start. this seemed pretty widespread across the 1.5L and for most people a software update seemed to fix it. Mine it turned out was a gasket leak. In the last service they replaced the valve cover gasket and high pressure fuel pump gasket, and the engine no longer dies and is a lot smoother after cold starts. thread for dying at idle

This is my 2nd gasket issue for this car - with the first being a motor seal gasket pinched at the factory...

 

had mince for 14 months and 8 000 km, no defaults nor rattle, very happy, the only minor issue is the quality of the leather already worn

 

Mine's 13 months old, pushing 16,000 miles, and no troubles. Oil changes and new rear tires--killed a runflat on a chunk of metal, so I bought 2 nonrunflats. Only complaint is that occasionally the valet key cover falls off, and one was lost (replaced under warranty). I'm impressed with the build quality.

My last MINI was an '07, which I took to 103,000 miles with a few hiccups, but generally satisfactory. This one is far superior!

MINI of Little Rock is great, by the way--I've heard and experienced nothing but good from them...

 

Thanks!

 

Thanks for the heads up.

 

I have been down to visit Craig at Mini of Honolulu a few times; he seems to know Mini's well. I am going to buy one, I am just getting scarred by so many complaint on reliability........

 

39,000 miles - no issues worth mentioning.

(except that I drive too much)

 

That's what I like to hear.


We need more of these type posts.

 

My MINI is now 4 months old with 1800 km with no issues at all. Hope she stays like that for as long as she could. I need to drive my MINI more in the summer!!

 

Hey Charlie, haven't you been in twice for a cold start rattle, and I remember you saying you had an upstream O2 sensor replaced under warranty too?

Not exactly 39,000 trouble free miles IMO.

 

I have purchased 4 Mini's at this dealership, the sales department is great and will bend over backward for you; however their service department has gone downhill since I purchased my first Mini from them; so much so that I will not purchase another car from them. Unfortunately that means no more Mini's since Hawaii has only one dealership to choose from.

Mahalo

 

8900 miles on my car and zero problems thus far. 7950 on my wife's car and zero problems. No rattles to date. Happy campers thus far!

2015 cars delivered on 6/20/15.

 

2015 Cooper with 2300 miles. Not enough to base a survey on, but so far so good. I did take the liberty to spray a bit of silicone around the door pieces, as all plastic to plastic points will creak a bit in the cold. Solid ride. If these doors had window frames, the windows would sit a bit tighter, but I love the frameless look.

 

I've had my 3 cylinder for 15 months and have 23,200 miles on "Carlotta" and flawless so far.

 

48k miles since May 2014, MCS. No problems. One flat. Had side impact and oil filter housing recall performed (oil filter housing one might have just been an inspection, would have to look back at paperwork). Tires still about 1/16" above the wear markers. Mostly highway commuting. Brakes at ~50%.

 

We are now only a 1 Mini house since I recently traded my '15 S for a WRX.

It was a fun little car and got great gas mileage and even though the materials seem to be of a higher feel than earlier generations, I wouldn't say Mini has got its reliability on par with more mainstream manufacturers.

I ordered my car on June 21, 2015.... waited through the EPA delay until the second week of October. Took delivery of my car full of swirls and a scratch on the steering wheel. A little over 1k miles later it was back due to a clunking in the front end which was the result of bad lower control arm bushings.

3k miles later it was in again for a loose steering wheel (upper steering column shaft was bad) and the knocking in the rear suspension. I also inquired about the rev-matching from 3rd gear to 2nd that somehow disappeared between the 2014 test drive car and my '15.

The car would be back in several other times for them to guess at the rear suspension problem including some "procedure" that was supposed to quiet the noise and a new set of rear shocks. Together they improved it, but didn't fix it. I did hear that there was a new rear shock design but never got around to taking it in.

Oh and the recalls for the side impact foam and new sticker.

My wife's '15 base automatic on the other hand, has been trouble free for 21k miles. It did eat through the stock Hankook tires quickly though. We'll have to replace those in the spring (she has winter tires on now) despite them only having 12-15k miles on them.

 

Have A 2015 MCS Auto Blazing Red with Blackjack mirrors and roof, Auto with Cold weather/Storage/ HK/ 17" spoke wheels. Purchased 12/14 now have 18,000 trouble free miles with only 1 hiccup with the auto locking me out from shifting, but by reading these posts was able to get around that and had dealer upgrade computer. no problems since with Shamus. Do have to get recall on side impact on next oil change in 2k miles. Hopefully Shamus will not shake or rattle for a long time. Putting in NM Module when it arrives on 1/6/16. From other posts this should be a blast. Keeping on posting because a lot of useful info is passed along that really does help.

 

It is now 2.5 years later. Any updates on reliability?

 

2014 MCS. Now about 54k miles. Some initial wheel problems that I posted about back in 2014. Was also subject to the crank bearing recall and got a new motor at 28k though had no indication of a problem prior to that. shock towers checked out ok. Had AC filters cleaned / replaced under warranty. OTW solid car. No complaints. No significant squeaks or rattles on mine. Put an NM power module and cold air intake on as well as the Touring version AWE exhaust. All good stuff. Back fires like crazy in Sport mode. Also a surprisingly good car for a road trip - very comfortable from Tx to CA and back last summer. Having some TPMS issues right now but no fault of Mini....avoid the Autotire chain.

 

Still very happy with reliability here. My 2015 F56 S hasn't needed much other than normal servicing. I'm just about to go out of warranty (1 month by time, 3000 miles by mileage), and the most recent issue was replacement of the seatbelts due to defective tensioners. The passenger side was locking up too often, and the driver's side wasn't retracting after I unbuckled it. Both are pretty picky things, but that's been about the worst. I've bought a number of new and used cars over the past 1/2 century and tend to keep them forever. I have to say, this is the most reliable car I've ever owned! As anyone who knows me will say, I am not dainty when it comes to driving, nor are Arkansas twisties mild.

 

14 F56S under my ownership needed new front suspension parts. Prior owner had no clue, they were problematic from early on as many others had the same issue, especially over speed bumps. Otherwise some minor issues except for squeaks and rattles. It was an early production car so probably worse than newer ones on parts fitting together.

16 F55 no issues at all beyond a flat tire. Very reliable so far, about 16,000 miles.

 

2016 MCS with 30,000+ km... never had an issue (fingers crossed) except for developing a "heavy" right foot..

 

Never had a major problem with my 2015 F56 or 2017 MCS . The 2015 had the paint rubbing on the doors and the Dealer repainted them under warranty same with the water in the boot. Trunk Seals have been replaced under warranty other than that no problems.

 

Purchased in 12/14, had issue with musty act smell that was dealer resolved, had fading issue with upper bonnet piece that was resolved with new one from dealer. Have a fading issue on black piece on front bumper but now out of warranty. Currently have 63,000 miles on car and still love to drive this auto. I do have a nm module on car that has never thrown a code and use only 93 octane in tank. Mms module is run at 3 psi setting versus 5 psi setting. I don't like how engine feels at higher speeds at 5 psi setting. I did purchase the 100,000 mile maintenance package when I purchased car for $1800 at that time which I think was nice piece of mind. Other than that I would definitely purchase this brand again.

 

Car just turned 30K. As far as reliability, the car has been great. There were a couple of hiccups since owning, but both were addressed w/ TSB by MINI/BMW.

1. Water in passenger side foot well. Water pooled under carpet due to a kinked AC drain line installed at factory. During my build cycle, the drain line was changed and during manufacture of car, occasionally that new drain line was being kinked during install. Dearer handled issue w/o incident (and no charge). Dealer pulled my the wet carpet and let it air dry for a few days while replacing the kinked AC drain line w/ a new one.

2. Musty smell (mildew dew stink) coming out of AC vents on start up. Again, another TSB, by MIni/BMW. AC drain issue again. Cabin filfer was getting soaked with the AC drain water and causing a mildew smell to occur after a few months. Fix was to flush and sanitize the AC drain area w/ a minty smelling solution, replace cabin filter w/ a new one and add some glue material to the bottom of the new filters to raise the filter above and of the draing AC water.
I would assume that by now, they have redesigned the filters ot added a spacer piece to provide the gap rather than using glue.

3. Lastly, on my F56 around the most rear side window, I noticed a fabric piece start to pop out between the window and glass. At first I thought it was a piece of a tree twig that may have gotten stuck. As I started to pick it out with my finger nail I saw it a fabric piece (which looks like the "tuck-in" of interior marterial when install and snap in the hard plastic pillar pieces. So rather than trying to pull it out, I used a small screwdriver and tuckedit back in. Not a big deal.

Other than the above, the car has been great. Comparing this F56 to any other car I've ever owned, I would choose this car to be our only car if we had to pick just one.
It's quirky looking but cool. Great MPG (37+ w/ mine), a blast to drive, It's fast for around-town scooting, can haul everything we need to haul (55" OLED from Costco), 15 bags of Mulch from Home Depot, and all the groceries we'd ever need. Easy to load and unload. Just a perfect car for 2 adults. Wide enough doors so you don't whack your shoulder gettting in (F55 didn't make the grade here).

My only complaint is the 8 inch LCD screen. Red/orange letter w/ varying levels of brightness make it nearly impossible for me to read in daylight (even at full brightness setting). My eyes are old and not the best and a glance to check whats playing is impossible. Mini should increase brightness for daylight use or change the color to white for more contrast. Our 2017 BMW has a great LCD center screen and is very readable day or night..