This may go long, I’m just trying to be detailed. Any suggestions, and or help, from the community is appreciated.
2012 Mini Cooper S Convertible, 162k miles
I love my car. Best car I have ever owned. I bought it four years ago with a rebuilt title (first owner was in a front end crash at 20k miles. Body shop repaired, re-titled and sold it to me.) I have maintained it meticulously, changing oil myself on a regular schedule of 7500 miles with Mobil 1 synthetic. In the past four years I have put 142k miles on it driving all over New England for work. It is (was) my daily driver.
I had noticed a small coolant leak in my garage and it appeared to be wet around the thermostat housing. I was due for an oil change anyway I figured I’d have the dealership take a look since I’d be able to arrange for a courtesy vehicle. That was on Monday Feb 25th. Dealership performed oil change and quoted me $1500.00 for a thermostat, upper and lower house. Obviously that sounded high, so I took my car back from them and decided I’d price out the job elsewhere. The 32 point “Mini Vehicle Condition Report” listed the coolant leak as “may need future attention.”
I drove the car for the next two days, no issues, no lack of performance (I’ve never had a lack of performance that I have ever noticed.) On Thursday the 28th my engine temp light came on briefly (about three seconds) and went out. I was only 5 miles from the dealership at that point. I called the dealership to see if they had availability and they did (for both service and courtesy loaner.) I walked to an Autozone that was about three blocks away from where I had pulled in originally. Bought the appropriate coolant and topped off the overflow reservoir. It was now about a full hour that I had been parked. Car started right up, no hestitation or issues and I drove the 10 minutes to dealership without the engine temp light coming back on at all. Pulled into their drop off bay, turned off vehicle and placed it in their care.
I received a call on Friday that they had not yet been able to start the repairs but I was welcome to hold onto the courtesy vehicle through the weekend. (Side note: we received about a foot of snow on Sunday evening into Monday morning.)
I received a call early afternoon on Monday March 4th that the work was complete (the thermostat and upper/lower hoses) but the service advisor told me he had “bad news” for me. He said that my car “stalled” in the lot and had to be pushed into the bay for the work to be done. He then said they were unable to start the vehicle after the service was complete. He then sad that they could do a full diagnostic for around $300.00. He added that his tech did a compression test and each cylinder tested at 60psi. He said without further diagnostic it was likely a blown head gasket at best, but the engine might need to be replaced (he quoted $13k) because he believes “it may have breathed its last breath” - his words.
I have gone back and forth with them over the past week to no avail. When I dropped off courtesy vehicle last Wednesday and was told the service manager could not see me after several requests I asked for access to my vehicle to retrieve a few personal items. I also asked for permission to use my own scan tool to pull codes so I could assess what happened. Also, I asked for a sample of the motor oil which had just been changed 3 days prior to my having dropped it off - I watched them take that sample from pan myself.
I opened a complaint today with Mini USA customer support.
Here are my questions:
1. I don’t believe it would have been possible for my vehicle to have been drivable at 60psi across each cylinder. What are your thoughts? Again, I drove it into their welcome bay, turned it off. No visible signs of overheat. No engine temp light on. One of their service guys came while I was still there, started the car and moved it out of the welcome bay and parked it. Could any of the above have happened at 60psi on each cylinder?
2. Does anyone know how service departments and yards work? Who moves the cars around lot? Who brings them into the bays when they are being brought in for service?
3. How long would a car running at idle with worse case, no coolant, take to do damage?
4. What codes would the engine throw as it was overheating to a point that the head gasket and possibly even the head were fried? I ask because there were no codes when I pulled them. Not a misfire, not a temp code. Nothing. It’s almost as if the engine codes were reset, I still have other footwell codes, etc. but not engine codes.
5. What should I do with the oil sample? Can that be tested for temp damage?
6. Why would they still do the hose work on a vehicle that would not start at that point and had to be pushed in? Makes as much sense as doing a hip replacement on a cadaver.

I appreciate any feedback you can give and if you made it through this whole thing I thank you. My guess is someone accidentally left it running for a little while in the yard at some point while they were jockeying cars around. As I said earlier, we got 12 inches of snow on Sunday into Monday (the day they replaced the hoses.) that’s a lot of snow to plow and clear from cars. My guess is that whoever did that clearing may have started the vehicles to melt off snow and move them around to plow the lot. That is my theory. When I spoke to the deal shop last I asked that they review security footage to confirm that I drove vehicle in, that it was driven out of the bay after that, and to see who moved my vehicle during the weekend to see if it was left running for an extended time. I have not heard back on the request.

Thanks all.

David

Thank you for the responses. This story just jumped into the Ripley’s believe it or Not stage...
A few hours after I spoke with Mini customer service I received a call from the service manager. It was a long, at times heated conversation that had me detailing my timeline as I laid out for you all, and her placing blame on me for not getting coolant system done on day one. She explained at detail what happens with moving cars around when the lot is cleared of snow and was very defensive. It went back and forth and I was able to convey that I’m not interested in anything more than getting my car running. I asked that she have someone check the work the tech did to see if there is anything that could have been done incorrectly to keep it from starting. She said she would have her lead tech take a look at it.
Here’s the strange part. She called an hour later and said the car is now running, and that her lead tech reports it’s running fine and that he was test driving it as we speak. WTF?! When I asked about the compression, she said there must have been an “error in the test.” I said I was concerned because they were so adamant that it needed a full head rebuild. She had them perform a new compression test and it is all to spec (160-180 per cyl)!
She added that she is “adjusting” the balance due. I am scheduled to pick up the vehicle tomorrow AM. I am still dumbfounded and have never heard of anything like this happening.
I am thrilled to be getting my car back, anxious to drive it for myself and check it out. This has been going on for almost two weeks, so glad to stop paying money on a rental car. As I digest this I am appalled that someone at a certified dealership could have “misread” a basic test like compression and then insisted it needed highly expensive repairs. How many people don’t have the time or knowledge to advocate for themselves and just get screwed? Shameful.

I have my car back, and surprise surprise she is running great. I had a long conversation with the service manager but could not get anything substantive that made any sense as to why her service tech recommended an engine replacement. Head tech came out and said that after a stall the cylinders can be flooded with gas which breaks down the oil in the gaskets and can give a low read. Not sure if I buy that at all. I kept going back to the fact that if that were true then an experienced tech should anticipate that and retest before recommending an expensive option. Silence.
I spent the last week and a half arguing with them about a problem that doesn’t exist. My car runs great. Started right up. I’ve driven it all day, multiple start/stops and almost 200 miles.
Still deciding who to report this to but I am going to start with MiniUSA. Amazingly, they provided the engine replacement recommendations on the receipt they provided me today. I am going to have an indy shop confirm engine is sound and go from there.
As far as cost, to add insult to injury they discounted the total bill a whopping 12%!!! The coolant work still cost $1242.00. I didn’t fight it because it was never about the money, the car needed that work and I agreed to it. I don’t think their lack of responsibility here will be a good look for them when I file a complaint.

Compression test info on receipt, engine replacement and head tear down recommendations.

My beautiful car. Running fine, just like when I brought it in!

Thanks for asking. The car is running great. I have now put over 1500 miles since I picked it up last Tuesday, no issues at all. I have a full inspection scheduled with an independent shop on Wednesday. I’m hoping to confirm that my Mini is sound and have documentation to prove that they falsely quoted me very expensive, unnecessary repairs. I’ll decide who to file that with but will start with Mini USA.


Looking good, running good.