The story is more detailed than you think, im not typing the full story up. I have perfect grounds to take legal action, i have thought...a lot. Car has been in the family for over 7 years, truth is being uncovered now. Im not just sueing or considering sueing because i can and i want money, i dont need it i just want the truth. Also i have all the records of what was done to the car while it has been in my families possession, things in South Africa are very different to over there. Fraud is a massive problem, as there are many others. In south africa well back at the time the difference in price is nearly 80 000 so roughly $8000 rounded up. Car was bought for 160 000, the jcw kit from BMW is 80 000 to purchase currently

 

Sounds like you have had the car for a long time..........is there any legal action you can even take if that much time has passed? 7 years??

Also keep in mind that the 03' JCW's didn't come from the factory like that....they were dealer installed kits. My JCW is an 03' also....and when I called a mini dealer to look up the VIN number, it doesn't show it as a JCW....because it left the factory as a MCS, and the dealer put the JCW kit on it. I don't think they actually started leaving the factory as JCW's until late 04' or 05'.

 

Yup....
And you could buy the kit, no install, do a diy, then have it flashed on the next dealer trip....
Many cars have such crazy histories with parts added, removed, and traded...you will likely never know if you don't know NOW on a 2003...what year is it now? 2014....you have had it for 7+ years......
Relax....when you say it runs bad...well...it is a 2003 you have owned for 7+ YEARS....cannot blame a prior owner there.....
Take a deep breath....
Do a quick inventory of the parts on the car, or pay you dealer/BMW/mini shop too look...maybe pull a software ecu version....and go from there. Sure, you can be frustrated....but after 7+ years of ownership....not sure taking of sueing the shop that has been keeping it running is a good move....unless they are utterly incompetent, I would look at the mirror....not many cars that are 10+ years old, driven hard are on the road without good luck, and good repairs..... Yours is.....

 

Have you cleared the adaptions? If not do a search on this forum on how to do it.

 

The fact is that the car has become progressively worse ever since it was sent to the shop. Power loss significantly. Each time i send it in to BMW they come back with something completely unrelated and dont give an explanation as to why the car has cut out 3 times during a hot day. Why my asc light comes on and will not switch off and the car cuts throttle heavily, why i broken down 100km out of town. They say oh no when it got there the car started fine and the only things they checked was what faults the computer stalled. THey still have yet to come back to me as why it struggles to sometimes hold rpm. just idling at a traffic light it will drop and recover then drop and recover, i say check the timing check this please check that. No response just here is your car with another bill. I still have asked many a time for them to check which parts of the jcw kit are actually installed. actually the first time i sent the car in to bmw it was to check why it would jerk when travelling constantly, like it was missing or something. Sometimes i just want to sell the thing and go back to japanese cars. But no i want to persist because i do love my mini, just in africa it seems no one reaaaalllly knows anything about these cars. I end up telling the mechanic whats supposed to be in the jcw kit (surely he should **** know this). My favourite thing is that they cant do anything with my JCW serial number, the tuning kit number. i get a "oh no thats just a number to do with the kit, we cant trace it or tell you anything about the kit or which kit it even is"

rant over.

However, i shall continue to try and solve the problem, as i love my mini dearly

 

I have a 10/03 build JCW , Mine has all the badges and parts that were part of the Kit "at that time". One thing that could also be checked is your ECU, mine has a JCW sticker on it with the date of the flash and some other numbers on it.

 

Did you ever figure this out? Sounds like the bypass valve and/or MAP sensors. Based on age of the car the spring is probably broken in the BPV and the sensors could be dirty or damaged during the head replacement.

 

Well yes and no. I never had the power issue and jerking solved. But being in South Africa the airheads at BMW don't even know what a JCW kit it. The kit was authentic and imported from the UK. A while later the car developed a traction control failure and would sometimes just cut out on the highway. BMW quoted R30k so 2000 pounds. I would have gone stand alone but I dont trust any tuners down here so ended up selling the car at a loss. Despite this I still love minis to bits and will buy another again. For the moment I drive an MR2 Turbo and this thing has never let me down

 

Thanks for the update and sorry to hear it was sold.

 

Zombie thread revival for any future readers....

FWIW, you can still have the dealer install a 210 JCW kit to an R53... same cost as when it was available back some 11 years ago.

BUT

Since the dealer network (at least in Canada) is not linked, you may not be able to dig up a "history" of the JCW install unless you're lucky enough to find the actual dealer it was installed at.

The certificate and valve cover stickers are EOL and are not available, so I recommend keeping the install receipts and even the crate if you're so inclined.

You can get the JCW valve cover from the markets. So if you're trying to authenticate a JCW, be aware that it can be very difficult.

Keep an eye out for the injectors, and the SC pulley. If someone was making a fake JCW, these would be a PIA to fake/change.