I've own a 2017 JCW which is almost exclusively driven on our California highways and has 90,000 miles on it. To stress this point it should be noted that I've have not yet needed to replace the front break pads which are at 4mm. and have only replaced the rears once. My wife and I count on this car to be reliable and get not break down as we are wedding photographers in northern CA and drive quite far to our weddings. I've read that the passenger motor mount is something to watch and to check the battery regularly. What else should I watch out for? So far, I've done all my own routine maintenance and the mini has not let us down. I'd love to hear from other JCW owners who have higher mileage and what their experience has been/what to look out for...

 

Historically, highways miles are the best for engines and vehicles. The engine gets up to operating temperature and isn’t being driven up and down, the suspension moves very little, brakes and clutch are not engaged and disengaged repeatedly.

Be regular with your oil changes, and keep an eye on wear items like brake pads, and you’ll likely get many more stress free miles out the car.

 

Having driven a number of cars -- but no MINI (yet) -- to 150K miles and beyond what to look out for is *everything*. As the miles (and years) accumulate things that don't seem like wear items become wear items. Oh, and the vast majority of these miles were accumulated when I lived and drove in (northern) CA (San Jose, south bay, east bay, and the tri-valley area east of the bay area).

Believe it or not but I only had to deal with one bad clutch. At around 150K miles the throw out bearing failed. Brake jobs were infrequent. I drove one car (a 2003 Porsche 996 Turbo) 161K miles and at around 140K had to have the front brakes replaced. The rears were still good -- though worn -- when I sold the car.

Regular oil/filter services help the engine deal with the usage. But coolant changes every 4 years helps prolong the life of the water pump, radiator/heater hoses. One water pump wore out at 172K miles. But even after up to 317K miles and 16 years no hose needed replacement.

Two year brake fluid flush/bleeds are a good idea. A 2 year brake fluid flush/bleed service was called for by the factory for my German cars. I note my 2018 JCW ended up needing a brake fluid flush/bleed at around 15K miles and 2 years to address an overzealous stability control system that activated unnecessarily and which resulted in premature rear brake wear which required new rear brakes at 15K miles.

With another (German) car that had a hydraulic clutch linkage that shared fluid with the brake hydraulic system bad fluid (just 2.5 years old I might add) caused clutch and transmission shifting issues. It was with some surprise and relief that a brake/clutch fluid flush/bleed "fixed" the clutch's action and the difficult shifting behavior was gone. While the brakes were fine it was clear from the clutch's action/behavior the fluid was bad.

'course, you need to stay current on not only oil/filter services but as the miles accumulate transmission/diff fluid services, and plugs, and also very important engine air filter and cabin air filter. The latter can develop a moldy/mildew-y odor if left in service too long. Don't forget the accessory drive belts.

(With one car at around 140K miles on a whim I had the coils (and plugs) replaced. No misfires just wanted to see what new coils would do. The engine ran better! While plugs were changed -- while the tech was there -- they were not due for over 10K more miles. And I might add I had the plugs changed several times before when due on miles and the engine never reacted. So it was all coils.)

You keep an eye open for any leak sign. You use your nose.You listen for any abnormal sounds. It was a low rumble sound at cold engine start that clued me in the water pump was bad at 172K miles. With another car it was the odor of anti-freeze on a hot day that prompted me to get the car in and and tech found the water pump leaking coolant.

You might not get any warning but a fuel pump failed at 200K miles. Just quit.

Alignment is critical for good tire life. Use the old tire condition to assess the alignment. If the old tires are worn unevenly then after new tires are fitted a proper alignment is called for. But once set I drove uncounted thousands and thousands of miles with *no* need to have the alignment done again. But I was careful to avoid bumped parking space curbs with the front tires or cutting a turn into/out of a drive and running a rear tire/wheel over the curb.

At some point -- with one car at 80K miles, another at 132K miles -- O2 sensors needed replacement. One car engine at big miles developed an oil leak. Was the spark plug tube o-rings. Just highlights that things that aren't normal wear items wear out/suffer from age.

But there were other things. Ignition switch wore out. Brake light/clutch safety interlock switches wore out. No brake lights when I applied the brakes. The engine would not crank when I turned the key on with the clutch pedal fully depressed.

Window regulators wore out. Windows failed to drop the 1/2" when opening the doors. Also, at some point the membrane in each door that kept the water on the wet side of the door from the dry side failed. Dampness along the door bottom and the carpeting along side the door when it is closed was a sign. Check after every wash or any time the car gets wet from sitting out in the rain.

At around 250K miles tech spotted failing axle dust boots. Tech removed the axles, cleaned and inspected the bearings found they were good and repacked the bearings fitted new boots and put the axles back in the car. Over 60K miles later they were still working fine.

Had one car develop a rear main seal leak out of warranty. At least one MAF had to be replaced.

One car had a coolant tank cap go bad and allowed water vapor to escape. Later the coolant tank developed a crack along its bottom along the mold seam. Oh, radiator fan ran on high all the time. Ballast resister failed. Another car radiator fan was not moving as much air as the one on the other side. Fan motor replaced.

Noise from the accessory drive area was found due to a bad idler roller bearing. First time I heard a dry bearing sound. 2nd time an intermittent chirp after cold start.

Oil tube filler cap o-ring suffered from wear/age and was a vacuum leak. Finally id'd this when the engine was running and a co-worker looking at the car heard a faint hissing noise (below my threshold of hearing). He wiggled the oil tube filler cap and affected the noise. Cap leaking.

Fuel tank cap tether broke. Bought a new fuel cap and it was clear when comparing the old cap to to new cap the old cap was just about due to start leaking vapor.

With one car when I exposed it to 0F temperatures while on a family business trip to the midwest it developed leaking radiators. All 3. Service manager told me this was common for these cars at around 100K to 125K miles. My car had 130K miles but had spent its life in CA.

And there were more issues. (One car the inside rear view mirror went bad. Bought a new one (factory). 25 months later it went bad. Sent off the original mirror and had it repaired. Was fine when I sold the car.)

I could go on.

Just making it a point you have to be vigilant and take the time and trouble to get any issue addressed ASAP. My experience is no issue ever got better with more miles. I hate to break down so I kept on top of things. Still things happened. Like the leaking radiators. But over all was never stranded. (Fuel pump failure -- two cars at different times -- happened in my drive way.) Alternator stopped working but I noticed battery voltage low and drove car to dealer in time.