I bought my daughter a used 2002 Cooper S about a year ago, and while I love the car, it has been a repair nightmare. My daughter is now convinced the car is possessed, and wants me to sell it.

We bought the car from Carmax, and went with the optional extended warranty. The car is baby blue with a white top, black leather interior and spotless inside and out. With only 21k miles, it was the perfect car for her to keep at her university. Or so it seemed…
When we bought the car the passenger seat belt sensor was malfunctioning intermittantly, and the tire pressure sensor kept alerting. The folks at Carmax inflated the tires and sent us on our way.

Problem 1: The tire pressure sensor kept alerting, so I kept checking pressures and reinflating. At one point, one of the tires just gave up and went flat. I took it to Goodyear in town and they gave me an education in the cost of runflats. Fortunately, they determined that the cause was a dirty rim that prevented the bead from seating. So they remounted for $40 and the car was back on the road. Until the next tire did the same thing. Goodyear remounted all four tires, and they have been perfect ever since.

Problem 2: My daughter is a whiz with a 6-speed, but when she called and said the car was making noise when engaging the clutch my initial thought was she was feathering the clutch too much and making it slip. Nope. I drove the car and the clutch was indeed slipping. Since clutch wear is outside my warranty, I took it right to the Mini dealer. Diagnosis: clutch and flywheel were worn out, must be replaced. Despite the low mileage, I choked up about $3k for a new clutch and flywheel. A few days after getting the car back, the clutch started to slip again. It went back to the dealer, who looked more closely this time. It turns out there was an oil leak that was coating the flywheel in oil, causing the slip. This time they repaired the oil leak before installed another new clutch and flywheel. It would have been covered under my warranty after all, but since I didn’t go through them they wont cover it now. Super, but my fault. Problem solved.

Problem 3: When the car was in the shop for its new clutch(es), the seat adjustor on the driver side came to be broken (a mystery to all involved). My daughter had previously broken one of the rear seat fold down releases, so I took the Mini in to get both fixed. No big deal, it was back on the road a day later with all seats working to spec.

Problem 4: The car started to run rough intermittently, and the Check Engine light came on. Then the EML light came on and the car shut down. We found that it would restart eventually, but it might take several attempts. Even when it did restart, it might run rough, EML light on. Or it might run fine. I was able to get it to the warranty-authorized shop, and they found the code was reporting a bad throttle body. They found the throttle body so fouled they were surprised the car would run at all. So they cleaned the throttle body and put us back on the road.

Problem 5: Same as Problem 3. Check engine light, then EML light and the car shut down. We took it back. Same code for throttle body. So they replaced the throttle body. Back on the road.

Problem 6: Same as Problem 3. Same code for throttle body, so they replaced it again, figuring the replacement was bad. Back on the road.

Problem 7: Same as Problem 3. I started to do some research and found that some later Minis have issues with the wiring harness that present in a similar way. I printed out all the blogs and such I could find and gave them to the shop with the car. Both the shop and the Mini dealer discounted my find, saying that only applied to 2005 models. This time the repair shop trucked the car to the Mini dealer for their attention. We don’t know what they did, but they got the car running and gave it back.

Problem 8: Same as Problem 3. It went back to the shop, who trucked it back to the Mini dealer, who did some more secret stuff and gave it back.

Problem 9: Same as Problem 3. I was now on a close personal basis with the guys at the repair shop. They hated seeing my pull into their shop. This time they wanted to replace the wiring harness. They consulted with BMW who agreed. It took some time to get the warranty company to authorize a wiring harness when the code said throttle body. But they agreed, and a week later I was back on the road.

Problem 10: The passenger window still didn’t work. Now that the EML problem was fixed, it was time to get the window working. Back to the shop for a new window motor. Problem solved. Time to start enjoying the car again.

Problem 11: My daughter called and said the car moved all by itself (up a slight incline, hitting another car in the driveway) and now won’t start. I drove to campus to inspect, highly skeptical. The battery was clearly dead. I tried jumping it, but no dice. So I put it on a battery charger overnight. The next day the battery had a full charge, but still no luck starting the car. Now it made a whirring noise, but nothing like engine cranking. I also saw the minor damage the mini did when it hit the car in front of it. My daughter decided the car was possessed, with an agenda to drive her mad. I came up with a slightly less demonic theory: something (an arc?) caused 12v to find its way directly to the starter. Since we park the car in 1st gear, if power got to the starter it would engage and try to turn the flywheel, thereby rolling the car. Then when the Mini hit the car in front of it, the starter was stalled trying to turn the flywheel. After some time the battery died, and the starter was toast. We had it trucked to the repair shop, where they determined that the starter was indeed fried. They replaced it, but kept it overnight to drive it some more to be sure it was fixed properly. They left it in the shop, near the door, but when they arrived in the morning they found the car had moved across the shop. The mechanics have stopped making fun of me, and are now trying to figure out exactly how that happened rather than just toss in a new starter.

So as of today, the car is still in the shop. Over the last year it has probably spent a month off the road. I love driving the car, and still feel the Mini Cooper S in general is the ideal car for my daughter. But she has lost her ability to trust this car and she is determined to sell it. Maybe I’ll keep it for myself…after the exorcism!

 

Sorry for all your bad luck but while there are many trouble-free 2002's on the road you have to remember that was a year one car & prone to problems. I say get it fixed & trade it in on an '05 if you can. Starting in 2005 MINIS became much more problem free

 

dang, a car that moves all on its own.

 

My MINI used to turn it's lights on for a few months when it was new & each time I verified the stalk was in the "off" position. Then there was the one time it locked itself when I was about to open the door. The key fob was laying untouched on a table & I do not have the self-locking option activated

 

iRobot should look into your MINI's instead of making junky vacuums.

 

THe starter shorted ( or atleast the selinoid), drove the car in gear, when it hit the other car it snaped the starter shaft. The whirring you hear is the starter spining, but not having a shaft to engage with the motor. Sounds like you have one that could qualify as a lemon. I would check into it. There is something that is shorting in your electrical system taking out peice by peice. And the clutch tells me whoever had it before was hard on the car. Which is where some of your other problems are from, and where future problems may be from.

But all in all i'm sorry to hear of your troubles, Sounds alot like my g60 corrado before i got rid of it.

 

OK, I'm having a little trouble with the "mysterious movement" thingy. MINIs, like most modern vehicles, are equipped with a clutch interlock which will not allow the starter to engage without the clutch being fully disengaged.
Your MINI has, (not once, but twice!) moved across the room? I'm leaning toward the possession thing, since it is physically impossible for that to happen without someone in the driver's seat pushing the clutch pedal.
That, or you are a great storyteller, in which case I applaud you; there are far too few practicing that craft.

 

The interlock should be controlled thru the car's computer. As well most of the operating systems of the car. It is feasible that a short in the CPU could casue the car to try and start without regard to the interlock.

 

Winner winner chicken dinner! MRmidge hit it on the head. The guys in the shop, who will attest to both my sanity and veracity, replaced the computer, and put another new starter in it. I have the old computer sitting here (it's ok, I'm wearing garlic) but can't make heads or tails of the nomenclature. It's a white box about 3x4x1.5" that says:

EWS 3-Steueugerat
BMW 61.35-6 905 670
608 377 LEAR
HW 03 SW 08

The theory is that the computer, which is downstream from the interlock, spazzed out, sending power to the starter. They gave me the car back but made me promise to park it in neutral just in case. I've had it back now for 24 hours and it has not done anything on its own accord. But maybe its waiting until I'm not looking...