[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]I’m looking for any suggestions. So I love my mini, a 2007 non-turbo, but unfortunately I fell like it may be a lemon. It has 33k and is under 3 years old now. So it all started with 02 sensor going out (in the first 6 months of owner ship), which was probably due to the catalytic converter that was replaced under warranty a year later as part of a recall. I was also having transmission problems (6 speed manual) at 18 months. They didn’t diagnose at the 2 year service interval when they were told about it, but they did remove and repair the leaky sunroof. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3]During the last service about 32 months into ownership, they said yeah there is an issue with the transmission and replaced it under warranty. Now about a month after it was replaced, my wife and I were driving down the road and had to pull over for terrible metal on metal grinding sound. When we pulled over it had sparks coming out from under the car and made the terrible sound even when not moving. It was towed 200 miles to the nearest dealership. Turns out a bolt that holds the transmission in place came out or was loose or wasn’t put in? The transmission shifted and was not aligned with the engine perfectly and the AC compressor was rubbing something causing the sparks. Now they are going to tighten everything back up and replace the ac compressor (2 days of labor). I’m looking for suggestions on this; I have some serious concerns about damage to the internal engine parts if it was running with the transmission hanging out of alignment. It is hard to see what happened because the engine compartment is so tight and it happened at night. Does anyone who may have worked on Minis know the amount of damage that could have occurred? [/SIZE][/FONT]

 

Time to write/talk to miniusa. Make sure you have everything, all receipts.

At the least they can give you an extended full warranty for free (up to six years). They could even do a buyback.