I have had my 2007 Cooper S from new. Since 55k or so it has been a money pit. 55k, water pump leak, 61K battery and starter failure, 66k hard starting, $1100 rip off for cleaning intake manifold and valves for carbon buildup only to have the high pressure fuel pump fail and thank god replace under warrantee. Today at 78k while driving along in 6th at 70mph, it develops a strong misfire only to be diagnosed as burned or cracked exhaust valves in #2 cylinder and a quote of $3200 to pull the head and replace them. All of this has occurred in the last year. Over $6000 in maintenance, those are Ferrari $$$$, not a daily driver. What is it with this engine, it is a piece of junk. I have religiously changed oil at 7-8000 miles, not the 15k they want you to go. Not raced, etc. Just transpiration. Totally fed up with the Mini experience at this point. Any suggestions?

 

Don't know what to tell you. You have a spotty record of coming on here posting and then disappearing. You can fix it yourself assuming no damage to the head was caused. Only other thing is eith scratch it and get a new one or bite the bullet and fix it.

 

I would check with a few shops in your area for prices. If the valves didn't break off and do other damage to the pistons, block or turbo, the job is really quite straight forward. Remove the head, have it refurbished, re-install the head. You should be able to get that done for half the dollars you are talking about.

Good Luck

 

Don't forget the valves. Acctually if you wanted a new head Thumper at Thumper Heads here in Jacksonville will polsh a head for you for around half $1500 to $2000. For an R56. But the install ist pretty straight forward.

 

Thanks for the feedback, I am venting because of the low milage by todays standards. I am wondering if the valve failure is related to the HPFP failure and the dealer's delay in diagnosing this failure (3 tries) if the engine ran lean, that would lead to valve failure.

I was not aware that only posting when you had something concrete to respond to was a consideration to not being worthy? I know how to pull a head, I've done several in my 62 years however, there are more pressing things that I must address at this point in my life and need the car back on the road. This is the only car with this few miles on it that has had so many problems. With all of the sensors on these cars, I am just amazed this would go unchecked.

 

I'm sure this has been said a lot of times before but these are "quirky" cars. I've admittedly put up with some nonsense from my '09 MCS but the driving experience with it has been incredible. I have a cheap domestic as a daily driver, but if I had as many problems as you're having I would move on.

It sounds like you're having a bit of bad luck with your car. All MINIs aren't junk. The 2007 and 2008 model year is the worst for the 2nd gen MINI. I have an '09 with 52,000 miles and the only major engine repair I've ever had done was the timing chain update. A head removal would be a repair I'd do by myself, but I don't blame you for not wanting to. It's an 8+ hour job to remove the head and then you'll be using another means of transportation while the head gets repaired. I know a guy in our local MINI club that got a burnt valve in cylinder #4 and there was no pre-warning by the ECU. Excessive carbon build-up could have played a role in the hot spot that caused the valve to burn, but playing a guessing game is pointless now since you're without a car.

It sounds like you've made up your mind already and I can empathize with how you feel. If you're not happy then sell it. It isn't worth the headache.

 

any updates?

 

Did you not see my post about being spotty and hardly coming on here?

 

Here is an update, I traded the car on a 2009 BMW 328xi. Forgive me if I do not live up to the required posts to be considered worthy. I work hard for a living an need reliable transportation. Although the BMW is not quite as much fun to drive as the Mini, it appears to be a bit more civilized for a daily commute. It does not get near the gas mileage of the Mini which is a shame not does it approach the efficiency of my wife's 2011 turbo Sonata on regular gas.

The Mini experience was in all a disappointment. There is no reason today to accept reliability such as this. I have paid my dues driving cars much more fun including successfully racing formula fords (a Crossle 30F) back in the 70's when racing was open to more people who were willing to tow their car to the track, sleep in the back of van and race. I do not need petty bs from pseudo street racers such as me boosta. I did it! Enough said, Mini, improve your reliability, there is no place for such problems in today's high tech world. Signing off!

 

I absolutely love my MCS. We typically drive our cars into the ground, expecting at least 100K miles of relatively trouble free service, and fortunately my MINI has been perfect thus far (knock on wood). That said, if I had the issues that Ted Stevenson reported, especially in the short time between 55K and 75K, I think I'd consider selling and buy something else too. I think we all wish him well with his BWM, but we all also know BMW's can be money pits. The problem is most of the really fun cars these days, Audi, BMW, Porsche, MINI, etc., are all brands that have had their share of reliability issues. They just aren't Honda's, Toyota's or domestics, but that's also why we desire them.

 

I had about half the issues OP got. I didn't have problem with battery or exhaust valve. But I spent almost $4000 fixing my 2007 MCS last year. I ended up trading it in for a Lexus. The Mini was fun to drive but I don't know how much more money I could put into it. I have already spent more on the Mini repair then all of my cars combined in the last 15 years.. and that includes 2 BMWs.