My 06 has been making some unhappy noise, thought it was supercharger but also was suggested to me the power steering was unhappy too so with the recent power steering warranty news, I brought the car to the dealer. Power steering is (so far) fine but the supercharger is in bad shape.

But my timing was pretty amazing; turns out MINI has an emissions warranty which covers the supercharger for 7 years or some miles (I forget) - my car's warranty would expire 6/17 this year so I'm still covered!

This may only be a Calif thing, not sure, but anyone with a loud grumbly supercharger equipped MINI built after June-ish 2006 (r53, r52?) should check with their dealer. No cost, they are replacing the supercharger once it gets here from regional stock and even loaning me a MINI while the car is down.

Dodged a bullet here!

 

lucky i wonder how many miles this warranty is... may look into it, if and when i go to do the power steering pump i have some miles left so ill wait to do it.