So, last week someone decided to make an illegal left turn and clobbered me as I went through the intersection, totaling my 07 MCS. I am looking to replace it, and in all likelihood will be going back to MINI again since it was so much fun to drive for the 30k miles that I had it.

I love the R56, and you can get them for a great price in good condition used... but I am wondering. Had I known then what I know now about the timing chain and other issues, I would have been more hesitant to get the '07. My question is this:

Is there a year that MINI fixed the notorious R56 timing chain problem, along with some of the other issues like carbon buildup/burning oil or the thermostat housing going bad around 50k miles? I never really had the first problem, but I understand that I was lucky having almost 90k miles on an '07 MCS timing chain and I don't want to count on luck again.

So yeah, if you have any input about which year (2010 or 11 is what I have heard before?) to look at I would appreciate the input.

Thanks.

Also, memorial services for my MCS will be held at my house, tonight, and none of you are invited. However, if you want to participate in spirit, do a shot everytime a little girl dresses as Elsa from Frozen comes by your house for Halloween tonight. That is what I will be doing!

 

Between 2 cars, a 2012 and 2013 S, and nearly 45000 combine miles, I never had any engine problems. You should be safe getting any car with the N18 engine.

Hope you don't get alcohol poisoning tonight... And condolences for your loss.

 

Nope. The post-2011 ones seem to be better than the earlier ones in that respect, but they still can and do have those troubles.


I like the way you think!! :D Sadly, it was raining at our house so we got fairly few trick or treaters. None of them were Frozen characters.

 

Every car has it's problems, but the post 2011 ones are less likely to have such major problems. I am lucky enough to get to drive a bunch of different MINIs everyday at work, and I must say that each one is different and they all seem to have their own "personality" which is very true for this brand. My advice is once you decide what you are looking for, you test drive multiple cars and see what differences you notice between each car, because I've driven two cars that are in theory the same but one will run weird compared to the other or I'll just get a bad feeling about a certain car.
Good Luck and sorry about your loss

 

'11+ For 'S'. JCW is late '12 I think. Don't quote me, just going off of foggy memory right now. Also if you have to finance, you tend to get better rates for '10 and newer cars. It might be '11 now, not sure. But if I did it again I'd be getting a N18 engine and having Manic tune it.

 

I understand that the carbon buildup problem doesn't exist on the Supercharged engines, '05 and earlier IIRC. It's the turbo engines that seem to have the problems. Unfortunately finding a low mileage early model will be difficult. And then you still have the window motor problems as well as power steering pump issues. And did I mention the steering rack might also be troublesome and leaky?

But if you can keep those issues at bay, the danged things are just FUN under most situations. (Snow is NOT one of them!!)

 

The supercharged engines were great! You couldn't keep the oil pan from leaking because of the poorly designed PCV system. The good news was we never paid for an oil change even after the regular warranty ran out. BMW replaced the oil along with the pan gasket every 1000 miles...