Hey Gang,

New to the forum. Not new to forums in general and not new to the Mini. Its our 3rd one!

We picked up a base 13 cooper auto with 5,000 miles on it a few months ago.For a Daily. Problem we are having is that the car feels bouncy, another trait would be it teeters. A road with bumps and imperfections is super bad and then on roads you think look smooth and comforting turn out to be just as bad. The car now has 8500 and this issue is driving us nuts . I know the cars are rigid and taught but this is excessive. The best way I can describe it ...your sitting in the passenger seat it looks/feels like the driver front compresses 1st followed by the passenger rear then the passenger front followed by the drivers rear

Any ideas? I am leaning on shitty stock struts and or tires.

 

I didi a 12 hour detail on this. Roof still needs work

 

Hello and welcome, are you on stock runflat tires. Looks like you are running the R119 Alloy 6 Star Twin Spoke Wheel 16" , which with non runflat tires should be smooth and not bouncy. Also have you check the tire pressure ? Has it been aligned , does it pull to the side ?

 

doesn't pull to one side but it did skip 2 feet after hitting a bump last night. All pressures are fine. We have not done an alignment. car drives straight, and brakes straight no pull left or right

Acts normal and comfortable under hard cornering I noticed, but doesnt drive like a stiff car, just drives bouncy

 

Yea, even in the Cooper mode it should be smooth but not really bouncy. Its really new so there should not be anything about the suspension unless someone changed it out or there was damage form maybe going of the edge of a road or something. The struts should not be shot either. One quick test it to get out of the car and push on each corner, not to hard to dent the body but on the rear roof on each corner and with the hood lifter on top of each strut mount to shake the whole car , when you push down ad the car comes back up, does the car bounce? Or does it stop ?

 

Problem Solved!!! Took the car to Mini dealer for service. We told them the about the overly firm ride issue. Come to find out I guess when the car travels on the boat the Factory installs blocks so the suspension moves a minimal amount, now the blocks have been taken out the car drives so so so much better! Even the service guy who test drove the car stated that. So in the end we have a low low mileage car that drives like a dream and we didnt have to spent thousands lol

 

Glad it got fixed. I think I'd be pretty pissed at the dealer for not doing the proper check on my car pre delivery.

 

We got the car from car max with 5,000 miles. So I am 100% sure thats the reason the last owner traded it in. And this issue is common I googled it and VWs have them a lot. Me myself have never heard of such a thing but it does happen. So yeah

 

This is the third time i have heard the blocks were left in. Its rare but happens.

 

So it passed the rigorous checks of Mini and Carmax. Impressive systems they have set up. When I bought my used Mini it was so well inspected that it had nearly bald front tires. You can't trust anyone anymore.

 

I always chuckle when i hear radio ads on the rigorous 200 point inspection on certified pre owned cars. It might help if you took the wheels off lol

If it would have caused damage and or injury believe me Carmax and Mini would be on the hook big time

I am glad i caught it early on