I am no longer under warranty and don't have the ESC. I will likely be needing an oil change and a new clutch soon. I'm debating the merits of going to the dealer versus a local mechanic. I live in Oakland. The service folks in Concord are nicer but are always more expensive than San Francisco. The quote that I got last year from Concord for the clutch was $2500 and something like $300 for the oil change. (I'm at about 36k.) San Francisco's prices are less but they don't seem on the up and up all the time. I was reading in other parts of the country that clutches are going for $1400. Any recommendations?

 

My 2002 MCS needed an oil change and 2 year brake fluid flush near the end of May. I ended up taking it to East Bay MINI because their pricing was competitive with the two independent shops in the area (Bay Bridge Motors in Oakland and Edge Motorworks in Dublin). The oil change was about $77 and the brake fluid flush was about $110.

For something like clutch replacement, the independent shops are bound to be cheaper as their hourly labor rates are less than what a dealership will charge.

 

Is that the MINI in Pleasanton? Have you used Bay Bridge Motors before or do you just know of them? I'm thinking that the dealer is always going to do better work, just because that's all they work on but...

 

I had Edge Motorworks in Dublin replace my clutch.
If you need, they can usually pick you up or drop you off at the local BART station.
I highly recommend them.

Jim

 

Do you mind my asking about how much they charged?

 

Sending PM

 

East Bay MINI is in Pleasanton and they offer shuttle service to/from the Bart Station.

I took my MINI to Bay Bridge Motors once after being unable to avoid some debris on the freeway. They checked my undercarriage and found one of my runflats had been gouged and needed replacement. They gave me a loner wheel+tire and ordered a replacement tire for fitting. When I went back to get my wheel and new tire, there were tool marks all around the wheel. The "tech" claimed it was road rash, but the shop foreman agreed it was not and sent the wheel out for refurbishment. When I went back again, the wheel was not painted one color ... it was silver on the face but the backside had been painted grey. When I mentioned this the shop foreman "whined" about having to send the wheel back a "third" time for painting. At this point (about 3 weeks after my initial visit), since the color variation was not apparent from a distance and I was tired of making trips back and forth from SF, I took the wheel asis.

I guess I shouldn't have assumed they would send the wheel and tire out for mounting if they didn't have the equipment to do it themselves.

I can't speak to their expertise regarding mechanical repairs like a clutch replacement.

 

try Bay Bridge Motors in Oakland. Jacques knows the MINIs inside and out.

510-208-3273

 

Wow sounds like you had a very different experience at Bay Bridge Motors than MINIAC did. What did you have done there?

 

I'm sorry that MINIAC had a bad experience at BBM. This is the first time I heard of a negative experience there.

We routinely recommend & send our bay area customers to BBM because our customers have always been happy with their work.

I would recommend you talk to Jacques, and/or pay them a visit if you have any concerns.

Ken

 

BBM is the place. Jacques is the man.

 

I trust my child to Edge Motorsports in Dublin Ca.
I have a lovely 08' Cabrio S, with 29,500 mi. on her. And my dealer can't put a finger on the problems that my car is experiencing. The pat answer from the dealers repair shop is always, we couldn't replicate. Unless it's an oil change or a tire rotation.
So after having both hydraulic front bushings replaced along with the hydraulic motor mount and the water pump, my car now shakes like a junkie in a methadone line, pardon the simile. And has mystery silicone patches on the turbo tubes that are out of eyesight. Happened while one of the mentioned repairs took place. Out of sight!
But I digress. so I Left San Francisco this morning to meet the people in Dublin calif. at, EDGE MOTORSPORTS. I waited while they did a diagnostic on my car based on my concerns. And the report that was handed to me was more than expected for $63. They told me what I had known and had been telling the dealership. So now is the hard part. How do you convince a Major corporation to do the right thing? And Edge pointed out the Silicone, well out of sight, once the car was on the hoist. Thanks Edge!!

 

So far Ive had a good experience with Bay Bridge Motors- recently replaced spark plugs and coils and fuel pump. better prices than dealer and way more convenient for me (10 min drive vs fighting the bridge for sf mini or east bay mini). also very accomodating without an appointment when my mini pooped out (spark plugs) and I had to have it towed.

 

+1 for BBM

Jacques *really* knows the R53's well, but he is starting to become the R56 expert as more people out of warranty are bringing their cars in. He's a great guy, in my experience.

 

Hello all, my first post on this site to let you know I've been speaking to Jacques for quite some time regarding modding my '07 R56. He is very patient and knowledgeable
from my perspective.

I'm bringing the car in on Tuesday for a pulley and CAI as well as a Remus catback. I can't wait for the results.

 

The pulley is not for your R56, is it?

You must live nearby. Hope to see you on the road some day.

 

LOL, no, as the r56 is turbo! Between my new ///M6 cabrio and my r56, I'm getting lost between all the mods. I believe we are doing the CAI, Remus and an Intercooler possibly.

I'm in Marin and travel to SF and the EastBay often. Where are you?

 

Ok whew! I'm sure Jacques would have caught it though. ;-)

I'm in Oakland, not too far from Bay Bridge Motors. I work in the city.

Jacques installed the Helix FMIC on mine not too long ago. It's a really great mod for our cars. For almost the same price, I recently got the Aquamist water/meth kit and it's transformed the car. Sometimes I wonder if I should have kept the stock IC and saved the money but a couple people on this site have said it's always great to have a larger intercooler just in case you aren't or can't spray. That made perfect sense.

 

Silho,

I'm still pretty new to the Mini scene and just looked up your meth injection project. Are you kidding me??? I feel like I'm on the set of Fast and Furious So, not knowing much about this, does this ultimately hurt the engine? I've read where you are talking about this actually helping carbon build-up. Is there a "Meth" button you push for boost? With the 507 horses my BMW makes, I'd be a little scared of my lightweight/FWD car producing that type of HP. Still sexy though! What has been your experience?

 

Hahaha. Yeah it sounds kind of like spraying nitrous oxide but it's totally different. I actually didn't get it for the power, but more for being able to make more power safely, and the carbon buildup prevention.

The Aquamist HFS-3 system reads the injector duty cycle directly from your ECU (you actually tap a few wires into it) which allows you to have it on all the time, but only spray when you actually need it. Meaning, when you're under boost, and/or when the engine is under a high load. There are people who run 100% water, some that run 100% methanol, and some that run a mixture of varied concentrations. I'm still learning the stuff myself and am trying to figure out what mixture the car likes best. Right now I'm at 75/25 methanol/water.

The water does wonders for decreasing the high temperatures that our high compression, turbo boosted cars can induce in the combustion chamber. The methanol does a great job at cooling the actual intake air before the T-MAP sensor reads it, so the ECU adjusts for the super low intake air temperatures. Plus it's a high octane fuel. The carbon buildup prevention is a nice side-effect. I used to get some rough idling in the morning, and slight hesitation when I accelerate before the motor was warmed up. That all went away a couple weeks after the water/meth kit went in.

Although you can get a tuner to create a really aggressive map to take advantage of the fact that engine knock / ping will effectively be gone, I'm keeping thing sane (max boost of 18 psi) so my pistons don't fail (hopefully). Even with a mild tune I'm definitely feeling more power in the higher RPM range where before the ECU would pull back timing to prevent detonation. The car just pulls and pulls all the way to redline now. I really need to take it back to the dyno to find out how much HP/torque it's really adding. Also, Howerton Engineering has a really nice kit designed specifically for the R56, and has an installation manual to make the install pretty painless. The system is so stealth on my car, which I really like. The tank is held in place by the factory D rings and doesn't take up that much room at all.



And I'm sorry I know this post really shouldn't be in this thread. Sorry for derailing but I get all excited sometimes when I get something new for the car.

 

Shilo, thank you so much for the information! I really appreciate the explanation. Being new to the Mini world, it's great to hear some of the upgrades and mods which are being done! I love talking cars, but could use the education. Feel free to email me directly at justin.mace@yahoo.com

Thanks much!

 

I just had to Chime in on the experience I had with Jacques of BBM...I was recommend by Members here on NAM.
So I called him awile ago asking him about pricing for installing either RSB,Coilovers or both together and the First quote I got from him for JUST the RSB was around $1100-$1200........YES this is what he quoted me and I didn't even want to know what it would be for coilovers on top of that. He said it would probably take about 6hrs just for the RSB.

Then I changed the conversation to pick his brain and he gos on telling me about how he used to race and so on.
I know he is Very knowledgeable about cars by just talking to him.
After I'm done talking to him, I do some research of my own for different shops and find Sonic Motorsports. I see alot of great reviews on Yelp and kinda get scared seeing that they mainly do alot of HighEnd cars.
I said what the heck, it doesn't hurt to get a quote. I call them up and had a pleasant experience just talking on the phone and the prices are MUCH more reasonable. Around $300 for installing Coilovers and $200 for springs only. These prices seem to be the Norm for a few shops that I've talked to.

This is MY experience with BBM.