My 04 MINI Cooper S just hit 100k. It got a ALTA CAI v2 as an anniversary present. Much welcomed boost! My MINI's present to me was the inside door handle failing! =]

Car still runs strong but:

1. Clutch lets out a little groan on the coldest SoCal mornings.
2. Car jerks/bumps if you apply/release accelerator too quickly above 2.5k RPM - bounces around like crazy in stop and go traffic.
3. Metal noise heard most when pressing ear against supercharger horn. (most likely s/c needs oil and/or rebuild or water pump gears are failing)
4. Front control arm bushings are shot and need replacing
5. Light strut tower mushrooming
6. Oil leak that techs can't pinpoint so I don't even know what to replace
7. Right rear brake light went out and will not work at all (most likely due to brake light mod or a short from water getting in to the bulb from the housing) - Need to replace BCM and get reprogrammed at dealer (expensive and time consuming)
8. Driver side window stopped working (sometimes decides to work for a couple weeks and then quit again)
9. Drivers side lock won't unlock with remote
10. Now Drivers side inside door handle doesn't work (and can't roll down the window to use the outside handle haha)
11. Black logo chipped off MINI wings emblem on rear
12. Engine mounts were shot, but I replaced lower and upper stabilizer with OEM and replaced the upper mount with a TSW mount.

I have a pile of parts but no time to put them in. I'd pay someone to do it but with everything else that needs to be done, I doubt I can afford it.

I have:
OEM shocks with 10k miles
Vorshlag Adjustable camber plates
M7 strut tower plates
All new OEM ball joints
Powerflex front control arm bushings, front sway bushings
TSW springs
TSW rear sway bar
OEM belt tensioner
ALTA 15% s/c pulley
ALTA 5% crank pulley
ALTA nator alternator reduction pulley
Cabrio braces

 

Damn my passenger window stopped working yesterday as well. It started working again today, but WTF?!

 

Oh man now the passenger window is working but makes a load clank when it passes a certain spot rolling up or down. When it's rolling up sometimes the clank will also pop the door lock up. haha

 

you need to take it into a good mini friendly shop and get all those items you have installed.

Jerking around when letting off the gas from what i understand is due to bad engine/tranny mounts. TSW makes a great upper mount and BSH also makes a really good lower motor mount if you dont mind NVH. Also TSW makes another package as well replacing tranny mounts with powerflex replacements.

My car is at 120k and im in the process of replacing these =D
So far i have TSW UEM and BSH LEM and greatly have decreased the rocking issue next will be TSW tranny mount package

 

This is way too funny. My 2004 MINI has 84K miles and I have problems:

2.
4. Recently fixed.
7. Something similar; my right rear was sticking in cold weather in a cold startup.
8.
10. Starting to get there. It feels like it's harder and harder to pull the door handle open.
11.
12.

Love the MINI, but it's starting to become a $$$$ hog. Especially when I still want to mod it.

 

its funny because most of the problems you have up there i've had at one point or another.

 

I've already replaced the upper engine mount with a TSW and replaced the lower enginer mount and upper stabilizer mounts with OEM a few thousand miles ago. I'll replace the tranny mount too, but I don't think that one mount can cause this much jerking / bucking...

 

Keep us posted with that, I recently had a thread about the jerking too and I would like the car to be a bit smoother.

 

Problems 1 and possibly 2 could be caused by your clutch; Mini S models use a dual mass clutch and by the look of the threads both Neufusion and MrCooperS have modified cars. Dual mass clutches are not designed for high HP applications they are designed to reduce the engine vibration through the clutch to the transmission. They also reduce the stress from and jarring from the engine to the transmission. They do this fine until the cars are upgraded beyond the manufacturer’s recommendations or abused. As soon as HP is increased you run in to problems.
The problem is that the when the dual mass clutch is over loaded it slips, and once it begins to slip it because of being overloaded it will burn up quick. My friend got his wife a new mini S and she burned up the dual mass clutch in 5 days.
The singe mass or regular clutch is better for high performance applications. I have a friend who builds clutches for turbo cars and he has a 12” clutch that can handle 600lbs of torque. I will be installing a similar one next week the 600 HP versions is not really for the street.
Neufusion and MrCooperS, How much HP do your cars have and have you change replace the clutch yet?

 

any solution to the jerking? mines pretty bad as well.

 

Probably around 190 to 200 WHP at the most. My clutch is a Stage 4 6 puck clutch with a light weight flywheel.

 

Only engine mod so far is a CAI intake. I'm still running on the original clutch / flywheel.

 

Your clutch is probably fine for now

 

Did you upgrade your clutch due to issues or was it working fine?

 

Can you tell if the jerking is related to the clutch? If so it is probably caused by the Dual mass clutch. The Dual mass flywheels has to be tuned to match the torque curve the engine. If the engine resonant characteristics, vehicle load curves including axle ratio and tire size are changed you could have issues.
The way the clutch works is that the clutch assembly has two springs between two rotating masses, to dampen the resonant vibration. The problem is that the springs are the weak point so the clutch has an overload feature to protect the springs. If the clutch is overloaded or abused it will slip to keep from damaging the springs (might be the jerking you are feeling). If the clutch is over loaded and doesn’t release or slip the springs could break which will also cause the clutch to burn up.
If you have done any performance upgrades you might want to change the clutch to a standard single mass clutch (non MCS). FYI, if you upgrade to a single mass clutch you will have to get a new flywheel the Dual mass flywheel is different.

 

#2: check to see if you have an air leak in your system. You will have to smoke it at a shop (or DIY) to see if/where you have a leak. My intake pipe from the S/C into the throttle body was leaking at multiple welds. Caused lots of jerking when letting off throttle in any gear at high rpms. I'm told it's only noticeable under boost, but I'm not sure. Replaced supercharger gasket since I was already in there replacing the pipe. Jerking disappeared after replacing piping, and power is linear again, just like new. My car has a little over 65k on the clock. Part #17511524538 on realoem.com

 

OEM clutch was failing. Upgrade needed. The jerking is more engine/transmission rocking then the clutch engagement. Example: In second or third gear, if I blip the throttle, I can feel the engine or transmission jerking violently.