Had the MINI for a little over a week and after reading to many posts in the forums has gotten me a little paranoid about all the pre-mature failure of parts.

So I decided to be a little proactive to put my mind at ease.

Previous owner had the water-pump replaced by the dealer last month so it looks like I will be tearing down the front end again in the spring to complete the following:

Replace SC oil
Oil Sump Gasket
Crank Sensor Gasket
LCA bushings
Sway bar bushings
SC and intercooler gaskets
Power Steering hoses ??
Belt
Lots if cleaning
Beer and Band-Aids/gauze if needed

Anything else while I am in there?

At least the cost of parts is reasonable.

Thanks !

 

Don't know but good luck. I also liked your selection of past cars. Alot of VWs in your past. I missed by TDI New Beetle and Dasher.

 

I'd add a few things:

• coolant expansion tank
• radiator hoses
• thermostat + thermostat housing

 

I will say i think in the same mindset you do. I got the car, and after reading about all the common failures around the 60k mile mark (mine had 53k on it) I just started slowly doing things. I started out with:

All filters (cabin and air)
Changed the belt and did a pulley (tensioner seemed weak so put that on the list)
Plugs/ignition
Passanger side motor mount (hydrolic one, mine was blown)
Tansmission fluid

So it was running great for awhile, I kept going through threads of things I should be on the look out for so I can fix them before they break, because I don't want to be without a car. At the 57k mile mark, I went do to my oil change and as I get under the car, I see dripping coolant on the transmission, a small puddle of power steering fluid, I get close to the passangers side so I can listen specifically and sure enough crank pulley is starting to fail and control arm bushings are bad... lol so my day went south really quick.

Yesterday I went ahead and did the thermostat, did the power steering hoses and prepped the car so today I can do the crank pulley (replacing with ATI Super damper) and the tensioner.

I have Koni's on order to replace my tired stock struts so I will be tackling LCA bushings and sway bar bushings when I do that. I think that's everything that is known to go wrong lol.

If you are going to do LCA bushings and drop the subframe when you do it, I HIGHLY recommend doing PS Hoses then. I did them yesterday without dropping the subframe, and it was a pain. dried up siezed hoses are not easy to get off and it makes quite the mess.

Also when you do the belt, if you're tensioner hasn't been replaced (depending on mileage) you may want to replace that while you're in there and make sure you check your crank pulley (again mileage dependant).

Good luck!

 

Thanks !

I was just about to add those.

T-Stat was replaced last year.

Also, I'll also check the pulley and belt tensioner and might as well change the PS hoses after dropping the subframe. I have some vacation time coming up in March and or April so it will give me a few days to take my time.

Now this is going to start cutting into my beer "budget" :(

Anyone here in the Raleigh area?

 

How do we tell if the tensioner itself is bad and needs replaced? I changed my belt a couple of weeks ago, but I'm not sure what to look for to determine the tensioner needs replaced.

 

Same, here on the tensioner, also on the crank pulley.
I have a slight rattle, its hardly noticeable at around 2k rpm, not sure what it is, wondering if its tensioner or crank pulley or timing chain aligner/tensioner