I bought my daughter's 2003 R50 Mini last summer. I encouraged her to buy this car in the first place, and have had my eye on it ever since, so I jumped at the opportunity when she said she needed a bigger car. For me, it's a second car, but no way would I call it a "beater." Yes, it has winter snow tires on it now, and it serves as a daily driver while my Mustang GT sits in the garage until all the winter salt is off the road, but it is as fun to drive as the Mustang. If I wanted to call it a beater, it would be the ultimate beater...

Anyway, I just brought it into the shop today because there has been a rather loud scraping noise coming from the front since the cold weather hit. It was a noise that only happened when it was below 35 degrees or so, and once the car warmed up, it went away. It turned out to be a bearing in the belt tensioner. I would have never guessed that. As I was paying the $225 bill, I told the mechanic, "we really can't complain about this car. In the past 6 years we've gone from 40,000 to 90,000 miles, and this thing and a leaking radiator have been the only problems we've had."

His reply was, "yeah, these are good cars, but just be glad you didn't buy the S model. From my experience, those engines really struggle handling the supercharger or turbo, and they have more problems than the non-turbo model."

Is that a fair statement?

 

Well, as a later owner, the R56 cars.. Really have some high dollar issues. The S cars do get driven harder.. And the R56 generation has some real problems.. 2007-2010 n14 cars are pretty poor.

 

In a word.

No.

 

The first gens are pretty much the same when it comes to problems, the S just have specific ones since it has a s/c. Water pump, intercooler boots, etc. But other than that, we're not stuggling more than you are.

 

i hope not

 

I'd say yes, and thank God for extended warranties even though I do some of my own work.

 

I bow down to gRay rAvEn. He knows more than I ever will.
And it's odd that I would differ from him on this point...

I would say yes. But probably due to user error.

In addition to the items listed above (SC and water pump are pretty big deals) and the fact that they're likely to be pushed harder (via lust for more power or thrill of the drive) - the "higher strength" internals and higher boost (or any additional compression for that matter) can lead to higher oil consumption and the failures that can occur from that.

As an example... Even though it's entirely possible; How many justa's have you heard of spinning a bearing? Whether it's the owners, driving style or reliability it's hard to say why there is less, but there is. My blown S engine was my fault I admit it.

Every justa I know of is rock solid. Every S I know of has had issues (but we love them anyway - wouldn't ever trade it for a justa)

 

Totally agree on user error.. It's not helpful in tens of the quality ratings.. The cars do need TLC and looking after just as most other higher-end Euro vehicles. People neglect the living crap out of cars..

 

Pretty much all the poor reliabily issues I've read about tend to be related to just the turbocharged "S" models with very few "justa" problems being reported.
We realy need to start seperating the turbocharged models from the non turbocharged models when reporting problems as I think it may be unfair to be linking the two together.
Perhaps we should start reliability section just for the second generation turbocharged models and one just for the non-turbocharged models.
It would be interesting to see how many problems would show up in the non-turbocharged vs turbocharged sections.

 

The biggest down fall of any Cooper is going to be subsequent owners that are too damn cheap and are not exercising due diligence. These owners will typically wait until something has totally failed, instead of being proactive. These cars have flaws, they’re not Honda Civics or Toyota Corollas. I don’t even like to think about the amount of money I’ve dumped into my S. However, when I turn the key it’s not about money.

 

I look at it as if taking your pick which end of the poop sandwich you want to bite into.

The slow poke early R50 Midlands manual trans or CVT failure.

The speedy R53 a supercharger failure, maybe a clutch.

 

While no doubt due diligence is very much required on these cars, these cars do have very serious flaws and due diligence alone will not guarantee that they will not develope very expensive and potentialy catastrophic faiures.
I think it terribly unfair to lable Mini Cooper owners who have experienced these problems as " too damn cheap and not excercising due diligence" as if the problem was the Mini Cooper owner rather than poor design of the Mini Coopers engine.

 

I’d have to respectfully disagree. Take the R53 belt tensioner. There are numerous posts about people trying to invent the better mousetrap i.e. a cheap fix. I’ve seen heim joints in place the dampener, people looking for the dampener, and a host of other nonsense regarding this part.

The real solution is a new one from Gates at RockAuto for around $80.00.

I often wonder if these people ever thought about the rest of the pieces that make up this disposable part like: the pulley and the spring. I hate to say it, but if $80 is going to break the bank this is not the car for you.

 

I don't think we're talking about the same thing here.
When people ask about a cars reliability they are referencing the OEM equiped car as it came from the factory.
Of course if someone modifies the car with parts other than OEM they have to assume resposibility for any cosequences that may result in. Certainly not the cars fault if they were to fail and have absolutely nothing to do with the original (from the factory) cars reliability.

 

as far as S versus non-S, i have no idea. i have an S, and i really enjoy driving it.

as far as mini vèrsus non-mini... for the amount of money ive put into this car, i could have the fastest honda civic in the state. but i have a mini. if i wanted a toyota i would have gotten a toyota. thats one of the good parts of life. you want something bad enough, you work hard to get it. its a choice. i dont think theres many cases of someone getting "stuck" with a mini.

i will admit though, when i bought the car, i had no idea how much id be putting into it, all the details, etc.

had i have to go back and do it again, id look further into the specs. things like not having stock adjustments for camber, the sunroof drain flooding the headliner, the rear end being impossible to keep clean lol, the fact that 9 out of 10 jobs under the hood require you to remove 9 out of 10 too many things. i do all my own work, so the price in labor is nothing for me. in that aspect, no matter the issue, its all worth it when i hit the road in it and enjoy something original and custom to me.

 

The S has to be less reliable than non-S for these reasons:
the supercharger is an additional part that can and does fail
Boost stresses hoses and seals by adding pressure
Extra power stresses all engine and mechanical parts
Extra speed stresses all bushings and braking components
This said, the car is still pretty good and the extra stresses are within the performance envelop of the design.

 

Exactly, so NO, not less reliable at all!

In my 326,000+ miles with this car I have not been stranded once, or had any unexpected repairs.

Nik

 

anything that goes faster is more unreliable

 

You must be saying that an SC has never ever broken then? No one has ever had a SC belt break? I beg to differ. Anecdotal evidence with a sample size of 1 is not statistical proof.

 

Stupid me! I just went back and re-read the OP's original post and he is talking about the supercharged "S" first generation Mini Cooper and not the turbocharged "S" second generation Mini Cooper.
Got a little off track when the R56 was brought into the discussion.
They are very different with the turbocharged model having much worse reliability than the supercharged Mini.
My screw up, just be aware when reading my postings I was thinking the turbocharged model.

 

Haha, a bit argumentative huh? Both models are reliable, the S is no more unreliable than the non S. The parts are engineered for the extra stress, and in most cases if maintained, it is very reliable. Do some things break unexpected? of course.

I've only heard of one SC fail, and it was due to a improperly installed reduction pulley. Water pumps on the other hand tend to fail, but is an expected maintenance item, and if maintained will not fail either. I pulled my first supercharger off at 190,000 miles because I wanted to check it. The SC was fine, and the water pump gears are still intact, and had plenty of oil. My second SC has 130,000 miles on it and is fine, my second MINI has over 100,000 on it with no problems.

SC belts break? sure, I've never had one bread, because I maintain my car.......

A car is not unreliable because you wear out the tires or get a flat. It is expected wear on replaceable parts.

So no, the s is not anymore unreliable.

Nik

 

Actually, I did mean any S model - not just the R53.


The reason for my post is that I really do love the Mini R50, but was thinking about upgrading to the S model at some point. But then the mechanic made that statement, so I thought I'd ask here where there's more specific Mini knowledge.


What I learned, I think, is that the turbo S models are possibly less reliable than the supercharged models. Is that about right? Or is it only certain years until Mini figured out most of the issues?

 

Any non-S model will be more reliable due to the fact there are fewer moving parts. Fewer moving parts means there is less that can break.

These Mini's are quite reliable in every configuration. What sold me on the S was a friend with a 2004 S that has over 250K miles and he has had no issues other than normal wear and tear. I have a 2013 R56 with just under 30K on it and I expect it to go 200K+ miles without any issues. I also believe that because it is a turbo engine that is more complex than a NA engine and the turbo will be subject to more possible problems than a NA would have.

 

yes the turbo models are experiencing several issues. I think the 2010 ones are better than 07-09.

 

How are you turning a key?