And without any kind of warning, my crank pulley came apart today. I was driving slowly, coming up to a stoplight, so nothing got bloodied under the hood. No symptoms, just an obvious clunking sound when it let go.

This, in the middle of all of the other front end refreshing I've been doing.

Some interesting notes if you happen to be in the same situation:
1) turn the engine off immediately. Sounds obvious, but you'd be surprised...
2) although I probably could have done the R&R at home, I opted to have it towed to a local (non-dealership) Mini shop, which also races Minis, as I didn't want to get stuck needing special tools if the pulley wouldn't come off easily; nor did I have the belt remover lever tool.
3) said Mini shop only installs the OEM version pulley because of the balanced weight, and had it in stock
4) said Mini shop only took 30 minutes to do the complete repair.
5) said Mini shop raped me for the cost of said repair: $180 for 30 minutes' labor (no kidding), $40 for a new belt and $342 for the pulley (plus CA tax)
6) my build date is 8/'03 - my dead pulley was of the "earlier" style (before a re-design) and obviously original on the car, which now has around 108K on the clock

No, I won't mention the name of the shop. They installed my 15% supercharger pulley (with a new $40 belt) and short shifter a little more than a month ago. Though their prices were a little high, they are Mini specialists and so didn't need the car for more than a few hours in the afternoon. I chose to have the pros do it because I didn't want to get stuck with an unyielding pulley, which is the same reason I too the Mini there today, as well as not having to rent another car.

So while I could have DIY'd this (in hindsight) it would have taken a few days to get the part and tools, having to rent a car, plus actually having to do the repair myself. Was that worth the extra $400? Yeah, probably...

Now offer me some SYMPATHY, dammit!

 

I don't think a labor charge of $180 is that unreasonable. One of our regular vendors charges $150 to do it at the Dragon, with less overhead than a bricks-and-mortar shop.

 

I know, I know... I'm just grousing to get this off my chest. And I can't make a huge argument over either charge. But $180 for far less than an hours' labor? And, seriously, $180/hr labor charges in the first place? We've gone mad...

I'm not saying it's not done, the $180/hr. I'm saying it's ridiculous, and we, the consumers, need to do a little pushing back now and then. Shops do this; they charge $X for a given procedure, knowing they can charge a minimum hour of labor for just about anything, also knowing very well how easy it is for them but they get their $180 no matter what; they give repair hourly estimates that they know are ridiculous and can do said repair in half the time... but we pay in full for it, not the time they actually took doing the repair; they buy parts at wholesale prices (completely understandable) and then charge far more than retail on our bill. Like $40 for a drive belt that should retail for $25, and they probably bought wholesale for $15.

Mini Coopers aren't Porsches, and they're barely BMWs. $180/hr for labor is absurd.

 

30 mins is very quick considering half of them don't want to come off.

 

Have you called a plumber lately? $180/hr starts to sound cheap!

 

There's an old joke about plumbers, and it's absolutely applicable to mechanics. It goes something like this:



A woman has a clogged pipe under her sink, tries the plunger, Liquid Plumr... nothing works. She breaks down and calls an actual plumber.

Plumber shows up, gets under the sink, looks around with his flashlight, sniffs the pipes, puts his ear up against the P-trap (like "The Pipe Whisperer") and finally takes out his pipe wrench and smacks the upper-end of the P-trap. A little gurgling and the water runs out of the sink and down the now-unclogged drain. He's been at her house for around ten minutes.

The woman is astounded, "You're amazing! How much do I owe you?" she asks. "$250.00, Ma'am," he replies. She's outraged! "Two hundred and fifty dollars for smacking my pipe with a wrench? You've only been here for ten minutes! How do you justify that!!!?" Plumber calmly replies, "Well Ma'am, it's only fifty dollars for hitting the pipe. The other two hundred dollars is for knowing where to hit the pipe."

And so it goes...

 

Yeah the job could be done quicker, and yeah it's a lot out of pocket when it's something you know you could have done yourself.

But most people can't work on cars and don't own any automotive tools, and have no mechanical knowledge.

You are mostly paying for what they know. On top of you aren't paying that specific guy that worked on your car. You're paying the shop for the job they did.

The shop needs to cover the employees hourly wage, plus insurance for working on things that can hurt you if you aren't careful. Plus insurance to cover additional repairs if something goes wrong on the shops end and they mess up your car, plus rags and any other supplies used during the particular job, ect..... it's expensive to run a business.

500-600 for a job that requires a specific tool to get the belt off and they had the part in Stock and didn't leave you waiting a few days is a really good price.

 

I really should change mine after reading this.

02 r53 with 110k and original pulley...

 

The required specialty tools to do the job yourself would cost you nearly $200, plus parts and having the space to do the job. Either way you would've broken even, (unless you rented the tools from us).

We've been replacing crank pulleys left and right this year, so many as of late that we ran out of ATI 2% dampers for a few days.

 

Filmy, this is bizarre!! Our MINIs are like, on the same PMS schedule!

I just picked up a used OEM unit after noticing mine was cracked to hell, replacing it tomorrow!

Sorry about the cost of install though. I totally agree that it's ridiculous how expensive maintaining these cars is.

 

Mine broke not that long ago, too.
I own the belt tool, and rented a tool from auto zone.
Thinking it was the TMAP/MAP sensors, or a failing bypass valve, (based on codes), I swapped all those parts from a know, non-issue MINI. Turned out, the Bentley Manual says crank pulley.
Mechanically, it wasn't too difficult, but it's always good to have a second set of eyes. I can read a book, but may not have the experience to see something out of the ordinary.
Actual work took less than an hour.

 

I don't know that I'd go "used" on the crank pulley. Aside from the heat and miles on it, getting it pulled off the other crank could potentially damage it or at least weaken or crack the rubber.

And yeah, you should probably just stop talking to me. Your comments are giving my Mini some kind of virus.

 

I love the value added pricing. This job equals this... that job equals that amount.

If you dont have the tools, then you probably broke even and this way you get the car back and its ready to go.

Its not that hard or doesnt take that long to swap one out.

Did you get the front main seal replaced when they did the work?

Im surprised that you got over 100k mile on the pulley. Honestly... at around 90k, I was swapping on my third crank pulley and went ATI. Life expectancy was about 45k miles on each of my OEM pulleys.

 

All in all, I paid them $600 for just over $200 in parts (and that's retail, not what they paid for them, but part of the $600 is sales tax so it evens out), so they netted around $400 for half an hour's work. Yes they have overhead, etc. It's not that I'm pissed, but I do think that's egregious. I started this thread mostly for ranting about that and venting my frustrations about auto repair shops in general.

As I said above, the reason(s) I opted to have it done is that #1) time of the car off the road, and #2) not sure how easily the pulley would come off at home in my parking lot. In hindsight, the thing came off easily (they had a "special tool" and an air gun and the belt tool, etc) so yes, I probably would not have had a problem with it; I could have borrowed a correct puller from AutoZone; I would still need the belt tool... Yeah, I know, there's a reason these places invest in all of the tools.

Until you mentioned it, I didn't even consider doing the front seal (in the heat of the moment). I don't think that was included, but I'll call and ask if they do it as part of the R&R. I would think he would have asked me if I wanted it done while he was in there (upselling, and all that) and I surely would have agreed to it.

 

Yes you should. I replaced mine with a cosmetically damaged ATI directly from ATI. You should call them to see if any are available. I could not find the blemish on mine and it is well worth the money even if you have to pay retail.

I'd also change the belt and tensioner while I was in there for some extra insurance.

///Rich

 

Thanks for the tip Rich!
I did change the belt and tensioner 2 years ago though.


As far as garages go, you knew if you took it to a shop it would be expensive. Sounds like you need to have your car running so it's not like really had a choice. Would have been nice to get an ati pulley instead of the crap oem one though :(

I think the price you paid was actually pretty fair though. Every shop marks up the price of parts. It's part of their income, and to think they wouldn't is just naive.

A Ferrari mechanic I talk to frequently absolutely hates it if someone brings in their own parts because he can't make any money off of it. A lot of shops refuse to install your parts for that very reason, they'll claim they just can't trust your part though lol.

Im not trying to defend that, or the ridiculous $180 an hour, but it's to be expected no matter where you take your car.

Special tools are not really required. A pry bar works great to get the belt off. An air impact is nice to have, but a breaker bar works just fine. Put the car in gear, have someone step on the brakes, or block the tires, and yank on the bar. For a real hillbilly technique, put your bar and socket on the bolt, make sure its wedged against the ground going in the right direction, and hit the starter

People have had issues getting the pulley off using the puller incorrectly, but I think most people can easily do it. As mentioned they are free at your local parts store.

 

Do you think that could be because you drive your MINI hard (like a MINI should be driven)? My crank pulley is most likely still factory at 114k miles (no replacements were done in the last 80k miles of full service history). I've been thrashing on mine, though, so I don't expect it to last much longer.

There are two hypotheses I have about mine surviving so long:

1. The previous owner pussyfooted his MINI around outside of boost.
2. The car originally live in Lousiana, and therefore was not exposed to any 110-120 degree days for years.

I personally think theory 1 is more accurate, the previous owner is my boss and I've ridden in the MINI with him driving. Can confirm, gutless driver, did not even know it had a supercharger.

 

Yeah....I spent my last week's lunch money on a used pulley after getting freaked out by that thread I made about driving on a slightly cracking pulley...and then went in this weekend to take mine off and they looked the same. I realized I skipped lunch for a week for a duplicate-also-still-functioning piece of rubber. I really should've trusted the opinion of 370k miles...*sigh*

By the way, the belt tool is an extremely useful tool to have. Hate to undercut our wonderful vendors, but everyone charges way too much for this essential tool, IMHO.

Fortunately, the internet is full of wonderful resources for getting stuff cheap. I actually bought this one myself, and it works perfectly. They even include a super convenient-to-use pin for the tensioner so you don't have to use a janky allen key like ModMINI does. Get it.

It's $30, and it lets you do the following in minutes (and probably more):

• Oil Pan Gasket
• Alternator Replacements
• Supercharger Pulleys
• A/C Delete (or replacement)
• Crank Pulleys

Best $30 I've ever spent. Having a clean driveway after leaving the car parked for a week gives me the biggest smile.

 

Oh, I know the affordable tools are out there. But see, I also opted to have my 15% pulley installed by the same guy(s) (and new belt, and new tensioner...) I brought them the new parts (the correct belt I brought was too large, in their opinion, so an additional $40 for a new belt...) and they installed them in one afternoon for what I considered a fair price. In hindsight, if I had known I'd be R&Ring the crank pulley, I would have invested in the belt and pulley tools and would have DIY'd all of it. As it is, I'm putting off doing the remaining bushings and ball joints because it's friggin' hot out there and I have no shade in the parking lot. The crank pulley failure was an immediate/emergency thing, not a "parts refreshing" thing so I was forced to "pay the man."

I also have to be very careful with my hands, as I'm on camera (and auditioning) a lot - which is an additional consideration when deciding on automotive DIY projects. I can't afford to lose a two-thousand-dollar job because I wanted to save $200 on car repairs and busted a knuckle.

 

Sorry you got soaked. My local youropeeun car guy quoted me about $700 for the same job. It wasn't an emergency tho. I bought a new pulley, seal, belt tool (although the r50 doesn't need it) and a nice impact driver for a lot less. Plus, now I have tools to play with!

There's quite a few known issues for the new mk1. Iirc, there's a thread around here somewhere. Or have your guy give you a list of stuff that needs to be handled, DIY what you can, and have them do the rest.

 

That reminded me of the Seinfeld hand model episode.

 

George with the iron? Yeah, the daily struggle is real.

 

Sorry couldn't resist! Yeah, I can understand being careful with your money makers!

 

I swear these crank pulleys are dialed in to explode at 100K +/- 5k miles. Mine went at right around 100k and it was a pretty straight forward job with the loan puller from Autozone. I still don't have the belt tool, but was able to fabricate my own with some ingenuity.

 

I just changed the original pulley on my 03 and it had around 150k on it. It hadn't failed yet but certainly looked like it was close.