OK, so I had a 2006 JCW and loved the thing. Never had any mechanical issues and put well over 150K miles on it without changing anything but the normal preventative maintenance. I ended up selling it and getting a larger car due to us having another boy.

Well, he's 4 now and the wifey decided to let me buy another Mini. I have been looking the past couple of weeks and came across an R53 at a local Toyota dealer.. a 05 S in absolutely amazing condition inside and out for $3,500 but has 165K miles on it. It has a spotless carfax, but no mention of supercharger replace/rebuild.

Short history of car:
Purchased in Cincy, Ohio.
Moved to Oregon (assuming this is why high miles - so hoping they are highway miles)
Driver Window Regular replaced at 6,600 miles (known issue)
Clutch replaced at 31k miles (known issue)
Stabilizer Bar replaced at 31k miles (not sure about this?)
Computer Module replaced at 46k miles (not sure about this. They had the old one reprogrammed a couple of times and did not fix whatever issue it had)
Valve cover gasket replaced at 90k miles
ABS sensors replaced at 90k miles
at 163k miles, it looks like the owner took it to the local BMW dealer to have a maintenance inspection completed and had no work completed. 2 months later he traded it in to the Toyota dealer and here we are at 165k miles.

I need everyone's opinion on this. How has this car gone 165k miles without any supercharger or water pump rework/replacement? Should I sit here worrying about that or should I test drive it and look for oil leaking around the SC and listen for rattling? If I don't hear rattling or see the leaking, is this a good buy? Thanks guys so much for anything you have to offer!


Here's the car: https://www.kingstoyota.com/used/MIN...urce=cars.com#

Cheers!

 

My 2004 R53 has 162K miles. I am its only owner. My original supercharger was defective and replaced early on. But after that I never had any problems with the supercharger or water pump. I have attended to both recently simply as preventive maintenance.

 

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm not afraid to take it out and flush the oil. It would be a secondary 'fun' car. I would much rather do that then have to plan on $1500+ for a replacement SC, which in turn probably means new water pump too.

I guess here's a question I'm hoping isn't too dumb? Is there a way they can temporarily mask SC rattling if I take this for a test drive by using thicker oil, etc?

 

The car being for sale at a stealership not withstanding, this one right here plus the high mileage would steer me clear of this car. Unless you have, or know people with, the correct reprogramming software and hardware experience to sort this one out (thinking ISTA+ here) you may fighting this one for some time in a variety of different, presently hidden manifestations. There are other cars out there in the same or similar price range from private sellers.

 

I bought mine from Kerry Toyota down in Florence. It sat on their lot for a couple of months, and they had dropped the price on it a few times. Took it out and everything seemed ok, ran great, only light at that time was TPMS, which they said could be just the sensors 137,000 on the odometer. 5 days after i bought it the coolant tank split apart at the seems, 2 weeks in p0420 code that comes and goes when it wants. 3rd week was the clutch and at this time i had my mechanic look things over with a fine tooth comb, 139,000 on the odometer now, he said everything else looked good, we had up on lift, no rust, brakes looked good, over all solid car. Now im at around 144,000, getting ready for a 2nd oil change. Slowly adding mods and driving the snot out of it. So far this year it has made 2 trips down to the tail of the dragon and once down all 63 miles of oh 555. They are such a blast to drive, just be prepared for the upkeep, 4 months in and im at about $3200 in mods and maintenance. Welcome from Anderson by the way, what part of cincy are you?

 

I appreciate the responses from everyone. I'm not prepared to put so much work into the car right off the bat. I might just wait and buy something newer. I just hate turbo lag.. with a passion.

 

what lag? This thing rips and is pretty much in boost as soon as you step on the gas. If you want to take my non JCW MCS out for a spin, i am more than willing to let you. If you look at the one you posted just make sure you and someone you trust mechanically look it over, and when test driving i drive them hard, i want to see how it feels in all conditions if possible, stop and go, at 100, braking, play with all the buttons, open compartments, etc. Besides the stupid clutch and coolant tank, my mini was clean, all i have found from any of the previous owners was a pen and a popsicle stick, that is it.
https://dayton.craigslist.org/cto/d/...098943440.html - if you are looking for something newer, i might have been holding on to this one for a reason.

 

Do you have a local independent MINI mechanic that can do a detailed look for you?

With those miles, I'd be planning to do a pretty extensive workover once I bought it. My 06 with <80k on it went straight to the shop. I had my clutch replaced, and spent quite a bit on "while you're at it" work to address all the known potential weak points/failures. I also redid the suspension. If there's no record of the dampers being replaced, you'll at least need to do those.

Depending on how much DIY you're willing to do, I'd budget $1200-$2000 as part of the purchase price of any 1st Gen S unless it came with EXTENSIVE maintenance records. That said, you can come away with a really dependable, solid car for $6k all in.

There are a lot of options out there; don't fall for the first one.

 

With high mileage cars, if you find a creampuff, you're extraordinarily lucky. Otherwise you should budget for inevitable repairs/updates to bring it to the level where you're comfortable with it.

As others have said, have a MINI specialist do a pre-purchase inspection and when you get there, ask if they could assign the car to their most thorough technician and ask to speak with him after the inspection and with the car on the lift so you can 1) see for yourself what he may or may not be seeing 2) get a feel for how comfortable you are with his attention to detail, integrity and knowledge of the car.

Since the computer module was replaced at 46k miles, might that have been under warranty? If that is the case, a MINI dealer should be able to provide fairly specific details of any repairs done under warranty if you can sweet talk a service writer or technician.