Ok so, forgive me I know little to nothing about cars.. So this maybe a little rough.

I have a 2009 S Clubman with 60,000 miles. I bought it from the dealership with 8,000 miles on it. Since then I have had a couple significant problems with my poor car. I am very good about making sure I maintain it on schedule and I always do whatever they tell me to do when I take him in. Basically I thought I was doing a really good job taking care of my car.

The trouble started a year ago I heard a funny noise and it turned out I needed a new turbo. Luckily I was still under factory warranty so I was able to have it replaced, no problem. I was told I had a bad part and if it happened again the part had a 2 year warranty so not to worry. so I was feeling good until I got the recall notice on the water pump...took care of that.

So 2 weeks ago I start noticing my car sounds weird... Then one morning I start my car and white smoke came out of the tailpipe. So, knowing I'm out of warranty, I take my car to a mechanic I had used to work on my brakes once before. All the while I'm stressing about what could be wrong and he assures me it's nothing "detrimental". Later on I get a call that MINI had released a service notice (or whatever) on the problem I am having and that they could fix it at a lower cost-- however, this does not apply to me because I am 10,000 miles out of warranty. The mechanic tells me that it will be $2000 to repair (guess who doesn't have $2000 cash lying around? This guy.) then he tells me the issue, but of course I'm too emotional to listen to him so I have really no idea what it is. He said that my car absolutely cannot be driven and he doesn't even want to turn it on for fear of the timing chain(?) breaking thus causing something else terrible to happen and costing me more money o fix.

So now I am trying to weigh options in my head about what to do. Trade it in? Pay to repair It then potentially have more issues bigger than this in the future? Go up to the dealership and demand they give me a new one ? I'm still paying on it. I guess I just don't know what to do. Does anyone have similar issues or have any advice for me?

 

Sorry If this is repetitive.. I just saw another post on this issue.. I thought I had skimmed over enough old ones.. But I guess not.

 

I'm guessing, based on your description of the symptoms, that you have a blown head gasket. If this is the case, then you definitely don't want to be driving the car until it's repaired. There are few repairs on these MINI's that are cheap, but $2,000 seems awfully steep for a head gasket replacement.

I'm having a hard time relating a blown head gasket to whatever your mechanic's concern is with the timing chain though... But if the timing chain was to break, it would definitely also be very bad for your engine.

Bottom line: you're going to need to provide additional details about/clarification of the problem before anyone here can provide you with any real advice. Get your mechanic to write out an estimate on what repairs he's recommending, then transcribe that information to this thread.