My eighteen year old son saw a listing for a 2008 Clubbie S on the intertubes that is asking a tick under $5K with 48K on the clock. It is a repo with a supposedly clean title that the dealer says will turn over, but not start. They are selling it as is.

In the pictures, there is nothing obviously an issue either with the exterior or the engine compartment, although the air intake tube is not connected to the intake chamber cover and the coolant overflow tank is missing the cap. The exterior finish appears to be in good shape, but I can't really tell the condition of the interior from the pictures. The VIN shows the "smoker's package" and there are items in the cup holders next to the manual trans shifter that I cannot identify. The floor mats appear to be kinda ratty, so the prior owner may not have taken the best care of it.

The car is about a 4 hours drive away, so before making that kind of drive to check it out, I would like to have a good idea what areas I should focus on when giving it a look over. I would definitely want to pull the codes from the ECU, which would hopefully paint the full picture. Would it be worth picking up an inspection camera? What sort thing would I visually look for?

It could be that it is the HPFP shot and I could get it replaced at the dealer under the warranty extension or it could be that the prior owner had the death rattle and didn't do anything to fix it. From reading these forums, these are two possibilities that came to my mind. I also have the fear that it could be something else that would be much more expensive to rectify.

This would be a project car that my son and I work together on. It would also be a good learning experience for me to gain a deeper knowledge of my car.

Should I let this pass or take a drive to check it over?

Thanks.

 

How much would it be worth if it was a running car? Scary that the dealer can't get it started, I guess it all depends on your skill level. Could be a fun learning project, go in with a low price.

 

The Kelly Blue Book puts it at $9,100 and the range of listings for sale seems to be around 8 - 11K.

I feel that I have decent basic mechanical skills that with a lot of research and the right tools, I could handle a decent amount of the work. If it comes to anything electrical or ECU, then I would probably need a fair bit of assistance with that.

I do have the Bentley manual. I gained a lot of my skills from working on Audi/VW products back when I was a teen. The technology was a lot different back in those days also... fuel injection was just starting to become the norm.

This dealer handles mostly wrecked vehicles. I do find it strange that he wouldn't have at least pulled the codes to have a sense of what needs to be done to it. I plan on giving the guy a call and at least getting a sense for the dealer.

 

You seem to be pretty technically inclined. I think the idea of it being a project to work on with your son is great. It'll teach him a lot of useful skills for the future so that he too can be DIY savvy. That being said, I'd really check over everything, especially since you said it seems as if the previous owner didn't take good care of it. Do you know what maintenance the previous owner did on the vehicle? The more information you can get about it, the better. That way you know what you're in for ahead of time and can see if it's worth the cost to repair. I think checking the codes present in the system is a good start. I'd check over spark and fuel items as well.

 

Worth a shot, but I would get a local inspection or it you can get it up on the rack to see whats going on, could be a the HPFP or timing chain, you would have to listen to the engine on the passenger side and listen for the HPFP to prime before you start the car, happenes right when you unlock the doors ready to get in. Or it could be a bad battery, bad coils , etc. Good luck and let me know what you find out, if you need parts , I am your person.

 

So, I just spoke with the dealer and he said that they had taken the valve cover off of it and saw that the upper timing chain guides were broken and that there was a rocker arm loose.

I should think MINI would cover the timing chain replacement in light of the recent class action suit, but the I'm not sure whether the loose rocker is something of concern.

How would I best approach MINI about the timing chain? Call MINI USA? Take it to a local dealership and see if I can convince them to take care of it?

Part of the calculation here is my total outlay to get the car back on the road. It may be worth it to replace the timing chain with my son, if the loose rocker arm is not indicative of further damage. Is it common for a chain to go and do something to a rocker? Would continued attempts to turn the car over cause more damage?

Thanks.

 

Call local dealer , ask them if the chain TSB has been done with VIN, it was certain models from 2007-2010 N14 engine. Ask if it can be done, since the engine has the chain broken already and engine damage is there they might not even want to touch it and it might be hard to claim. Worth a shot but its a tough one since its been through a sale couple owner's. The one guy on here works for a dealer there you can pm him. If it does go wrong down that road i can get you the parts but it will be a task with the engine damage and how severe.

This guy thinks works for them ? With the body dip F56 grumblebee

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ller-work.html

 

You're rolling the dice for that price.

You have no idea what could be wrong with the car. Where has the car been? Flooded or half flooded cars are electrical nightmares. Could be costly but an easy fix if it's something mechanical. You could wind up with a calculated investment or a pile of junk.

 

Any update ?

 

I am still trying to work through whether it is worth driving the 4 hours to have a look at it. The concern I have is with the "loose rocker arm" (as described by the dealer), whether this is indicative of a need for a new engine or not.

I imagine that the loose rocker arm may have been caused by what happened to the timing chain. If it is a matter of re-tightening or replacing the rocker arm, I'd be fine with that. But if it caused valve/piston damage, that is something that I prefer not to get into for the time/cash investment it would take to fix. For a $5K car and another $5 - 7K on top of that to get it running, there are similar ones out there that don't have this issue for similar cash.

The more I think about it, the more I'd like to have a project with my son to teach him a few things and have a great little car at the end of it. The dealer said that it appears to have been pretty well taken care of (besides letting the engine blow up ). If my son could have a car that we are pretty confident in after dropping a few $K on after the purchase price, that would be great.

I posted in the stock problems/issues forum with a more pointed question about how to determine if the "loose rocker arm" is an engine killer. The only response so far is to do a visual inspection and compression test. I would think that a compression test would tell me a lot about the cylinders that don't have rocker arm issues, but wouldn't be a clear indication on the one with the loose rocker arm as it would not be opening/closing the valve the way it was designed to whether there is damage to the valve or not. Am I wrong in this line of thinking?

I guess the question I really need to answer before taking a half day's road trip to look at it is: what is the likely hood that the "loose rocker arm" is an indication that this car will need a new engine? If I do take the drive, how can I determine if the valve stem is bent since the pictures that I've found of the valve parts seems to show the stem in the middle of a spring and would be difficult to see the shape of the stem ( I pulled the oil cap off mine to have a look inside and from the limited view I had on mine, it seemed to me that this determination may be difficult)

If it is "more probable than not" that the engine is shot, then I will continue the search elsewhere and leave this one to someone who is much more experienced with them that I am.

 

Sounds like you have a plan. Its going to have to be looked over on the engine more for sure on the gamble. Based off what you stated there is allot of if'd and without personally looking at it and the chain its a shot in the dark. Good luck and hope you can at least look at it.

 

Well... it looks like this one may not be the one for us. I sent the dealer an email to clarify some of the things he told me and haven't had a response in about 2 days. Also, left him a voicemail and haven't had a return call. If he can't bother to respond, I'm not going to chase him down to give him my money.

Thinking back on what he had said, it seems to me that there is a higher probability that there is damage to the valves/pistons. We are going to be up near the dealer in a few weeks, so I may have a look at it out of curiosity if it is still there.

Thanks to everyone for all their responses.

 

^Yep, I think that's a good choice. I love that you're doing this project with your son. It's on my bucket list for when my boys are older. I would suggest looking at a 2005 or 2006 MINI Cooper S as a starting point. There'll be plenty of niggly little things to sort out, but you won't have a level three dumpster fire like you could with an early R56. Good luck!

 

My son really wants a Clubbie, so that leaves us in the '08 forward range. I'm going to keep my eyes open for one with an N18 in it. The more I thought about it, the more the dumpster fire vision came to mind, especially as the '08 was a new redesign. All I could think about was a stream of cash coming out my wallet to fuel that fire.

Are you son's old enough to turn a wrench? I wish I had started with my son much earlier.

 

They're getting some of the basics down

 

Welcome , good luck on the search.

 

If you want something to learn on with your son you could buy an older well taken care of high mileage jeep. like a liberty. The V6s are pretty much bullet proof, engine and tranny wise and so incredibly easy to take apart etc. Parts are really reasonable and a bunch of them always turn up at junk yards. You wouldn't necessarily loose your *** in the project $$wise but can still teach them the ins and out of basic engine maintenence. If you could turn it into an off roader or first vehicle for them etc..