and the facts are that there is a statistically large percentage (at least 1/10th of a percent) of the R56 Ss that have a cold start issue. It's also true that the midlands 5 speed was a grenade waiting for it's pin to be pulled, that many more than should be expected CVT trannies had thier belt snapped, that the hoods of many of the turbo cars got way too hot (and there was even reprogamming of the ECU to run the radiator fan for a longer time to help with this issue). There were also many a supercharger that had it's rear water pump drive gears self destruct, all at levels higher than one would expect from a modern car. So much so that I'd sell my Mini, no, but enough that an informed buyer should know about them, as they are real risks that have the potential to increase the cost of ownership. Signifacanlty in some, if not many cases.

By saying that all that is posted in forums is negative so ignore the message is just as wrong as saying that there's been one problem so run for the hills, the sky is falling! While this is surely beating a dead horse into hamburger (horseburger?) it is TRUE that there were over a dozen Minis that spontaniously combusted (just read the NTHSA complaints and investigations site to see that I'm not making this up) and those are only the ones reported. It is true that here alone there are at least 20 new R56 S owners that are having start up issues. It's also true that these very same issues are being reported in other cars that use the Prince engine in Europe. Don't hide from the fact that the Mini, in fact all car marques, isn't perfect. Acceptable? That's up to the buyer. Some of the issues that the Mini has are worrisome, that's for sure.

Matt

 

That was not what I originally posted. Read the paragraph I referred to. Yes, the MINI has warts--all years and all models--but I don't consider them to be so ridden with problems that they shouldn't be purchased.

I wouldn't have bought one if I'd agreed. And I doubt you would have, either.

 

is "very". And it's subjective. In a forum dedicated to another car brand.

Matt

 

I feel compelled to note that some R56s are Coopers and they do not exhibit the same problems.

 

I think I read about one Cooper that did it, but I'd have to spend a bunch of time searching to make sure....

Matt

 

Not worth it as it's not that prevalent. My only point is that discussions of R56 generally do not differentiate and can be confusing, but this is simply a terminology problem as first gen cars had seperate model #s and second gen do not, even though the engines/issues are quite different.

 

excuse me... when did i say that we should ignore what problems people are having????? i never said that. what i said was that just because a percentage of people have a problem with a car doesnt mean that everyone should start complaining and say that the car is a piece of junk. the different issues people are having obviously depends on the climate and conditions your car is in. i can say we dont have cold start issues with either of our minis because i live in Miami. i am aware that all cars are not perfect so please dont insult my intelligence . i also did research before i purchased this car.

 

Lol, took at look at that and I can't understand how you call anything in that thread 'trashing' the marque much less make it sound like the site/ a whole group of people are laying into the Mini. What someone says when they are clearly in a pickle and upset and venting should be viewed in context - he was basically warning people to 'beware', which is understandable given his predicament. I think one other guy said that his friend had the same thing happen.

The SCOA site and people who make it up are not hating on the Mini, many are actually Mini owners who love the car and say so.

Sorry I think you've blown it out of proportion a bit.

 

any updates for us windpower?

still doesn't make much sense..... doesn't ad up.
i'm an attorney, thats why i ask.

 

any updates for us windpower?
i'm an attorney thats why i ask, and it sounds so fishy?

 

I have read all 4 pages of this issue. Someone should be posting the actual results of the ECU review and the disassembly of the engine to find the cause. Bitching and moaning here isn't the answer.

"No blame until all the facts are in." Elliot Spitzer

 

I personally believe he did miss the shift and is trying to make BMW fork over a new engine or even car for his mistake.

On my previous car, Had a very loud grinding noise from the transmission or every gear. Took it to the dealer, they wanted to charge me for a whole new clutch assembly. Car had only powertrain warranty valid at the time. I obviously knew it was not the clutch so I took it to my family mechanic, who took the tranny out, took the trasmission to the dealer and demanded htey fix the problem.

Week later, new transmission, got rid of the car (Bought the MINI)

Bottom line is, Tell them to give you your damn car. Either take it to an independent mechanic to check it out, or another dealer and go from there.

Stop trying to intimidate the dealer with your ''attorney'' and get 2nd, 3rd opinions.

It's really sad that an attorney needs to pretty much help you communicate with your dealer. But I guess that's how this society works.

 

that with so few dealers, they can act very poorly to the customers and the customer has little recourse. What choice does one have? Large markets have a couple dealers, small one or none. There are only 104 in the whole US, I think.

Matt

 

Oy... I've NEVER seen any proof that this can be done. What the ECU stores is for short term calculation purposes only, there is no black box in your car... Th expense of equipment (Not to mention the space required) to store hundreds of MB of fuel trims, RPM data, and throttle positions in the off chance that it happens to catch an issue is just silly .

The R56 just has a generic OBDII compliant ECU, no complex computer systems that record the name of your first born and all that, when something brakes, 9/10 they get some generic message that barely helps.

There's a lot of misinformation being spread in this thread, and blame, lets wait to see what happens?

FYI, there's no "Inter-Dealer" computer network that I'm aware of that would enable the dealer to "Red Flag" your car. One dealer 60 miles away would probably never have a clue that you ever took your car in unless they happened to attempt to process a warranty claim on your car, and BMW came back and said no.

 

If you're in 5th gear at 7k RPM's trying to shift to 3rd, but miss it, and hit 1st, how on earth would your ECU compensate for anything? All the ECU does is cut spark when you get to the rev limit. Cutting spark won't do anything when the engine is mechanically connected to the road which is trying to spin it (Because of gearing) at 14k RPM's. A Ferrari would blow at 14k RPM's, there's no saving a shift like that once the clutch is fully out, doesn't matter how advanced your ECU is.

A "Rev Limit" is nothing more than the ECU telling the engine to stop accelerating itself. In the case of a mis-shift, the engine isn't accelerating (In most cases your foot isn't even on the gas) it's the road that's accelerating the engine FOR you.

 

ok shifting into 1st gear is pretty hard when you are going at speed near 80mph. It isn't as easy shifting it into 3rd. So how can you miss shift into 1st gear without even knowing it is the wrong gear?

 

with BiM-COM I see the load and RPM of the motor when codes are stored. If I weren't in the middle of a brain fa.... Ahhhh, it ended, it's called freeze frame data. It doesn't take much space to store peak values... But I don't know what's stored for a fact other than the OBD values.

Matt

ps, I just looked through the basic and advanced Mini Technical Training Manuals and there's no mention of what data is or isn't stored in the ECU. Not that this means anything. These are introductory manuals used to teach techs about the cars the systems and the diagnostics tools. I don't have the manuals for the diagnostic tools.

 

Welp, they did it on one of our BMWs, they had to send out the DME but I assure you the info about revs is stored and available to them if they want (assuming they have set up Minis the same way, which I *think* they have) {edit} Minis do seem to have the DME downloads, saw it come up when I did a search.

As for communications between dealers, I don't know how it is done or the details of the network, but I do know they can cancel the warranty coverage everywhere and somehow flag the car/VIN for that.

 

What does the octane rating of your gas have to do with sprung valves? If you put 80 octane in your car it'd probably just run rough with significantly retarded engine timing, it's not going to spring valvesprings .

 

It was an example, and it's NOT hard to do if you're driving agressively. I agree, if you're meandering along at 30 MPH down the street taking 4 seconds between shifts you're likely to notice the wrong gear.

When you're blasting down the main straight at 130 MPH in 5th, threshold braking into the first corner, it's rather easy to accidently throw it 2 slots over instead of 1 (Especially since with a short shift kit it's barely even 1/4 of an inch over into 2nd from 4th).

On the track (Hell on the street sometimes) my shifts usually take less than 1/2 a second. I don't even take my foot off the gas pedal most of the time, I just lift slightly and simultaneously shift to the next gear while the clutch is going down. By the time my foot is letting off the clutch I'm already on the gas and my shifting hand is back on the steering wheel.

It can be done, LOTS of people do it . Google "Money-Shift" and see how many hundreds of thousands of topics come up .

 

Given the data I'm aware of about the Siemens ECU's on the R53, I can't see where the data could be written for any extended period of time. Perhaps info about a DTC, but overall full time data logging?

 

Can't speak about the R56, but on my GTI, I can go in with VAG-COM and see all the details that I want about when the CEL occurred...it includes speed, RPM, boost, temp, date, time etc. It's mind boggling how much info is stored when an error occurs.

 

just peak values. Like highest temp, highest RPM, highest speed, whatever. It doesn't take much memory space to store those values along with ODO, load etc. What the last poster was talking about is the freeze frame data (I think this is called Mode 6 information in OBD-II speak). Issue is here an over rev isn't an OBD-II event that throws a code.

Matt

 

Exactly...

Something smells here. The OP says he didn't money shift, no reason not to believe him, but then it sounds like the dealer is just being retarded...

Has the OP contacted MINI Directly? There's no mentioning of that. You'd be surprised what a simple call to MINI can do. The dealers are independently owned and operated. Just because one says no warranty doesn't mean they all will, and MINI has the last word, NOT the dealership.

 

I contacted ross-tech about bim-com and they told me it doesn't exist, or something like that. Maybe there was a beta version.

It does sound like a broken timing belt in a VW. Very sad story for a very new car. I can see being leery of accepting a new engine-it's a nearly brand-new car. I hope the story has a happy ending.