Getting your vehicle serviced by an independent garage will not void your warranty or limit MINI's liability. Certainly you may have a different warranty on the work and parts provided by the independent garage, but most places will do just as good as BMW/MINI on the work they provide. Given that changing a clutch is labor intensive, why pay the BMW labor rate? It can get quite ridiculous. Shop around and find a good garage. Your wallet will be happier and you'll likely find a better shop than the dealer (at least that's been my experience).

 

Are they going to help you?

 

Finally heard back from MINI today and they're not gonna help me out at all. They're rational is that since the car is no longer under warranty they're no longer liable. Not much else I can do so I'll just have to suck it up and pay... Open to some suggestions if you guys have them tho. Still it's tough to swallow that a car with under 60K would have a timing chain probem like this.

 

No point paying the dealer to do the work then. Look elsewhere for a more reasonable labor rate. Usually you can find a good independent BMW shop that would love your business and will be cheaper too. No point paying MINI to fix something that shouldn't be a problem.