Hey folks,

Sorry for this actually having to be my FIRST post here, but I would love to hear other opinions.

In January, my GF and I traded in her Subaru 2.5RS Impreza for an 08 MCS. We love the car, but are really quite concerned right now about it since it hasn't been 2 full months and we've seen problems.

First, our dome light hasn't worked since day 1. I checked the bulb, I checked the housing for it and realized it was all fine, so it was a deeper problem. No big deal, just a dome light...

Next, HID lighting. The drivers side headlamp started to flicker as it turned on - only on cold days. Found out the bulb was $120, or the ballast ($600+) could be the problem. Well, since it wasn't officially OUT, I figured before I put down any diagnostic $ at it, it better just not be working!

Fine. No prob. On Friday morning, my GF sends me a text - The car has no working gauges. All the electronics in the car weren't working, but the radio 'started to work' after a bit of driving.... She said it had plenty of power, no different than usual.

I did some research and found people (on here) that stated that this could absolutely be the battery, as they do really funky things when the battery is low/dying... I was pretty excited, thinking it might still have the stock battery. I swapped cars with her in the afternoon and as soon as I got in her car, I smelled the burning electronics...

Well, that's not good. Checked battery - 12.68volts while not running. That's plenty. Car cranks FAST as usual, but it was cranking for perhaps, 1-2 seconds longer than it's ever done it.

I pulled some codes from it, and it's all wacky stuff that I can't find anywhere, or could cross from bmw lists for things like outside air temp out of range, etc... I did notice with an obd2 scanner it claimed outside it was -40 degrees... Funny, my sweatshirt was plenty warm that day...

So, after seeing the battery was ok and has been replaced (not an exide), and the burning electronics - I didn't want to poke at it any further. Just for laughs, I had my GF call the mini roadside support - with some awesome news, we found out it's still under warranty, for 3 months.

The mini extended motoring warranty stuff sounds like -if- we were still eligible, it'd be $3.5k+ and that might give us 2 years of safety.

The car only has 38k miles on it. We've not even gotten to give it an oil change yet. People with 07s may have some decent higher mileage on their cars - What has your experience been? Is it a money pit once out of warranty? She certainly can't afford that, nor did I expect it to be this bad, being a product from BMW...

What would YOU do?

Thanks in advance,

Dave

 

Thank goodness it's still under warranty. Get the local stealership to thoroughly go through it before deciding your next move. Could be one central cause that once fixed, you might get some peace of mind. Definitely get that HID fixed - don't let them tell you that it's fine then have it go out in 4 months. Good luck!

 

I would get rid of this car....

 

By comparison, my 2004 MCS went 8 years, and 115K miles, before the first bulb burned out.

 

My 2008 hasn't had any repairs in the last 2 yrs/50k miles since being out of warranty. Did have a couple repairs under the original factory warranty. In another thread I was able to compile some user data to determine repair costs were running about 1.5 cents per mile.

That said, I bought mine new, so I didn't have to deal with the unknowns of buying a used vehicle.

I'd wait to see what MINI finds when they check it over before making a decision.

 

That's what I would do as well. Once you get the trouble report back from Mini you can make a judgement call. If you are eligible for the extended warranty and it does not cost an arm and a leg and you decide to keep the car I would buy the warranty.

 

I would only buy the extended warranty if you plan to drive it daily and put on a fair amount of miles each year; otherwise its a total waste of money.

 

Well, I'll keep you guys posted! Hopefully speaking with the dealer this morning!

Thanks,

Dave

 

The wacky codes and odd behavior could still be from the battery. Low voltage sure sounds like the culprit. With all due consideration for internet troubleshooting aside. Got a couple of suggestions.
Make sure they load checked the battery. A battery can static check good, and crater under load. I haven't heard of anyone complaining about a starter dragging with a low battery, so I assume by the time a battery could get that bad on a Mini the Mini would be freaking out all over the place.
Double check the connections on the battery. It's been replaced so they could be loose. Maybe just enough to be erratic.
At the least these two suggestions shouldn't cost anything and might even catch the bad guy. Hope it turns up simple.
(There is no smiley for fingers crossed)

 

If you smelled something burning you'd better find out if the aux water pump electronics are fried. There is a recall you know. I'm sure your 08 is included.
Also, there is another post somewhere where the OP replaced the battery and the car was still doing weird things. Ended up being the ground strap was lose.
Whenever you have multiple electric issues, connections are a good source of the problem.
I think once you get the little quirks taken care of, you're going to love the car. Most likely the previous owner wasn't real diligent in upkeep.
Might also throw out, have dealer pull the work/warranty records and give you a copy.
Timing chain issue on these and leaking thermostats are fairly common.
Good Luck