Blew my turbo getting on the highway the other day :(. Mini is in the shop and should be done soon. They put me in a lazer blue 2011 clubman s which i must say is nice and i have nothing bad to say about it...still miss my mini tho :(

 

Dang....that suuucks. I've been worried about this myself. How many miles on your mcs, and how much 'spirited' driving? I'm almost at 94k, most of which has been in overboost lol, but everything seems to be fine with mine. What are you looking at in repair cost? I think the day mine goes is the day it's time for a K04 upgrade...

 

Wow, 94K miles and as fully modded as your MINI is, you have to feel good. Any major repairs, etc. in that time?

 

@ highlander709:

Yeah, I plan on posting a 100k mile review on the forums once I hit it. It's been a long and very interesting road lol. I've had the timing chain issues everybody with an r56 knows well, had to have the whole assembly replaced twice. I'm currently on my 3rd clutch, the last two went to "evidence of forceful shifting into 2nd and 3rd gears." I'm riding this one out till it goes, at which point I'll be going with a staged setup. I'm on my second brake setup, i.e. replaced rotors and pads all around, but they're about gone as well. I'm on my 3rd set of tires; hated the stock runflats, made the mistake of getting Pirelli Euforia's which were gone after about 10k miles, and now am on a delightful set of BFG G-Force's.

The car's been wrecked twice, (neither of which were my fault) and has had front end damage fully repaired under insurance both times. The first wasn't bad, my friend backed into the left front part of my hood with his tow-hitch, thankfully it didn't hit the turbo. The second was much worse, I t-boned some lady at about 40 mph who decided to pull out in front of me and stop in the middle of the road. I had about 5 feet to avoid her, hit the brakes and locked the e-brake, spun the car enough to only damage the radiator and headlight assembly. Threw her camry onto the sidewalk though, her trunk was pointed straight to the sky

All that aside, there have been relatively few issues. I've come to realize that Mini's are by no means "issue-free" cars, but with my attachment to it, I'll never get rid of it. The more wrench time you put in, the more you learn about the car, and the less you have to shell out for third party repairs.

And if anything, the one thing I've realized is absolutely crucial, unnecessarily often oil changes. The more you check it and change it, the less bigger issues you will run into. I'm changing mine on about a 1500 mile basis.

 

Are you in California by any chance?

 

Im a tad under 80k and i did an auto cross last weekend so i boosted alot then but i really only boost when i need too....sometimes for fun tho haha.

As for repairs they quoted me at 3300 :(

And no im in RI. Opposite ends of the U.S haha

 

did you turn the boost up? or just use the sport mode? i always drive with my sport button on, should i worry about a blow turbo in the future?

 

Sport mode has no effect on boost, or how fast the car goes. It changes steering ratios and throttle sensitivity

I guess if you consider gas pedal position in reference to how much boost the car is getting, then it does have an effect. But I still drive in Sport mode and only hit boost when I'm trying to.

 

I just got my 2007 Mini Cooper S automatic.

What is Boost?
Is it when the turbo charger kicks in?
Can you hear it or feel it?

I just traded in my 2011 Civic SI so I am used to power, but when that V-Tec kicks in the is a noticeable change.

 

Essentially, yes. Boost is measured in psi (pounds per square inch) and can definitely be felt. When exhaust gases start spinning your turbo, the intake side starts pulling in air faster and faster, basically shoving it into the engine. Hence the term "forced induction." The faster the turbo spins, the more psi you build, and the higher boost number. As for hearing it, I don't quite remember the noise of a stock r56, but I imagine you can hear it. More than anything it sounds like air moving really quickly.

Boost is like the bigger, more handsome, richer brother of vtec. You definitely made a good move switching from your si to the mini.

 

Im getting the car back tomorrow!! Btw welcome to the mini world t-bear.

Jordan...stop freaking out haha. Im sure your fine. Though i havent heard of many minis blowing turbos....freak accident??

 

I've had my 2007S with the dealer three days. Took it end because after about an hour of highway driving the warning light would come on for three or four seconds indicating a drop in power. I could certainly feel the reduced tug. And then it would kick back up to normal.

It felt like the Turbo unspooling. Sure enough, the dealer got the word back from Mini that the tests all point to blown bearings on the impeller, causing the fins to scrap on the side of the housing and scrape to a halt before gearing up again. They also found some metal shavings in the intercooler as a result, but not the engine.

The parts and labor estimate is $3,000. The dealer is on the phone with Mini to see if they will help cover it. Ugh. It has 80,000 miles on it.

Four months ago I had an issue with carbon build up on the upper valves, and had to pay for a media blast to deal with that, which was moderately successful in halting the hesitation.

I've also gone through the timing chain issues and a new clutch at 30K. So far I have not had to replace the HPFP, but I'm waiting for that.

Have to say that I'm pretty unhappy overall with the reliability of these cars. I have learned to be diligent about checking oil and topping off. They don't think that was the cause of the turbo failure, but it certainly could be a common cause. I was not always attuned to the fact that the oil can really get cooked down after the car starts to put miles under its belt.

EDIT: One additional thought. It occurred to me that I had the car scheduled to be in with the dealer to take care of a recall on this vehicle. That is the auxiliary water pump. I believe the job of this extra pump is to keep the turbo cool, correct? Any chance that a blown turbo (they said the bearing overheated and failed, but not due to any oil issues) could be caused by a faulty auxiliary pump? And if MINI is saying they are responsible for a badly designed pump, by extension should they be responsible for a blown turbo? I think I read that engine fires were the real concern with a failed auxiliary pump, so maybe I'm fishing here?!

 

@ cschues80:

Congrats! I bet you're excited for that brand new turbo feel...I would be .

@ shaslers:

Definitely. They'll try and fight you on it, but if you can at least close to prove that the bearing fault was caused by overheating, (simply quoting their diagnosis should be sufficient) which was derivative of a bad water pump, that's absolutely under the recall terms. I'd recommend going straight through MINI if you have the time. The dealership will want to avoid covering the whole thing themselves, but I'm sure MINI will back you and give you the 'doctor's note' you need.

And yeah, by no means are the Mini's free of problems. I've had quite the history with mine, but I've found that my love for and attachment to my r56 definitely override the bad days.

And just a friendly tip for everyone, especially if you think something may be wrong with your turbo: every once in a while, let the car cool down completely after sitting, take your intake tube off and manually check the impeller on your turbo. Give it a light spin with your pinky, and you'll definitely know immediately if something's wrong. I'm amazed my little turbo's still alive and kicking, knock on wood.

 

Just an update. Heard from the dealer after they contacted MINI about helping out on the cost of the new turbo. Answer came back no. At nearly 80K miles it is too far beyond the 50K mile warranty I had on the car.

The dealer did offer to drop the repair cost down to $2,400. I can remember when $2400 was the cost to have an entire Ford factory-built 286 engine shipped by rail to drop into my '66 Mustang. *sigh*

I put a call into 1-800-ASK-MINI and suggested that they may want to reconsider helping me if there is going to be any hope of my wife investing in that new Countryman she had looked at a couple months ago. It's true she was looking. But frankly, I've had enough issues with my R56 that I would have to say "no" to any survey that asked if I would recommend a MINI to a friend. They are fun, but not fun enough to justify the poor track record I've experienced.

I'm waiting for the slow process of MINI to "investigate" whether they will support me on this. It's pretty clear the answer is going to be no, from talking to the rep on the phone. Lots of questions about whether I can prove there has been religious oil changes over the last 30,000 miles, blah, blah, blah. They are looking for reasons beyond high-mileage to attach to the No answer that is coming.

Lesson to me: as much as it is fun to drive a MINI, when you are spending $30,000 on transportation choose a brand that still looks at 80,000 as low mileage.

 

I don't think it's the steering ratio that changes, just the amount of boost provided by the electric power steering.

As for the auxiliary water pump, if they can prove that the previous one failed and starved your turbo for coolant, that would certainly help your case. The recall, as I understand it, was due to a tendency for the auxiliary pump electronics to overheat and smolder, with the occasional fire thrown in. You'd probably have noticed that. :-) But if it failed without letting out the smoke, and you can prove that, you may have better luck.

Spridget

 

About the auxillary pump, that was a nice idea but a dead end in terms of the turbo bearings overheating and failing.

The issue with the auxillary pumps, I learned, is that they are designed to kick on after the car is stopped and parked. You may have noticed the whirl of the pump kick in as you walk away from your parked car. The pump runs the coolant and draws the heat off the turbo. The issue they were having is that these pumps were turning on properly but failing to turn off. There was an issue with the circuit board that caused this issue, and what was happening is that the circuit board itself would overheat and smolder and in a very rare case, ignite. Meaning, if anything, the pump was doing too good a job drawing heat.

So it's hard to make the case that this issue that led to the recalls could also lead to an overheated (undercooled?) turbo.

 

@ cschues80:

So your MCS 11 have 80000 miles on it already?

 

Nevermind...thought you were asking about my '07

 

Haha i am excited. Feels good with the turbo and nope my 07 has the 80k. The 11 was the rental. Put on an alta intake boost tube and that also feels good