Hi Folks,

I'm the owner of a 2009 Cooper S, stick shift. Bought it from a dealer used with low miles (12.5k) 2011. It has an extended warranty to October 2015. It includes servicing and I do my own oil changes in between as I feel the oil change intervals are too long for this car. It has 45k miles on the clock now and I drive it quite easy, I commute in it and don't drive it that hard. Never track or race it etc.

Its been having lots of problems and although I really wanted to keep the car long term its making me very nervous now, let me outline what it has had:

- About a year ago the cam cover was weeping a little so dealer changed it ($900).
- A few weeks ago I took it for oil change and mentioned it rattled a little on cold start. They did a full chain and tensioner swap ($3500).
- At the same time as the tensioner they recommended a carbon clean (I paid $250 but they just put cleaning foam in it). It didn't run any smoother afterward.
- Week and a half later the car starts misfiring on cold starts and the check engine light comes on. Take it back to the dealer.
- A week later they tell me they have taken the head off and replaced all the valve seals for new ones ($3800).

I'm picking the car up today. I have 10 months of warranty left and once it expires I'm worried this car is going to be a nightmare, I'm good at working on my own cars but have no equipment to read codes and I don't want to spend every weekend fixing something on the mini.

Am I overthinking this? will it be ok now? I thought I did everything right, frequent oil changes, don't drive it hard etc. But it keeps needing very expensive work.

Any advice?

Thanks

 

Let me tell you something that I would personally recommend as an R56 owner outside warranty.... before that warranty expires that pays for your repairs when the pile of **** car and it's commonly failing high dollar part fail, sell the thing.

 

+1 for selling I guess.

What has failed on your car? I'm thinking all that could go on mine is HPFP and it might need a clutch in a couple of years.

 

Were these thing covered under the warranty? The prices charged seen pretty high. I would consider taking the care to an independent shop rather than the dealer, after the warranty is over.

Dave

 

Personally the dealer sounds a little incompetent. I can't imagine how valve stem seals would result in poor cold start-up. Sounds more like a HPFP or carbon deposits to me.

And you still have water pump and turbo oil feed lines to look forward to

In the end it's never going to have Honda reliability but it shouldn't be a total POS. You just have to decide how much you like the car and if the increased costs is going to be worth it. IDK what people budget for car repairs per year but I wouldn't be surprised if it took $4-5k a year to keep the mini running not including oil changes if you are having the work done at a dealer.

 

I'd say dump it and go with a 2011+ (N18) if you're still willing to stick with MINI.

I traded my 2010 in with 49k miles with zero problems other than chain/tensioner swap. Didn't want to risk out of warranty issues. I guess it just depends if you're in the position to put down a chunk of $$ for another car.

 

vacuum pump, always needing valve cleaning, timing chain tensioner, PCV integrated into valve cover and that failing often enough some people give it a lifespan count and jsut replace it like maintenence, oil feed line on turbo commonly failing/leaking and being way more complex to replace than it needs to be, HORRIBLE lifespan on the clutch and flywheel, every clutch job pretty much being $1000 in parts because the flywheel gets fried every time too, I could go on with all the problems that are large expenses yet so common they're damn near maintenance items. Those types of things being as common as they are gives me no faith in the vehicle. I really do hope the N18 guys don't have these issues.

 

And to elaborate on the vacuum pump, it's attached directly to the camshaft and there is no weak link built in for when it fails. When your vacuum pump fails, it locks your cam up and you will need a new motor or major rebuild.... yes, they have an absolute **** design that is a common failure point that will grenade your motor.

 

Just picked up my car, going through the printout from the dealer.

They said the CEL was due to multiple misfires on all cylinders, they checked fuel pressure and other stuff and eventually pulled the intake manifold. Found excessive oil leaking down from the intake valves and lots of carbon buildup in the intakes.

So they pulled the head and replaced all the valve stem seals, intake and exhaust. They didn't specifically mention in the printout removing the carbon but I can't imagine they would put it all back together choked with carbon buildup?

The idle isn't quite as solid (IE perfectly stable) like a new car but it does drive and start smoother. I think one of the traits of carbon buildup in the intake is hesitancy and not smooth at low rpm (like 1500-2000) and it used to do that a bit but that seems to have gone now.

I'm going to keep an eye on the smoothness and also the gas mileage, if they cleaned carbon it should get a little better.

I'm going to think more about if I should keep it or not. I checked blue book value online and trade in was about $9000 and private was about $11000, does this sound right?
The car is in mint condition, I really look after my cars.

Thanks guys

 

the market is driving value right now and most dealers will even tell you their trade offer is not only going to be that low, but sometimes even way lower because of repair costs and frequency of major repairs. That's one thing that sucks... you want to sell because it's unreliable and the expensive parts are the ones failing, but because they are known issues, the value is taking a dive. Trust me, I know....

 

Take your car to CarMax. They are usually pretty good. You can always take their offer and see if a MINI dealership or whomever can price match your offer from CarMax.

It's what I did. I was able to get $12k for my 2010 MCS with 49k miles. Their offer is good for 7 days. Just something to think about.

 

Almost all dealer warranty so no cost to me apart from crappy $250 foam 'carbon cleaner' which was snakeoil and I was mad when I found out.

 

It sucks, I have been reading how mini sales numbers have dropped and not where they thought they would be. I guess your chickens come home to roost, I won't ever be buying a mini again.

In fact I'm going to go out my way to avoid buying another car with direct injection (and also no spare wheel), they all suffer from this horrible gradual choking from carbon with no actual fix in the works...

 

Don't let them get away with it, take it back to the dealer and demand in a nice tone to do the carbon cleaning right at their expense, by walnut blasting the intake runners and valves. They might tell you that if the carbon build up isn't affecting drive-ability they won't cover the job. Then after that stay away from that dealer as they seem incompetent! Trade it in for an N18 equipped Mini, that's your best option if you really love Mini's.

 

Toyota went as far as doing a dual injection where they had port injectors just there to clean the valves.

 

Thanks, I might do that. I think I'll think about things for a little bit and not jump into something.

 

Well if you read through it looks like they completely stripped the head. So its at least relatively carbon free now, it does run smoother than it used to.

 

When your warranty is gone find a reputable trustworthiness shop to do all your work, I have a few places that charge half what my dealer charges ($165 per hour for labor) is just stealing IMO! I however don't mind paying $150 to re-align my sunroof glass panels because it took me more than a day and I just couldn't get it right. 12 hours down the tube, there are a few reasons to go to the dealer.

 

Yeah the "carbon cleaning" is right up there with "fabric guard" or "paint protection", undercoating and etching numbers in your glass lol.

 

I'd agree with the above statement - see what CarMax will give you and let us know what happens.

 

That caught my eyes, when I was having body and paint work done the shop informed me of the laser etching (phone) numbers on every single window panel. Who the he** put those irremovable numbers in my glass? It's an eye sore to look at when considering how much extra money was spent in paint work!

 

Yup, had this system in my Lexus IS350 and after 130K miles no carbon issues.

I feel that all manufactures will end up with direct injection to continue to increase performance and reduce fuel consumption.

 

The products some dealers use for paint protection, interior leather/fabric guard and more specifically, undercoating *do* work. I don't know why the hell you'd know anything about undercoating living in Arizona though!!??

I'm in Canada so undercoating is very common.

 

Hi Folks,

Well I was hoping for the best but tonight my car had a problem again, it was 40F outside and my car had been sat for a number of hours so cold.
I started it up and it ran fine for about 30-60 seconds, then started chugging and missing, the engine vibrated more.

Eventually an engine symbol appeared on the display and it chimed. I switched the engine off, checked the coolant level etc under the hood and re-started.
It seemed to run ok then but the engine seems hesitant and not smooth esp at lower rpms (2-3krpm).

Curiously there is no CEL, the engine symbol went off when I re-started. Will a code be stored that can be pulled by the dealer?

Back to mini again.....really worried about this now

 

There are some codes that can only be read by your Mini Dealer, it's been cool here in CA. My IAT are very close to ambient temperatures, lower 40's in CA. I hate it and my cold blooded reptiles hate it!