I haven't posted here for some time - not only did I get extremely busy at work, I also was having no issues with my 2011 MCS. It was my 100-mile-a-day-daily-driver that was great to drive and got great mileage. Anyway, as I approached the 100k-mile mark, that all changed. I had bought the Warranty Direct extended warranty back at ~45k miles so this should have all been covered. WD and Mini both deeply disappointed me, despite every effort I made to follow procedure and be reasonable. Such is life and they have both lost me as a lifetime customer. Here's my story:

So, for the past few months, I started experiencing a couple of issues with my approaching-100k mile 2011 MCS daily driver. I take very good care of this car as it's my ride to work and I never mess with my daily driver except to do frequent maintenance with top-quality products. It generally runs like a fine sewing machine; however, lately, I started experiencing the dreaded hard-shifting from the 6-speed auto tranny mentioned on the Mini forums. These are sealed trannies from the factory and, supposedly, need no maintenance over the life of the car (my FSM says this as well) - right. So I was still under extended warranty with Warranty Direct, who have been good to me since I bought the service at 45k miles, although admittedly, I barely had to use them (one minor issue) during the contract period which expired at 100k miles.

In July, at 96k miles, I took the car into Mini for the hard-shifting issue and for a Service Engine indicator. It was under warranty so they worked on it and gave it back to me but neither issue was resolved (they said they could not reproduce the issues). Took it in again right away and they "fixed" the SE light issue by replacing a cracked valve cover. OK, this fix seemed to be legit and the light was off when I collected the car. Again they claimed they could not reproduce the shifting issue but thought the two problems might be related so told me to try it and see if it was resolved. It was not.

I took the car in for a third time for the tranny issue and this time, I took the service advisor out for a ride and definitively demonstrated the problem. He was convinced and they took the car in for more assessment. All this time they had been working with the warranty company who instructed them this time to remove the tranny pan to check for metal shavings. Mini found the expected amount of minimal debris which they felt was not indicative of an issue. I was to pay for this servce if they determined it was not the cause. Also, by this time, my mileage had now just exceeded the 100k contract limit at 100,016 miles due to the back and forth commuting during this series of visits to Irvine Mini and the test driving going on.

This then turned into a nasty three-way discussion between Warranty Direct, Mini and me - and guess who lost. Even though all the service documentation showed I had consistently complained about the tranny shifting issue since last July when the car was well within the warranty period, the Warranty Direct manager claimed Mini never directly verbally informed them of the issue so they refused to cover it - yes, she said verbally informed them. I have known the Mini service rep, Aldo, for years and he tried his best to help me out, but could only do so much. After all was said and done, he told me that Mini was willing to sell me a new tranny for 20% off the parts cost. The price for the new tranny before discount - $8000!!! They were going to charge me $6000 for parts (which is actually what I heard is closer to the true price of the tranny is if you buy retail) and then whatever for labor to put it in, which is a PITA for a Mini and would probably add another couple grand. Btw, the work orders that the Mini SA had been sending to WD during all this clearly listed the hard shifting complaint since July and WD confirmed they had received all the proper paperwork on time as the work was being completed. That made no difference in their decision to not cover the repair.

Now, realize this was partly Mini's fault for not having worked closely enough with Warranty Direct and partly Warranty Direct's fault for not reviewing the service work orders carefully and then not living up to their contract. Funny thing is that both parties admitted to me to dropping the ball on this but refused to act on it. I told Aldo the car was worth $8000 at the time (Edmunds) and it would be smarter for me to just part the car out than fix it. So I picked up the car, shook Aldo's hand and bid farewell forever to the two companies (btw, the SE light came back on on the way home ).

I decided to do my own fixes since I'd been reading up on this on the Mini forums for some time. The SE light issue was a difficult one to solve because it's an unusual one that doesn't follow the norms as far as how it indicates and reports. The half-engine light on the tach display came on but the main center display SE light stayed off. Plus, it would go on and off at very predictable moments during my commute. There are several root causes and fixes online so it was difficult to figure that one out. Luckily, there was no performance degradation on my car as there are on many others due to this so I continued to work on that one. The SE light came on again as I left the dealership for the last time. That weekend I discovered the problem - the service tech had replaced the rubber turbo inlet adapter on the charge tube in a crooked orientation so it was screwing up the airflow going into the turbo. Problem one fixed - again.

The tranny problem: Several forums point to the fact that the tranny is "sealed" for life but recommend flushing the fluid several times to get a new fluid charge in. The procedure is a real PITA as it's hard to get to the fill plug and get a tubing line in there to fill it. I have the service manual so that and the forums helped me accomplish the flush that same weekend. I used Amsoil's best tranny fluid which is highly recommended by many online - I have used Amsoil as a rule in all my cars for the past 35 years so I trust it's ability to perform well and last long. So far, I have not been disappointed - the Mini is once again shifting smoothly and efficiently. It feels new again. I have not been able to reproduce the hard shifting and, believe me, I tried hard the next day during the test runs I made. The tranny shifted perfectly no matter how aggressive I accelerated. On the way to work the next morning, it was perfect and I had a totally pleasant and uneventful drive in for the first time in three months.

Dealership service staffs today seem to be filled with parts-changers and lack any sort of analytical thinkers. They go by the book and stick to regimented decision trees and leave the common sense and creative troubleshooting outside the service bay doors. I could have taken their word for it but I felt there was a far simpler - and cheaper - fix to this problem. A little online research and some mechanical sense can go a long way to help you sort out issues. I have always stayed on top of my car maintenance with all my vehicles so, when a problem arises, as long as it's not a catastrophic failure, it's often something fairly minor.

I originally took the car in because of the warranty but I will always try and resolve the issue in these kinds of situations if it apprears those others with no skin in the game that are involved fall short of being thorough and fair. Lesson learned. Next, I started looking for a replacement for the Mini as I had planned all along to replace it at 100k miles and use as a backup car or trade-in. Overall, the Mini has been a great daily driver - it's fun to drive, has gotten great mileage and has been pretty reliable. I am keeping it as a fourth car that will serve as a backup and "airport" car" when I travel and have to leave something parked at the airport. Below is what I ended up with as a new daily driver. I have another '02 Vette that I'm "upgrading" and have always enjoyed having them. This is a fabulous daily driver that gets much better mileage than most realize so I get the best of both worlds.

I hope this post helps others here that are experiencing similar problems - since it's probably my last major post here, I figured it should be a useful one. Take it FWIW.

 

Oh, I forgot to mention - as a side benefit of cycling in new Amsoil tranny fluid, my mileage has improved by ~10%. It's always been very consistent but has improved noticeably since the new fluid went in. This is the best gas mileage I've ever gotten with this car.

 

Irvine Mini huh, that's the dealer that made me hate Mini dealerships, you nailed it on the head, there are no intelligent free thinking people there, they are like robot's that go by the book. This is how it is at almost all Mini dealerships which is why Mini service centers are losing customers that get tired of the unintelligent by the book jerks!

I was never impressed with Aldo or the SA Freddy who became a different person when he was offered a job there when he was working at Carmax until he drank the Mini/Bmw brand kool-aid. Freddy (the SA) is way too inexperienced to take a position as an SA and he is not honest either! He has tried to take me for a ride many times, little snake!

My warranty company forbids me to even go there anymore, that's saying a lot about the by the book idiots that can't be reasoned with. Next time a manufacturer tells you that your tranny is sealed and has lifetime fluid that never needs changing, laugh in their faces because there's no such thing in the automotive business. That's like saying you only need to change your oil every 15,000 miles which Mini subsequently reduced 10,000 miles!

Mini USA and Mini dealers don't even know how to properly diagnose their own vehicles, often opening a trouble ticket with BMW who have a very difficult time diagnosing the vehicle as well. A joke I tell you, they don't have enough sense to change out the transmission fluid that's been in there for 100,000 miles!

They almost charged you $8000 when all you needed was a transmission fluid changed, like a bunch of untrained, uneducated non-self thinking human beings that have more in common with robot's. This is the typical Mini dealership experience told a thousand times before, customer satisfaction and Mini/BMW's reputation is at an all time low and this is why.

The root cause of everything bad about Mini dealers and cars starts at the source, BMW!

 

Took my 2011 JCW in for an oil change (only because I bought it with extended maintenance) and they say they don't want to attempt to remove the oil filter housing because it appears it will break if they try to loosen it. Ok fine. Just drain and give me new oil since I'm here. I'll change the filter myself later. Nope. Why? Because MINI won't reimburse for that. 2 hours later and I got a great car wash. I told myself I'm never going back to Patrick MINI Schaumburg, IL. I went home ordered a new oil filter housing from ECS and a week later I simply put a socket on the oil filter housing turn and it comes off. Done. Wtf? So I didn't change the housing and it didn't need it and I'll wait to take to another dealer since it's free. Fast forward several months later (which is right now) and I had to take my JCW in for running over a coon. Since they had it for 3 weeks and I needed an alignment from Patrick MINI I told Patrick Collision to have Patrick MINI change my oil. 3 days later car is returned to Patrick Collision. They forgot to change the oil. Doh. I have them move the car back. I get a call...we are afraid we will break it and if we do it will be $110 for a new housing including labor. I had the service manager on the phone and he went on and on that I must have a special tool. Wth? I have no faith in the stealership. So now on Saturday I'm going into the stealership with my 27 mm socket from ECS, a ratchet and the new oil filter housing and showing them what's up and having them change the damn oil they owe me.
Ha. Christ.

 

" I went home ordered a new oil filter housing from ECS and a week later I simply put a socket on the oil filter housing turn and it comes off. Done. "

Sorry to hear this, it you dont need it, you can return it. Glad you have the 27mm socket. Helps big time.

 

Their afraid they might break it, perhaps they should consider a career change because they sound like a bunch of pansies to me! They need to grow a backbone and quite acting like a bunch of sissies, unless they only acting that way because they want to steal your money. Either way their pathetic.

If I were you I would rather eat the cost of oil and filter and do it myself because nothing good can come from going back to that dishonest dealership. Do you really want them to even touch your Mini after being afraid to work on it in fear that they could break something? You go back you're asking for more trouble!

Cut your losses and consider yourself extremely lucky that you didn't spend $8000 dollars on a transmission when all you needed was to replace the gear oil that had been in there for 100,000 miles or once around the entire planet.

 

I wish dealerships treat us like ECS Tuning does because it's what keeps me coming back, imagine for a moment if the Mini dealer treated us like ESC, there service centers would be by appointment only because everyone would want to get their car in for service knowing that their honest. It's seems like they could make a fortune in business without screwing the customer and emptying their savings and checking account.

I can dream can't I...

 

Thanks but I'll be replacing since I got it.

 

So ridiculous right. I did get an alignment, cabin filter, wipers and a brake flush all for free but what's up with not having confidence to change the oil? If you break it just replace the $28 part(probably $15 to them) and be done. They wasted more time and money on the phone with me discussing how ridiculous it all is. Ha.
Now, they lose all the money from MINI they would get from me in the future. It's the small things.
I'll report back tomorrow after I get the oil changed. But yeah. Last time I go there.
Next I'll give MINI of Chicago a shot.

 

Thanks, this means so much to us

 

Ok so I'm at the MINI dealer. Gave them the ECS 27 mm oil filter socket. They noted that this socket fits a lot tighter on the bolt head of the oil filter housing. ECS....I didn't see anything in the description of the socket on ur site about being a better/tighter fit than a MINI issued/sourced socket or any off the shelf socket for that matter. Please comment. Thanks.

By the way....come on MINI. Shouldn't they own and use the best tools that exist? I'm going to
plug ECS today and let them know where I got the tool.

 

we took our mini in MANY times about messed up shifting and every time they said there was nothing wrong.

We finally ditched the car as well with only 88k on the clock because it just continued to have so many problem.

Such an awesome car yet such a complete POS car at the same time.

 

Update: With the ECS 27 mm oil filter socket the dealership was able to easily remove the housing. I requested to see the old one. It was slightly rounded off and their socket was spinning. I told them to visit ecstuning.com. Ha Goes to show you need the correct tool for the job. Other than this issue the dealership has been good. Glad I straightened this out. Also got 20% off the new 37 JCW baseball cap so all is well now.

Sorry. Not my intention to steal this thread.

 

Awesome,

Thanks , figured the socket they had was damaged or something, glad we can help. JCW ball cap , very nice. And glad we could help out the dealership.

 

So the socket you sell isn't in any way different than a standard 27 mm 6 point socket?

 

Somewhat, other then its is a new socket and cut in very close tolerance and pretty deep so its fits the head of the housing hex better, picked it for those properties, used mine many times. The dealership tool can get beat up. I would put our side by side and looks at there depth and gap play from the wall of the socket.

 

Perhaps they misplaced the 6 point 27mm socket and instead used a 12 point 27mm socket because that's all they had, after using the ESC Tuning socket I can't imagine rounding out the hex part on the oil filter cap. If the socket has tight tolerances it actually locks on to the filter cap and then yout start turning. If you don't have it all the way on then I can understand how they could round out the hex area.