I know this subject has been beaten into the ground, forgive me if I'm reposting this information.

After fighting with this problem for the last 7 months or so, I finally took it to a 3rd independent Mini shop and was told that it was in fact the HPFP. So I wrote to MINI USA to request that they cover it outside of warranty because it's complete bullsh!t that I'm on my 3rd pump in 80k.
They replied and told me that they had extended the warranty on HPFP to 10yrs/120k miles as they had done for the 07-10 N14 cars. I had contacted them in 2014 and they told me that there were "no problems" with the N18 and that they would not help me.
Apparently, they had a change of heart sometime since then. I have an appointment at the stealership to have it replaced next week. Just thought I would pass this along to those of you who are having problems with your N18.

 

I haven't seen any bulletins on the N18 HPFP on the 2007-2009 N14. Nice to see MINI is paying for the replacement since the price almost doubled a few months ago for this pump.

 

I couldn't find anything either, I'm assuming they're trying to keep it quiet or they just haven't released it yet. It happened sometime in the last 2 years, I don't know when.

Call: 1-866-ASK-MINI with VIN
Email: mini.assistance@askminiusa.com with VIN.
Call a local dealership with your VIN.

I emailed them, then called a dealership and they verified it. I'm currently trying to recover my out of pocket cost for pump #2, I'll update this thread with my progress.

 

Definitely going to keep watch - I replaced mine in February 2016 to the tune of about $1400 at dealership. I did call miniUSA to complain at the time and they told me to kick rocks, so I would hope it didnt happen before then.

 

It may have been only on early or specific 2011 models that had older HPFPs in them. Hard to tell because they haven't released anything on it. If I get any more info from them I'll post it.

 

I can't believe that the pretty much all of tripled the price of these fuel pumps basically over night. Glad I got a spare

 

I asked the SA at the dealership when this happened. He said about a year ago, MINI ok'd replacement on a few select N18 cars, then had more problems and finally agreed to replace all of them. He also said that the US is the only one having problems, as the ethanol is to blame for pump failure - not sure if this is accurate or not. Alot of people suspect that the drastic price increase was to recover costs from the whole thing.