This car has been the most evil car in the history of cars for us. If anyone follows back with the posts I've made on this car, I swear, we've had issues.
This was a brand new car in 2013.

ENGINE OXYGEN SENSOR AFTER CAT INTERNAL RESISTANCE TOO HIGH, REMOVE AND REPLACE OXYGEN SENSOR AFTER CAT Total 455.22
CANNOT MONITOR FUEL RAIL PRESSURE. FAULT OCCURRED 4 TIMES. REMOVE AND REPLACE FUEL RAIL PRESSURE SENSOR AND ENGINE CONTROL UNIT(DME) Total 3147.56
INTAKE BOOT COMING FROM AIRFILTER TO TURBO CRACKED AT TURBO INLET. REMOVE AND REPLACE Total 242.84
RECOMMEND REPLACEMENT OF BOTH FRONT STRUTS AND STRUT TOPS Total 1224.12
FOUND FRONT SWAY BAR BUSHINGS WORN, DURING INSPECTION FOUND FRONT CONTROL ARM BUSHINGS STARTING TO CRACK. REMOVE AND REPLACE BOTH FRONT SWAY BAR BUSHINGS AND LOWER CONTROL ARM BUSHINGS WITH BRACKET Total 1589.10

We are literally living paycheck to paycheck right now. This is ridiculous. My wife was standing in the kitchen when I told her what the mini place said about her car and she fell to the floor in tears.

 

Is this at the dealer? Some of those prices seem like highway robbery. I would strongly suggest you take it to an independent mini mechanic and get a second opinion: the car is probably only worth ~$7K, so putting $7K into it wouldn't make sense.

Are you getting any symptoms like a check engine light or anything? Some of that may not need doing, or can be put off if money is tight.

Sway & control bushings are always worn on these cars, the stock ones are crap. Unless they're completely gone you can probably live with that for a while. Same with the front struts and tops: if they're worn and not shot just drive on them. A good mechanic will tell you what you can live with and what needs doing now.

The intake boot is $130 new and that's easy to replace yourself. Worst case you can patch the one you've got with Shoe Goo or silicone bonding tape. If it actually needs replacing, Rock auto has the downstream oxygen sensor for under $100 and that's not more than an hour's labor for a mechanic, or you can DIY it.

https://www.pelicanparts.com/techart...eplacement.htm

 

The cost may be outrageous by that shop, but all those items are normal wear and tear parts for an older vehicle, not really a curse

 

I'm going to do the sensors myself, hopefully. I'd really appreciate it. I also found this New tab (ecuteam.com) for the ecu/dme.

I dunno. I mean, I have a 2008 Ford Edge with over 200,000 miles on it and the only thing we've had to replace on it was the alternator. Brakes, oil changes, new battery, tires of course, but as far as the stuff we've had to do on this mini, I don't understand the quality issues.

 

with no intention of humor: it’s a BMW thing (expensive worn out components), complicated by the fact they farmed out the engine design and manufacturing to Peugeot. the 2nd Gen MINIs are the least reliable of all three generations.

i would abandon the dealer. they’re going to swap parts, not find the source problem, and they’re going to go for the most profitable possible diagnosis. ask around for a good local German auto specialist. an indie is much more likely to try to find and fix the real problem.

that said, when i had a $7000 repair bill after the transmission failed on my R55 (the transmission was only half of that, there were plenty of other issues).

i did the repairs and then sold the car. i just about broke even on that. maybe the car would have been fine after that but i’d lost faith.

bought my F55 after that and aside from replacing a torn engine mount a couple weeks ago (under $200 in parts, my own labor) it has been solid reliable.

i feel so bad for your partner and you. i couldn’t haven’t afforded that kind of repair when we were younger and living paycheck to paycheck. it is horrible to face a huge unexpected cost and have no idea how to pay for it. :-(

don’t go into debt over this. it’s probably better to put that money toward a reliable Honda or Toyota than to dump it into the MINI. cars are an expense, not an investment. you’ll never get back what you put into them and if they cost more than you can afford it’s not worth it.

i think you wrote you all bought it new. you’ve gotten a decade out of it. maybe it’s time to replace it with someone a little more reliable.

 

There's a reason they're called stealerships. Having said that, you do need to budget a certain amount of money for any 10 year old car for maintenance and repairs as all things wear out eventually, including us! A MINI out of warranty that is 10 years old is gonna cost you a decent chunk every year. Almost certainly more than a Honda, Toyota or just about any other mass market brand. It is a seller's market right now, so you may want to take advantage while the market is hot. Good luck 👍

 

Thanks everyone. I do appreciate it. I'm going to try and do as much work on this thing as I can. I've been trying to convince my wife that we can get a more reliable car, i.e. Prius, Honda something, etc., but she is dead set in her mind that the Mini is the only thing she wants. smh. We are absolutely not going to pay 7k for repairs. We might be able to budget another car, but it's going to take a lot of effort due to me losing 2k a month in income and the lawyers have been dragging their feet for nearly 5 years about it.

Have tried indie shops but they are all near the dealership area and they aren't much lower. South Carolina doesn't have a large mini market.

 

Worn struts and bushes are somewhat normal wear items, though quote seems very high.

O2 sensor - same as above.

The intermittent fuel pressure sensor issue - replacing the DME sounds extreme. May want to clear any faults and see if that returns (after replacing the O2 sensor).

Would definitely look for other shops to assess some of these and for price sanity check. Understood your options in SC may be limited. Is there a local MINI club you can turn to for guidance? Are you within reach of Way Motor Works?

Best of luck. I’m optimistic you can find a more economical solution, and prioritize what’s needed right away vs what can wait.

 

Some this has been posted here, but I hope this is helpful.

Get an OBD reader and get the Torque pro app (android) for your phone. You will be able read and note any trouble codes as well as erase them. Often a code may not come back. Often, a dealer will "fix" a problem indicated by a code by replacing a good part.

Join a Mini Facebook group. You will get advice and may be a good start to finding a good independent, trustworthy, mechanic that might save you a fortune.

I do most of my own work and enjoy it. You may be surprised at how much you can yourself. Pelican parts has a wonderful series of do it yourself tech articles. Even if you don't do the work, you'll get as better understanding of the problem.
Pelican tech articles: https://www.pelicanparts.com/techart...r_R56_Tech.htm

 

Thanks a bunch. I do have a reader, this one I have been able to do some work on it, but sometimes it's just too much for me. I picked up a new sensor today, and the socket for it since I didn't have one that size. I'll do it in the morning, and clear the codes and hopefully that's all it is, the sensor.

 

replacing the dme for a fuel pressure fault LOL stealerships...

 

oookkkk.... here we go. So first off. I open hood, and notice this:



I reconnected it of course.

Here's the old sensor:



Old vs new



I got the sensor replaced. It was a lot easier than I thought and I for the life of me can't see how they'll charge $450 for that and go to sleep with a good conscience. All faut codes are gone, except now I still get a mass air flow fault code. Still idles rough and if I floor it, it goes to limp mode.

 

Yeah, that's one reason I said those prices seemed awful high.

MAF code could be a loose connector or a dirty MAF sensor. Check the connection and maybe hose it down with some MAF cleaner. If the intake hose is cracked any air leaks will cause a CEL, so check for that and fix as well.

https://www.pelicanparts.com/techart...or_Testing.htm

 

Check your rubber boot from your intercooler to the plastic pipe that runs up the passenger side of the engine bay. I had a tear in mine which was causing a MAF code. In fact check all of those hoses, past the intercooler, all the way to the throttle body.

 

Can you show me a picture with that stuff labeled, super please? If it's cracked as suggested in the vehicle report, would that cause the idle and throttle issues?

 

Start at #1 in this pic and go from there.

https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=13_1206 here is a link to that pic

 

The vehicle report says
INTAKE BOOT COMING FROM AIRFILTER TO TURBO CRACKED AT TURBO INLET.
Which part of that diagram should I look at?

 

The turbo inlet pipe is #10 here:
https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=13_1212

 

Feel for you. Avoid dealer, and ignore most repair recommendations. If I'd have followed the repair recommendations from our dealer on our 2008 JCW (factory), we'd be $12k poorer. The only thing I let them touch any more are brake jobs, coolant flush, and difficult diagnosis maybe. From memory the list of repairs they have said were needed and I walked - and have not touched: 3 oil leaks (confirmed by my mechanic to be at most "sweat" around gaskets as well as nothing there; entire front suspension in various stages (confirmed as nothing wrong by my mechanic); and gosh I can't remember at least 3-4 other items. And to add insult at the last brake job I asked for tire rotation (charged for it) but I had marked the tires and nothing rotated - mechanic swears he did it.

 

Sorry for the late reply. I really do appreciate all the help. I haven't been doing well since my last post, but I was able to get out to the car today and took off the pipe.



It doesn't look that bad when it was connected. Would something like this cause the car to be sluggish when giving gas, sometimes shutting off when idle? Also can I gorilla duct tape this thing until I can get a new one?

 

Wowzers. Yeah, any leaks there could cause a LOT of problems. That hose needs to be completely leak tight.

Duct tape is a poor choice. I would suggest either silicone self-fusing tape (do a search) or Shoe Goo adhesive as a temporary repair. Goop adhesive is basically the same stuff and will work as well, but I believe Shoe Goo is a bit more flexible.

That is so far gone, however, that you really should completely replace it ASAP.

 

That is beyond repair. Replace ASAP and your performance should improve noticeably. Hope your performance improves soon, too!😉

 

Yeah, I figured as much lol. I tried to use Gorilla Glue and then taped around it. Still didn't seem to work. I ordered a replacement that'll be here Tuesday. Hopefully that'll be the end of this.

 

Replaced the hose thingy and that didn't seem to help. Engine is too dang hot to reach in there tonight, so I'll look at it again in the morning.

 

Sorry for the double post. I checked the O2 sensor connection. It was in the socket, and the red lock tab was engaged. I pulled the lock tab thing back up, and squeezed a tad more and it clicked. I engaged the lock tab back down. Still sat with a rough idle before wife went to work this morning. However, she said it hasn't been sluggish at all. Driving conservatively for now, but MAYBE that was part of the problem after replacing the cracked hose?