Just picked my 07 MCS tonight. Got it from Carmax everything went really smoothly. During the test drive I noticed that while driving, on acceleration the car pulls to the right, if I lift up it goes straight.. Researching I found this morning the car has the LSD, this might not be relevant. I have not had a front wheel drive car in years so is like new to me.

Love the car !, I picked this one because I was looking for one without sunroof, ended up having the JCW body kit and the LSD, as far as I know.

Checked the front tires air + - 28 lbs. each

The sales person knows he said to bring it back any time in the first 30 days for free work.

Any inputs?

Thanks

Andres

 

Under all acceleration or just hard acceleration? If just hard acceleration, it could be a little bit of torque steer, even with the LSD. If the car tracks straight at a constant speed, then the alignment sounds at least partly correct.

FWIW, the tire pressures sound low for that car. I want to say the cold pressures should be 38 with 17" runflats. Check the sticker on your door.

 

The way it pulls I never had a front wheel car doing it this way, I hope the air pressure once I change it this morning fixes the problem.

Forgot to mention this before, but there is a noise coming from the top of the engine , almost sure is a slight valve noise, is this normal on these cars?

Other than that I love this little thing !

Thanks

Andres

 

IMHO, The R53 MINI displays more torque steer than the average front wheel drive auto. Of course, tires also play a big roll in helping/hurting the tracking of the vehicle. I agree with boosting the tire PSI. If the max pressure for your tire is in the 50 PSI range most MINI owners run in the upper 30's.

 

Is the noise just on a cold engine, right after start-up or after driving, while idling?

 

The ticking noise is likely the fuel system. That's normal on these cars. It almost sounds like lifter tick.

Rattling is a different issue. I don't definitively know what that sounds like, but because of paranoia, I swear I hear it every once in a while.

 

Thanks so much guys, the noise sounds like lifter tick. As far as the alignment issue I set the pressures 30 all around and still pulls to the right on strong acceleration.
Andres

 

Last night my good friend came to evaluate my car (he owns a MCS). Definitely there was something wrong with the car behavior. As far as the engine ticking noise he said that's normal.

Took the car back to Carmax at 7:30 am without an appointment. They were super nice, a while later the person in charge told me that it seems like torque steer but they were going to put the car on the alignment rack.

Later he comes back , he said that the alignment was perfect but they found out that the right side tires were not turning easily as the left ones, the ride side calipers were stock, maybe from sitting in the lot.

They ordered the new calipers , he informed me that he would give me a call tomorrow by 2:00 pm. If this doesn't fix the issue they will send the car to the Mini Dealer for evaluation at not cost for me (nice).

I still have 3 days to return the car to them but I'm rapidly getting attached to this beautiful car. Hope everything works .



Thanks for the inputs

Andres