So....

I took the car in today to get the valve cover checked out because it looked like it was seeping oil again. I had it replaced last February. I have noticed quite a bit of oil usage over the past few weeks and it had some hesitation when going to full boost, so I mentioned it to the Service Tech. He said he would look into it. When he took off the turbo shielding, you could see oil around the seals for the turbo. He disconnected the lines, and they were full of sludge. My car, being a 2008, does not have shielding on the oil feed lines. The heat from the turbo, which can get up to about 1000 degrees when one really is boosting it up, cooks the oil in the lines, which leads to lubrication issues with the turbo. I am glad I caught the issue before catastrophic failure ensued. Luckily, my 3rd party warranty will cover most of the cost. They do not pay for the sales tax, my $100 deductible, and only pay for up to $86 an hour for labor (the dealer here is $105). The total job was about $2650 to replace the turbo and all the lines with the shields this time. The dealership in El Paso, TX really cut me a deal on the job. The only issue I had was the 3rd party warranty folks denying me a rental/loaner car until the repair is done. They also will not pay with a credit card over the phone, so I would be without a car for up to 8 days, while I waited on a check to be delivered by snail mail to the dealer. I live an hour from the dealer and only own the MINI, so that is a bit of a problem. The sales manager, who also organizes all the dealer-based MINI events for the EP MINI club, saw my frustration and grabbed me a car off the lot and slapped a tag on it and said bring it back when everything is straightened out. That is the nicest thing anyone has EVER done for me in the car world.

Anyways, I shall have my car back after I get back from training for work with a brand new turbo, and valve cover gasket. Sweet! And, I am now driving a 2012 Lightning Blue Cooper for the time being. I am one happy, albeit very stressed out, person.

 

that man deserves the Best Bro award of the year

 

Agreed! I was in complete disbelief. I cannot think of any other dealer that would have done such a thing. They had ZERO loaners left, and they just gave me a car off the lot. They get two HUGE thumbs up!

 

Now that is what a dealer should do for its customers! Hats off to them!

 

Where's the 3rd party warranty from?

 

This is the kind of dealer story that is a pleasure to hear. They're too few and too far between, but it's great to know that there are dealers out there that understand what customer service means. Big ups to the SM and the El Paso dealership!

 

I'm curious how truly often you're changing the engine oil on the vehicle?
Yes, the lines are narrow, but sludging doesn't occur from only high temps in which synthetic oil can withstand.

- Erik

 

I change my oil every 7-9K. I actually just had it changed about a month ago.

The feed lines on the older R56 cars runs right next to the turbo with absolutely no shielding. I mean synthetic oil can withstand a lot, but a turbo running full boost over and over again on either a twisty road or track, gets crazy hot. I have opened my hood at night and seen parts of the turbo glow. I think even synthetic oil has its limits. MINI also admits that there is a flaw in the design. That is why the 2010 and up cars all have shielding on the lines. There is a part number on RealOEM for the shields now, as well.

It is funny you mention oil change intervals. There was a guy up at the dealership today who actually follows the OBC. He says it has had him go up to 21K between changes. I cringed when he said that. I have had mine tested up to and at 12K, and that is as far as I would EVER go with it.

 

I'm happy to hear the dealer helped you out on this ordeal. Smart thing on your part buying the extended warranty for the car. I have to think you got your monies worth even with no other repairs.

Nice job!

 

Yep, between this fix and getting the valve cover gasket replaced last February it has almost paid for itself 3 times over. It was definitely worth it!

Also, I think the company is First Choice Insurance out of Raleigh, NC. I will have to double check it, and pass along the info.

 

Good idea. I bet there are a lot of folks that could use that information.

 

I would also like to put out there, especially for "potential" MINI owners, that issues like mine are not as widespread as they may seem. Forums tend to be pretty negative, and I do not want folks to think badly of MINI and run away from the brand. I have had friends do just that, it makes me kind of sad. I knew coming into my MINI ownership that there are just certain things to look out for. This turbo issue is very hard to diagnose until something horrible happens.

I have had 40K+ miles of happy motoring on my car since I bought it last October. It is my daily driver and my best buddy.

 

Parts came in this morning! New turbo, all attached lines, and the heat shields.

My car is going to be one happy one, when this is all said an done. Of course, there is also a track day coming up on the 21st here in southern NM. It should be exciting!

(Also, I actually really like this non-S car I have been driving since yesterday. No power, but it handles amazingly well!)

 

Nice to know there is a 3rd party warranty company that won't void your warranty because of your mods

 

Well, they have always asked if I had anything on the car before authorizing service. Haha. Luckily, both of the service departments I have had deal with them always says no. I did ask them about aftermarket parts, and they said that as long it does not affect engine management or cause a failure, then I am fine. MINI more or less follows the same idea.

 

@Laardilla21

Can you please have a look at your damaged turbo and exhaust manifold and see if there is any relationship between your turbo failure and this...https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...sign-flaw.html

 

I read that thread when you first posted it online and found it very interesting. Luckily, my turbo did not fail because of that. I did not see any kind of cracks or stresses on the turbo itself or the manifold. It was simply the turbo being starved for oil, and the bearings burned up.

 

Thanks for sharing.
Good luck with your issue.

 

Do you think I could be experiencing the same issue on my car?

I've posted my issue here:
http://forums.mini-mods.com.au/showt...n-R56-MCS-Auto

In short... "under full acceleration in 2nd (high rev range) and sometimes in 3rd (med-high rev range) the car sputters/hesitates and lets off what can be described as 'pops' from the exhaust. The pops are occasionally accompanied by puffs of smoke."

The hesitation seems like it has gotten progressively worse.

 

I'm glad to hear things are working out for you. I'm approaching the end of my warranty and I am debating buying the warranty or just replacing the car. I've had my Mini since new and changed oil about every 6k miles. I see you said the turbo went out @ 72k miles and you have 40k+ miles on your Mini. Do you have the service records or know the frequency of the oil changes of the previous owner?

You stated the oil lines sludged up and you change the oil 7-9k miles but I wonder what the previous owner did?

 

Sadly,

I did not have any records from the previous owner. There were some notes made in the back of the owners manual. I know they did the free oil changes MINI offered in the 36K maintenance plan. It could have began with those longer intervals. I have no idea. I get my car back tomorrow, so we shall see. They might even be giving me the old turbo.

I would definitely look into an extended warranty. The more miles, the more expensive it will be.

 

Just a thought...

The lines cooking the oil won't happen when the car is running. Lines are hot, but turbo is hotter. The flow of oil will cool things and should be fine. What is not fine, and what is likely the cause is parking the car when the turbo is glowing hot. This is when the oil does not move and heat can really effect the oil. There are things which will run the car for a few minutes once it is parked, or folks can make sure that if they are going to park, they go into "grandma mode" for 5 minutes as they get close to the end of the trip.

I am not saying you did this or anything to cause the issue, just pointing out where any effects of a bad design would be most detrimental to the car.

 

^ Agreed.

After thinking things over, I agree with you. I have always let the car sit for a while, still running, after any long, fast run I have done. But, of course, I live in the desert now, where temps during the summer easily hit 100 daily, so there is little quick cooling. Oh wells....

 

We just replaced the turbo in our 07. I am happy for you that you had the warranty, we didn't. My wife has 41K on the car and it went out. The dealer has been the one to replace the oil every year since the car never says it's ready. I am wondering if it doesn't have something to do with the new water pump recall. If the turbo isn't being properly cooled it will burn it up.

 

So folks,

I got my car back yesterday! I was out of town all week, so it had to wait at the dealer until I got back into town. Of course, when I get back into town, the check from the warranty folks had no gotten to El Paso yet, so I was back in my little justa loaner for a day. The check came yesterday and I was barreling down to the dealer to get my car. There were just a couple of issues when I got there....

Problem #1: When I go crank the car, I get 3497384636 warning lights about random things. Most of them revolved around TPMS and lights not working. I cut the car off and called over the service guy. He gets in, cranks it up, and then turns on the lights. Guess what?? No lights on the front end at all!! They had to tear off the entire front end to replace everything, and they forgot to plug back in the lights..... After the tech plugged in the lights, he hooked it up to their diagnostic machine, it cleared all the codes and I have not seen one since.

Problem #2: After we worked out the CEL issue, I went in to pay my part, which was originally quoted at about $450. Well, when I looked over the repair sheet, I noticed some odd part numbers and costs. The SA looked at it and then looked up the part numbers and realized they were not even for stuff to fix my car..... I was like "REALLY??". Anyways, the SA went into damage control mode and removed all the extra parts, which dropped the amount coming out of my pocket by about $75. I was a happy camper.

Anyways, I am just really happy to have back my little car. The new turbo is a lot louder than the last one and stronger than ever. (The hiss even on slight acceleration is way louder than before.) Of course, I was told to be easy on it for a little while, while everything gets broken in. Now, all my car needs is a serious bath and some showing off at the Cars and Coffee in El Paso this Sunday!