But there is just too much wrong with it. I've only had it for 8 months or so, and it's been back to the dealer for repairs 3 times now. Well, today will be the 4th.

I went to put in new headlight bulbs yesterday and noticed quite a bit of oil leaking around the turbo oil feed fitting. The tube is loose in the fitting, I can move it in and out around 1/4". After reading on here it sounds like this is fairly common and I'm lucky I found it when I did.

But this, on top of all the other things that drive me nuts about the car have added up. The only things I like about it are the mileage and the power, both of which I can get elsewhere. I was hoping to trade it in on a new mini of some sort, but the wife has put her foot down and said no more minis. I'm tired of hunting random and inconsistent interior rattles. The car is driving me crazy, literally. The other day I was sure the rattle was comming from the passenger arm rest, so I ripped it off while doing 60 on the freeway. You know who does that sort of thing? A crazy person. The best part was when the rattle came back a few miles down the road with the armrest on the passenger floor.

I am so upside down on the car its almost criminal, so trading it in will cost me some $$$. But what is your sanity worth?

I'm not 100% sure it will be economically feasable to ditch this car, but I'm gonna try. I'm so jealous of those of you who love your mini's I really did want to love mine. :( :(

 

Sorry to see you go, but what's up on your list as a possible replacement?

 

I feel your pain. I had some trouble with my 08' Justa back then, and I'm on my second MINI now which I love my MCS tons. Only issue is some of the inconsistent rattles. Everytime I try to take it to the dealer, it goes away, but other times its just obnoxious. I hear it coming from the ride side of my suspension and I will be getting new aftermarket coilovers in the spring, so in my mind, I think some of the OEM parts plainly suck in the MINIs. I could be wrong but other than that, I absolutely love my MINI, wouldn't trade it for other boring cars I've owned previously.

Good luck! I'm sure you won't go bald anytime soon.

 

MINI's are a love/hate relationship. Just treat it like a woman and things will be fine. Bahahahahah

 

Already bald, too late there

I'm not gone yet, but I'm trying. I did find a few of the rattles, I'll leve them here for someone doing a search:

My sunroof. It sounded like it was coming from the passenger side a-pillar cover, but it was actually behind the headliner above the passenger visor. I solved it by taking the sun roof trim ring off and stuffing fleece in between the headliner and the metal roof.

The speedometer. This one took forever to fix. It sounded like it was coming from the drivers side upper door or a-pillar cover, must have been acoustics because if I pinched the speedometer it stopped. Almost sounded like a blown tweeter. Just tightening the screws didnt work for me, I had to dissasemble the speedometer (after unbolting it from the column) and put black electrical tape in between anywhere plastic met plastic, and between the unit itself and the column. Rattle hasn't come back.

I got the passenger side door moslty quited down by folding a piece uf fleece up and stuffing it between the arm rest and the other door surface. I tried taking the outer door panel off, covering the back side in sound deadener, and then putting a dab of silicone on the door clips to keep them from rattling... zero difference, still rattles somewhere inside the door.

Door lock push things. The plastic ring they poke though rattled, so I put just a drop of super glue on them, not noticable and quieted them down. But the pushers also rattle around in the rings, so I put a single layer of electrical tape on those so they sit snug when locked.

Right now I still have the pasenger door (and SOMETIMES the drivers door) and the uppper seatbelt mechanism (which is RIGHT by my ear) rattling away. Its like there is a STOMP concert going on in there.

What cars am I looking at? Well, I really like the WRX, but I'm also open to others. I do want AWD, but I don't think I want another turbo car. If I want to play with turbo's I have this beast to tinker with:

 

Nice.

 

My 08 non-S went back to the dealer 13 or 14 times for issues under warranty! Quite a bit of rattles, sunroof and window issues mostly. But the dealer was excellent and fixed them all.

 

Take the hit and get rid of it,
You already answered your question, what's your sanity and happiness worth,

 

Some people are much more sensitive to rattles than others are. I'm very sorry that your MINI is not earning your love. But I do wonder... does the Mustang not rattle? Or is the engine so loud, you can't hear it? I remember the older cars being much noisier.

Good luck in whatever you choose!

 

Beau,

Am I missing something but what MINI are you driving? (year and model) There might be answers.

 

Once you're to that point, there's no going back. Even if all the rattles are fixed, you'll always be on edge, waiting to hear another rattle and then SNAP! You go nuts. That's how road rage begins- true story :D

 

Was gonna ask the same question.

To the OP,
Are you the original owner? If not, did you have a PPI (PrePurchase Inspection) done and were the current gremlins identified then or not? Like anything that has aged, issues start cropping up.

Sorry about your problems, hope they get sorted out one way or another.

 

It's a 2009 MCSA. Besides the rattles, my other major complaint is the "lazy" gas pedal. Dealer says they are all like that, but both the loaners I have had weren't like that. I tried a D1 spec, but it didn't help the issue hen starting from a stop, where its most noticeable.

The mustang is for an entirely different purpose, it's not my daily commuter so if it makes noises I don't mind, but its pretty quiet.

So today they replaced the oil lines to the turbo. We also ran some numbers on a countryman, but I don't think it will happen.

To top it all off, my mini ran like a champion all he way home, no rattles. I swear it knows when it has been bad an tries to suck up.

 

The roads here are so bad all cars rattle!

 

Obviously rattles annoy some people more than others. I am sure my 2012 has some rattles but as long as its not excessive then it does not bother me. I know my 2003 had some. All I have to do is go drive the 1986 Porsche 911 and the mini sounds like a Cadillac. For the most part I would not buy a Mini as my only driver. But outside of that its the best modern car I have found for what I want, a fun and unique car that can be driven hard, and is relatively cheap to operate.

 

i wrote nearly a same thing to the mini international. "i really want to love this car, but". it's funny when i see it down here. well, they didn't even bother to reply it. thx mini!

place where i live, just imagine worst asphalt, and add it more holes and random "things". so, every time i took my mini to the service about that sounds, they always complained about how bad the roads are, and they always said all of them is actually normal. my dad has 320d without any squeals and he actually drives on worse roads than i do. mom is using polo ffs, even that thing is quieter.

i am really sick of this random rattles, squeals and noises. i have 2 bottles of wd40 in my backseat and whenever i hear any kind of sound, i just wash everywhere with them. well it's not helping at all, but that smell of it, it makes me dizzy and my brain goes into some state where it cannot process that sounds

i really am, i really want to love this car, but it's just unloveable.

 

I too spent a lot of time hunting down squeaks and rattles. I realized at one point i was missing out on all the fun driving experience because i was wanting the mini to be something it wasn't.
Our society has made us very intolerant of non-perfection. Everything around us seems to be engineered to almost perfection. Our cell phones look so cool and the fit/finish is almost perfect. We can get our dry cleaning how we want it, when we want it. We can go buy almost anything at the grocery store without worrying about getting sick. So when our expensive cars dont meet the same standards as the other things in our lives, i understand how we won't accept it.

Yes the money we pay for our cars is a lot and we all work hard for our money. I've spent countless hours worrying about the engine and searching out noises and end up bitching how the Mini isn't this or that.
For 2013 I'm going to stop worrying about the small stuff and get back to enjoying the Mini driving experience. The thing i love about the Mini is the driving experience and the fact that every parking spot is a large spot. I'm gonna drive my Mini and enjoy it. If i have a rattle, the radio will go up until i get around to finding it, or I'm just going to live with it and call it a unique feature of my car.
I invite everyone else to do the same. Check your oil level regularly and drive your Mini and enjoy it for what it is; fun.

 

Good luck!

I can't just tune them out, I have a 45 miute commute each way at a steady speed, and I listen to podcasts mostly.

I almost traded it in yesterday for a countryman, but the wife yelled at me and said no more mini's. Now she wants the mini (she is way more tolerant of noises than I) and I get to go find a new daily driver.

 

Get a new wife! What's the big deal? Unless the dealer is really far away, take the car in, drop it off, get a loaner, deal with it.

As far as the gas pedal, push the sport button, or better yet, get an autosport module, and call it a day.

 

Sorry, but all of your suggestions are useless. New wife won't happen. Dealer "can't replicate the problem" with the rattles. Sport button does nothing to help the dead pedal. I have tried a D1 spec throttle booster, that did nothing to help the dead pedal.

Its hard to explain, but it feels like the first inch or so of pedal travel does nothing. No engine rev, no moving forward. Dealer says its because of the automatic, they are all like that. Funny, the last two automatic loaners I have had aren't like that.

I think they are just stalling until the warrantly is out so they don't have to pay attention to me anymore.

Temps have dropped here, the rattling in the passenger door has become rediculous. I'm ripping the whole thing apart this afternoon.

 

I have an automatic and the pedal responds with the first 1/8" or so of depressing it. I can easily it registering on the dealer software (DIS), as the pedal starts responding immediately. Even with a standard ODBII code reader I can see the TPS starting to respond well before an inch of travel.

Like you said, the loaners were not like that and your car shouldn't be either.

Sounds like a bad throttle module and the dealer just does not want to replace the assembly.

 

I understand your whole rattling when the weather gets cold. Happens to me all the time on my driver side suspension when it gets cold. Dealer sucked at helping me, so bye bye, I'm going to Detroit Tuned to help me figure it out. Good luck ripping the car apart, you'll need it!

 

I have an OBD2 reader also, I will check to se if mine can read the TPS settings also. Thanks for the tip!

 

What a week. Last weekend I had enough of the rattles and horrid accelerator. My wife has always said she loved the mini, so we came to an agreement. She would drive the mini as her daily, and I could trade in her car ( 2002 protege 5 ) for something else. I came home with this:



2013 WRX. So far, this thing is amazing. Just amazing.

Around tuesday my wife started complaining about the mini. Same things I was unhappy with, like the little rattles and the herky jerky abysmal transmission / accelerator. Then, yesterday, the final straw. Check engine light came on AGAIN. This time I was able to bring it back to the dealer I bought it from and raised a minor ruckus. Well, at the end of the day they made my wife a decent deal on a certified 2012 Justa thats LOADED. Has all the bells and whistles, like the convenience package and the piano black interior. Most importantly, it has 6 years / 100K mile warrantly, and the car had 9K miles on it now. It's gutless compared to the S, but the WRX takes care of that.

 

Glad to see you could make it work in the end!!!