I've lurked but not posted till now. I'm a BMW product owner and that includes a mini. I'm a very long term BMW owner. Had respect for BMW longevity as I owned older BMW's three e23's including a turbo 745i still on the road. Of the other two e23's, my son wrecked one at 250,000 miles and the others I sold still going strong at 300K miles. My son still has the e34 who's old design M30 engine is still strong but the quality of interior is bad as it fell apart early on. My e28 had a half million miles on it when I traded it on a 2005 mini cooper S. I figured bmw just owns mini, surely the quality is ok. Economy was still down and the dealership's owner was selling his personal toy, that mini. It only had 38,000 miles on it and had never been registered as the dealership owner used dealer tags. Bought it a couple thousand under book value.

Quickly discovered I had to keep engine rpm's above 3000 all the time to prevent the head from carbonizing up. Or use many $$ of techron concentrate all the time. so much for the gas mileage.

By 99,000 mile the mini had puked three spark plugs which I had heilcoiled for repair. When the forth event occurred I was disgusted. I pulled the head to have a machine shop do better inserts and remachine the head while it was off. Machine shop said head was not repairable. It had many cracks?????!!!! this is on an engine never overheated. Never out of coolant. what the heck!? so I bought another head and installed. discovered during assembly the plastic intake is rubbish and replaced that. Plastic crap.

NOw 150 miles later it appears the supercharger locked up as the car suddenly made small jerk (belt broke as well), started running irregular, then oil smoke out the exhaust. GEEEEZ. Oil is also dripping from forward side of engine......... sure hope that's from the supercharger and not a hole in the block. crank rotates no clunking still makes oil pressure but.......rolled the mini into the garage for disassembly.

I so appreciate my honda.

Last good BMW's were the M30 and M20 engines phased out by '92 or so.

I should have stopped with the BMW M62 powered cars I bought. Problems for those started just after 120k miles. The e38 was horrendous bad. The E39 just bad, it had less stuff to fail. The M62 engine went to single row timing chain and no valley metal gear to turn the chain. a plastic guide was substituted. Timing chain failure is assured on a BMW M62 engine. BMW did not learn their lesson. 2007 on mini's have timing chain woes.

I'll post what I find with the mini........

 

The good thing about the 2007+ (where im most familiar) they are easy to work on. despite their poor quality parts.

 

The '05 S has the W11 engine, extremely reliable. That car had to have been badly abused for it to exhibit those kinds of problems. Sorry you found a bag of trouble.

 

I love my MINI but I'll have it traded in, probably for another MINI, before it's factory warranty runs out.

 

+1
Carbon was never an issue on gen1 cars.....you had other things going on.
Likewise spitting plugs out is due to improper tq of the sparkplugs....common with diy, but rare when the car has been wrenched by a pro....
Think you bought a car that hot ridden hard, and put away wet....then again, what does a guy who owns a dealership care when they are essentially free to fix....

 

My '07 was great until it hit 117k, then it started going downhill fast. I loved it though and wanted another so I got a new '14. It too has been great so far, but I know it's not for the long term. New MINI in 2020!

 

Mine goes into the shop every 5K miles for a full 'turn your head and cough' session. If something needs attention, it gets it. 10 years old and going strong. It's all in how they are cared for. Drive it like a Japanese household appliance and yea, bad things will show up. Think in terms of the difference in how a plow horse and a thoroughbred are treated.

 

A flogged MINI will always result in a flogged wallet.

 

MINIs are not appliances - they're tiny BMWs.

 

I'm betting that the dealer used the car for short, stop-and-go driving....a sure way to screw up any vehicle.

 

Bet you this guy http://www.autoblog.com/2013/09/18/i...million-miles/ could get a lot more than 100k out of a MINI. Meticulous maintenance!

 

Like zippy said you had some issues that are not common to our cars.

Would also like to point out that the first generation of the BMW Mini's are not really Bmw's.

The engine was designed by Chrysler and made in South America. The superchargers were made by eaton and engineered by Rover. There are various Rover parts throughout the car.

The second generation Mini's, and the newer ones are much more a BMW than the r50/r53.

 

Purchased my 03' R53 with 37K miles on the odometer. ( It has a -17% scp already installed ) Basically these engines are bullet proof. It has "old school" engine make up/design. ( And not direct injection) Typically any issues as you described with this particular engine is from abuse and/or lack of proper maintenance / fluid flush/proper exchange cycles. ( And for exchange flush cycles I'm not referring to what the MFG Suggests either )

Engine Oil/Filter changes every 3-5K ( My Money - U do what you want )
Brake Fluid every 20K
Coolant every 30K
PCV vent valve every 30K
PS Fluid flush every 30K
Fuel Filter Change every 50K
Plugs every 40K

I've changed plugs many times and never blew one out. This is typically result of owner using the likes of Denso's or Brisk brand spark plugs, or just not being properly torqued down. Personally, I've always stayed with OEM or NGK as with those I can trust that the crush washers for the plugs are made to spec, and will flatten and secure the plug from rotating/blowing out when properly torqued down.

I updated the Supercharger in my 03 with that of a brand new 06 version purchased from race shop in CT who built MINI track cars. It was a take off part while building one. The original one removed at time of swap had 90K miles on it and was perfect. Oil in both plenums was plentiful but black. Since that swap the oil in the 06 updated Supercharger has been service one time with new fluid. So far no issues.

Presently it has over 238K miles and still going strong/like new.

 

My 03 ran great until it hit 255k it still runs but needs a head rebuild. Currently running off of 3 cylinders. It also reds a steering angle sensor, and has an evaporate leak. 2 minor things one major. Needs a paint job too. I loved it so much for the 255k miles I just bought a 05 JCW that didn't need any of that.

 

You're saying that like it's a bad thing?

When the MINI first came out, BMW had already developed a reputation for poor reliability. Combined with the historical reputation of British cars, a joke started going around, "It's a BMW... made in England."

 

More of the story.........

Rolled my 2005 mini S into the garage. Jacked it up for underside viewing with shop light. Discovered belt is not broken. I am now wondering if the oil flowed from PCV to the plastic intake piece and subsequently the oil smoke? And oil dripping externally is from failed crank sensor seal? Will do a compression test. Will pull front of car off to facilitate examination. Recommendations? Thoughts?

 

I think the Chrysler engine they put in it is very good. Not great for high horsepower, but certainly very reliable if maintained.

I really couldn't say if its a good or bad thing though. Never owned a BMW, but I did own British truck for a few years. Had a Land Rove Discovery, that while being fun to drive, had plenty of poor quality parts just like our British Minis. They also had a great forum so it was usually easy to fix.

Mostly mentioned it because of the comments about it being a tiny Bmw, or a product of BMW. I suppose it is, but from all the Rover and Chrysler input I just dont really consider it a BMW. The later years yes but not the first ones.

Lots of car companies have bought and sold other car companies, but I bet that no one who purchased a Dodge Ram truck thought they were buying a Mercedes truck while Daimler was the owner of Chrysler Corp. Unless they bought the Sprinter of course

 

It's a co-developped engine and the rest is all BMW, I don't know how much BMW you need on a car for it to be considered that.

But anyway, as for OP, I just reached 170,000km (around 105,000 miles) and still going strong even with a couple mods and me not being easy on it. Sounds like you got a lemon.

 

Not trying to derail the thread but the engine is all Chrysler and Rover. Partly funded by BMW , and approved by BMW, but engineered by Chrysler . Unbreakablelump seems to have dissapeared. but maybe you missed his posts.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ec-engine.html

Honestly don't care if it's a BMW or whatever. I enjoy driving it and owning it, despite all it's problems.

I'll keep my opions to myself on this subject in the future. I'm obviously in the minority and people seem to enjoy ripping on their BMW. Well the guy that started this post does anyway...

 

I wish I had no cause to rip BMW related products. I hope I don't have to rebuild the W11.

 

Yeah good luck man, hope you get it sorted out it and the engine is ok.

 

Mine is at 264K+ miles, so it's done very well. Its maintenance and preventative measures that its lasted that long. I take care of it and its still going strong.

Let us know how it goes and what you find and I hope you can get it sorted, did you do the leak down test / compression test?

 

did compression test, #3 cylinder is dead no compression. Got compression on 1, 2, and 4. Odd results. 1 got 190, 2 got 150, 3 got 0, 4 got 150. All 4 spark plugs were coated in oil. Car is only worth $3000 if I repair it. I'll probably pull it apart just to see extent of damage. Piston? Head? Timing? Supercharger? I'm curious. I'm 90% leaning toward junking it.

 

Supercharger has nothing to do with compression.

My guess would be the head has a problem but you'll find out for sure once you take it off.

If you have no desire to fix it, sell it as is or part it out. Should be able to get at least $1000 or $1500, maybe more if the car is decent. People buy non running Minis all the time

 

I know supercharger has nothing to do with compression. Just curious if is a failing/failed unit and puked debri into engine.

This will be second time head off the car in 99,000 miles........junk car.

May part it. Will definitely fill it with lead projectiles before having it crushed.

The compression results kinda point to head gasket.

Tear down forthcoming eventually.