Hi all,
as probably some of you have noticed by my threads in the 1st gen topic, I badly want to enter the Mini world, and as first step I was thinking at a 08 Conv S, since from my reads here and everywhere else, it seems that the 1st gen Engine has way less troubles than the turbocharged one.
However, lately my eyes got on a beautiful 09 JCW, 65k miles, with chain and tensioner upgraded about 10k miles ago to the newer version.

Overall, it seems a car being taken car of, with oil change roughly every 5k miles (as per owner, waiting on some maint records).
He was not aware however about carbon buildup issues, so I guess nothing has been done about that so far.
My questions are:
-if the car is still ok, would a seafoam cleaning with/without OCC installation keep me mostly far from the buildup issue?
-which other things am I missing which are common, big issues in these cars?

Thanks all in advance for the great info provided in this forum

 

The 09 JCW still has the problematic N14 engine found in the MCS of that generation. All the same issues would apply:

- timing chain and tensioner (frequent oil changes and recent chain/tensioner replacement is comforting)
- thermostat leaks
- high pressure fuel pump
- vacuum pump leak
- oil filter housing/oil cooler gasket leak
- turbo oil line leak

and probably some others. I owned an 08 MCS with the N14 engine and I had the tensioner replaced once, temperature sensor replaced due to coolant leak, and oil filter housing leak. I replaced the turbo oil line and oil filter housing gasket myself to save $1000 on labor.

Seafoam IMO is a temporary solution and will not eliminate the carbon buildup issue. Eventually you will need to have it walnut blasted to really get rid of all the carbon residue. An italian tuneup every week never hurts either

If I were you I'd do my best to avoid the potential headache of the N14 engine and go to a MINI with the N18. 2011+ MCS or 2013+ JCWs will have the N18 engine, much more reliable so far.

 

I'm an original owner of a 2009 Factory JCW.

I have logged over 100k on mine.

This is my first import car and from my overall experience, it will be my last one.

I buy my car, never lease so I keep my cars for as long as I can. I also do all the repair work myself if the repair requires one person. Also, since this is my daily driver, the downtime for a repair has to be relatively short about a full weekend to complete a repair.

The car was very expensive to begin. The replacement parts are expensive. The dealership is crazy expensive and far away.

I've worked on a lot of different engine types, 4, 6 and 8 cylinder engines. I've performed every maintenance task there is on different types of cars. I've also replaced all sorts of sensors and parts to clear check engine lights, etc. so I know my way around identifying an issue then fixing it. There has only been one car with what I consider a catastrophic failure, that was when the transmission went on my Jeep. It was a shitty transmission from the factory and the car was out of warrantee.

Then there is the Mini. From my experience, I would classify this as a delicate car. Currently my Mini is in the shop getting diagnosed for a misfire in the #3 cylinder. After I did all the easy things (new plugs, swapped coils, etc., a compression test I performed shows the #3 cylinder as being in line with the rest of the cylinders so quite possibly, it may be the rings or valves or carbon buildup or some other thing with the head.

Regardless, this is the first car I've ever owned that had something wrong with the bottom end or top end. The first car. That's not even taking into account the timing chain issue that was replaced by the factory early on during the first year of ownership. If my current issue isn't the timing chain, i suspect I'll need to replace the timing chain soon as it rattles a little on cold days.

If I had a do over, I wouldn't get this car. it is not a durable car compared to other cars I have owned. All my other cars have easily exceeded 100k miles needing nothing more than normal maintenance and a few "bad design" repairs done at the dealer that costs no where near the repair cost of a mini cooper. Those bad design repairs were NEVER part of the engine.

In my opinion, repair costs of higher mileage cars should mostly be spent on wear items like suspension, bearings, fans, belts, pumps, piping and the like, which is normal wear and tear and I'm okay with that. Mini has timing chains, valve covers, water pumps and other things that seem to have made it's way into "normal" maintenance costs. This, I'm not okay with.

So if and when you get this car, you better have saved thousands of dollars for "routine" maintenance. Oh, and don't forget to save money for a rental car while your car is at the shop.

 

CARBON buildup from excess oil consumption. Bad motors that MINI should have recalled.