any recommendations as to which dampers i should get?

 

Get mine.

 

will it work with a 06 MCS?

 

Yes.

 

well my birthdays tomorrow so ill probably get some cash, how much do they run and is it a set or do i have to buy two seperatly

 

Although there has not been much interest in my motor mount problems I thought I would complete my story in hopes that it will document this problem and be of some help to someone that might have had the same thing happen to them. In short, my motor mount went south on me and blew hydraulic fluid out from my wheel and all down the passenger side as well as all over the boot of the car leaving brown spots all over. No wax or clay bar would take them out and the dealers body shop confirmed this as well and that it would need to be repainted. My dealer had a factory rep inspect the car and came to the conclusion that it could not have come from the motor mount because it did not contain enough fluid to make it to the back of the car and thus would not cover the repaint. My dealership told me they were sorry but without the factory reps approval they would not repaint the car. When I went to pick up my car I asked my SA if we could put the car up on the rack and take a look with the mechanic that worked on the motor mount. Sure enough, we all three looked at the trail of fluid coming down and covering the wheel well out from my spinning wheel and down the side and back of the car ( I took great pictures of the mess). The first factory rep more than likely never put the car on the lift and I’m sure hoped that I would not pursue the issue or didn’t care. Well, I requested a second factory rep to come inspect the car and after a couple of weeks he did. That was yesterday and today my SA called me and told me that the factory rep had looked at the car and came to the conclusion that the hydraulic fluid did indeed do the damage and that Mini would cover the repaint. Although I am happy that the work will be covered, I’m unhappy with both the management at the dealership for not standing behind me and mostly, Mini’s factory rep for trying to get out of paying for damage caused by a faulty part that they have known about for a very long time. I hope this LONG story might help one of you out some day.

 

mine just went last week @ 15,750 miles. i noticed it when i heard a noise from the passenger front wheel area, kinda sounded like a golf ball being bounced on a tile floor. only heard it under hard acceleration and on deceleration in 1st through 3rd. when i took it to the dealer on monday, they said they 'knew' what it was, loose axel nuts. so, when i went drove it away after picking it up yesterday, i heard it again, turned around, and went back in the shop. the tech and i took it for a ride, he popped the hood, and showed me the busted mount. what i'm still trying to figure out is, if this is as commomn as it sounds on 05s, why the ***** didn't they check it in the first place? it just seems to me that my dealer (who i just learned is under new management) did the bare minimum in checking my car out. very lame. they strive for 5s on their surveys, i strive for excellent customer service and repair work performed on my car (whether it's warranty work, or i'm paying out of pocket). i guess we can't always get what we want.

 

I agree... seems as if all the people that responded are MCS owners. Are there any MC owners that are having the issues? Are they even the same part number?

 

I have a 2006 Cooper convertible (9/2005 build), and mine just went at 10K miles. A few months ago, I first noticed a couple of small stains under the motor mount. Since then, I saw no change until tonight when I discovered a messy leak.

The motor mount is the same for Cooper and S. You don't see many reports for Coopers because the active NAM membership is heavily skewed towards MCS owners.

 

Wow, I just read this for the first time...Sorry to hear what you had to go through. Glad you stayed persistent and didn't just go away Is it all done now?

 

Took mine in today for the clicking sound (~24k miles, 11/04 build). I figured it was the motor mount due to the engine torquing on accel/decel. What I didn't expect was that the mount was totally shot. The service guys at SF MINI knew exactly what it was when I described it, we popped the hood and he showed me the leak. It'll will be fixed under warranty.

 

Well, thanks to this thread I have added this to my list of stuff to check monthly. Hopefully I can catch it before any stains occur

 

Anyone with an 'older' early '03 MCS experience damper failure?

The damper unit (black rubber looking thingy) on my MCS appears overly compressed ~ squished. Will attempt to post a picture later. I'm still under warranty for 4 more months... want to make sure I don't get left paying for a warranty repair.

I've been noticing a clicking/popping at inital start up, and an unusual amount of resonance/movement from the exhaust system. Had the car up on jacks, removed the header, checked it ~ all very stout, same with catback. Reassembled, torqued, run til hot & re-checked while still on jacks ~ no leaks, nothing loose. Pull out of the driveway & voila, its back!

 

It's back, but it's going back to the dealer tomorrow. I went to the dealer after driving a loaner for a MONTH . As they drove my car out at first glance it looked great but, after looking closely I first noticed some silver dollar size cloudy swirls on the trunk lid as well as the drivers door where they tried to buff out something and when I felt the paint on the bumper I felt some bumps in the paint. I showed the SA all the spots and he agreed with me that it wasn't done right. It felt like they had dirt swirling in the paint booth and they painted right over the particles that had landed on the bumper. I couldn't belive that they would present the car to me like this. I was so angry and should have left the car where is sat but I took the car home so that I could look for other problems in the paint and to take pictures for documentation. The saga continues !

 

Pauliekeys, where are you located? This dealer story is making me cringe...

 

I don't want to flame the dealer at this point. I would rather wait until it's done so that maybe I'll have a better outcome to report. I was very clear to the SA that I was one of those customers that is VERY picky about my car and that it would be to the dealers best intrest to do it right the first time because I WILL find the mistakes if there are any. I would think that any dealer would have better quality control without have to worry or be warned that the customer wants perfection.

 

Sorry to hear of your continued woes Pauliekeys. Hopefully they get their collective act together and make you whole again.

I'm attaching a few shots of my '03 damper. I think this sucker is shot, and I have an appointment tomorrow to get a few things sorted. Would appreciate some opinions.

Also... does anyone know of a thread specific re: this subject? If not, there ought to be one. The earliest adaptors are past warranty, but there's a whole slew more coming down the pike. If this is a common issue we ought to draw some attention to it

Here's my deflated looking '03 damper. NOTE: The wet look is water from cleaing the area - not hydraulic fluid.





Liberated from Randy's Pulley How to. Only pic I could find for comparison.

 

I just back from the dealership for a SES light. They also told me my right engine mount was broken, so I got that replaced as well...

 

Hmmm, I just noticed this leak in my engine this week. It looks fairly new, and I'm taking it in for the annual service in a couple of weeks. I just have to hope it holds out that long and doesn't get fluid everywhere in the meantime. I talked to another MINI owner at an autocross yesterday about it, and he said it was a different issue that isn't really a problem, so I had stopped worrying until I read this. Glad I went ahead and did the research!

BTW, my MINI is an '05 with about 32k miles on it.

 

I haven't noticed any leakage from my '03 MC, but I did see something today...

http://www.alldata.com/tsb/BMW/11623...106/index.html

The Technical Service Bulletin (TSB) for the leaky engine mount just got updated to include Minis built 12/03 to 5/06. The previous TSB included all from 3/02 to present. Seems they may have narrowed it down to the bad batch(es).

 

You got a number or link for the previous TSB? Might come in handy.

Thanks

 

Here's the link to the list of BMW TSB's. The Mini specific TSB numbers begin with an "M".

http://www.alldata.com/tsb/BMW/index-issue.html

They seem to get updated about once a month.

 

Well, after just cleaning my baby, i popped the hood and found .... a busted leaking motor mount, luckily I have an appointment tomorrow to get my JCS air intake installed, and will let them know about this as well, hopefully this will get fixed and cleaned. Did the dealer clean the engine bays to all who had this problem?

 

Mine needs replacing after 27,000 miles (3/05 build). Heard a knocking noise on accel and deceleration so took it in for service. Advisor seemed to know what it was right away and said they most likely have the mounts in stock (of course they didn't on this given day, but placed one on order). After reading this tread I looked closer and do see where the fluid leakage caused a mess...and now the mystery solved on why a couple of weeks ago I only had a dirty passenger side from wheel spray and not on the driver side.

 

Ok I just looked undre the hood of my 06 MCS and after 5700 miles (no pulley, no exhaust, no mods other than a CAI) and my stock motor mount has blown!

WTF

I put on my engine damper at around 3K so who knows if it would have gone sooner without it or if the stock mount design is just plain defective! Also on my 04 MCS I have not had it leak since it was replaced at around 20K (now at 43K) and that car has loads of mods.

Will have to make an appointment with the dealer....