No MINI today...

The car is in for the ps fan and coolant fan circuit split. I also wanted the upper strut mounts replaced under warranty, due to the passenger side one being cracked. When the dealer first tried to fix the cracked strut mount 2 weeks ago, I got the car back with a very noticeable squeak coming from under the bonnet. Took it back to the dealer and they agreed that it was not there before. After taking the car apart again they told me that the wrong strut mounts were installed and that was causing the squeak.

Got a call half an hour ago from the service advisor telling me that the right front strut is BENT and that was causing the squeak I heard, not their first try at the repair . The car drives fine...alignment is straight, NO vibrations at all speeds up to 90, steering wheel is smooth and dead center at all speeds, etc. I have doubts that a pothole hit can bend a strut as badly as I was told. I don't remember hitting any pothole large enough to bend a strut. I am the only driver of this car.

Of course I am home and the car is at the shop on the lift. The service advisor has asked me what I want to do, and will be calling me back soon with a price since it won't be covered under warranty. Car just turned 33,000 miles this morning and will be 4 on 1/21/07 (warranty up then).

Any suggestions? I'm thinking of telling the tech to put the car back together and I will seek a second opinion. I'm expecting a repair job in the hundreds.

 

It is hard to fight "not covered" because of abuse. Not saying you did but I have never won that fight with a dealer, MINI or otherwise.

If they are not going to cover under I would suggest having the work done some place else. Cost would be lower (most likely) and you could upgrade the strut.

Many options can be seen on these forums

 

Turn this around.....Tell them that the way you see it is that you brought your car in for a some simple warranty work that they could NOT get right. Not only Is it obvious the tech didn't to an after work drive check because the squeek was over looked, but the wrong mounts installed tells me that you have a tech that is not very thorough and your confidence in his ability is not high and given this bordeline incompetence, for all you know the bent strut is a RESULT of an improper repair in the first place and how this is resolved will determine whether I buy another car or get any future work done at this dealership. Repeat this as often as needed until you get to the owner, or the problem fixed at no cost to you

 

Hmmm...if the strut was bent, how did they get it back together last time without noticing? My vote is for the wrong strut mount doing the damage, or an over-enthusiastic tech. Either way, you shouldn't be paying for it.

 

I'd ask for details - what does 'bent' entail? Obviously it's not the shaft - what part of the strut was bent, and how is that causing a squeek.

 

Thanks for the help guys...

A good point about the tech possibly causing the problem. Maybe they put my car back together incorrectly after trying to correct the squeak. I hadn't thought of that! The service advisor never called me back today, so I am taking a ride over to the dealer tomorrow morning to see exactly what is bent and in need of replacement. How would I have been able to drive the car without noticing a "badly bent" right front strut? Wouldn't the car pull to that side, or at least bounce all over the road? I'm telling you, it drives as smooth as it ever has, and I am the only owner of this car.

As it stands now I am leaning to having them reassemble the car as is and getting another opinion/estimate for the repair.

By the way, how do I know if the ps fan/coolant fan split service was done? Is anything noticeable under/in the car?

Thanks for your help...

 

Another update...

I went to speak to the service manager and the tech that worked on my car on Friday. The tech said that the strut was bent at the top about 1/8th of an inch and "he didn't know why." (his exact words) I reiterated that the squeak was only heard after they put the car back together with the wrong strut mounts in it.

The service manager told me that they ordered the parts on Thursday afternoon after they told me about the bent strut and that the parts may be in today (Monday) and that the car would be fixed on Tuesday. It only takes one hour of labor to do this job apparently. The going rate for labor at this dealer is $92/hour (Bring My Wallet) and the parts run $170. Even with a small club discount they want me to fork over about 250 clams to fix something that I think the tech is at least partly responsible for.

I called Mini USA today and they don't want to get in the middle of this, saying that it is between me and the dealer. I think the dealer should at least pay some of the cost, since the squeak wasn't there until AFTER they worked on the car.

I miss my old "squeak free" Mini. I'm wondering if I should have left well enough alone and lived with the cracked upper strut mount. It seemed like a simple enough fix to me, especially since others on this website have had theirs repaired properly and FOR FREE!

 

I'm still not understanding what the 'wrong strut mount' means, and how the 'strut was bent at the top about 1/8th of an inch'.
If the squeak was only there after the 'fix' and the 'fix' is what broke it, you've got a leg to stand on.
All the more reason to understand exactly what it is they're doing to your car, and what the consequences are. Let us know what happens.

 

Just got the car back today...

The strut was replaced and the sound is gone. I had the tech show me the old strut and sure enough the "piston" in the strut cylinder was bent. I must have hit a pothole or something to whack it out that much, but I wonder why I hadn't noticed any other signs from this .

Anyway, the silver "piston" that slides up and down in the housing was bent, just enough to cause friction as it rubbed against the collar surrounding the base of it. It was so badly bent that it had begun to get heat scorched from rubbing, and the tech was able to compress it with his hands by pressing the strut against the shop floor. He said that normally you can't compress a strut like that. I believe him on that one!!

The clearance around the collar in the strut is very tight, maybe 1/16th of an inch all around. All it took was a small shift in this clearance one way and it was metal rubbing on metal. The scary part about it was that the strut offered no resistance/support . I checked again and there is no mushrooming on my strut tower (either side) and the alignment seems to be ok. Maybe this repair now helped prevent a bigger one later on...

 

Your dime? Theirs? I've never seen a shock piston bent - that's a big piece of metal!
In any case, glad to hear that you're back in business.

 

Here's the deal...

They couldn't be positive that their tech caused the bent strut . I'm not getting far with this with the dealer, because it is my word against theirs, and they don't drive the car long enough to do damage; I do (their thinking).

Yes, it is a pretty thick piece of metal, about an inch thick in diameter if my guess is right. When I saw the heat scorched piston and the overall tightness of the clearance around the collar I was surprised. It's a tight squeeze in there. I'm guessing that the heat scorching occured in only 27 days, which is the timeframe from the initial attempt at the repair (December 14th) and yesterday, when I got the car back with the new strut in it. I can only guess what damage would have occured if I kept driving around with the bad strut . I drove about 750 miles in those days, and there were 2 areas of heat scorching on the strut, each a couple of inches in size.

For the life of me, I still can't figure out where or when I could have driven through a pothole big enough to whack the strut out as bad as I did. I will be especially careful from now on when driving on the crappy secondary country roads around here. The strut towers on both sides look fine, and I've looked at them VERY closely.

At least I get a club discount on parts and labor at the dealer. This is the first out-of-pocket money I've had to spend on the car in nearly four years, so I'm still doing ok based on my past car ownership. The cars I've had before the Mini have been cash cows. Not coincidentally they were 1990's American-built. That was one reason I went foreign on this purchase. My wife's Honda is a year older and has been equally trouble-free.

Total cost was $292.37. It broke down as about an hour's labor and $200 in parts. At least I'm motoring again, and doing it squeak-free . I was Mini-less for 6 days, and I missed my car.