Take her with you. Just slip her into your duffle.

 

Hey everybody,

Just checking in. Just put the winter wheels on, and get this, ANOTHER water pump replacement. That's the third this year and if you include the one that got put on when she was built, my MINI is now on her fourth pump.

I have have some really bad luck with the pump squeal. Dealer has been good about it, but we're both getting a bit frustrated at this point.

Everyone else been problem free?

Cheers

 

Still no major issues (keeping fingers crossed). I do have an appointment on Tuesday to have the door sills replaced. The dealer point the issue (starting to come off) out to me when it was in for service. It is just the stick on section that has the JCW logo on it, but I was impressed they caught it and told me they were going to replace them. I had not noticed the problem.

I did replace the windshield a month or two back. The installer broke the A-post plastic cover, but replaced it for free when I pointed it out to them. Got two more chips less than a week after replacement, but they are not stars and are not in my sight line.

 

Hi Guys !

It has been quite awhile since I have been back to our 1st Gear postings !

Bringing things up to date, my MINI has been pretty good and now about 21,000 miles. I had to bring it in a number of times, one was for the engine light going on (around 19,500 miles). They told me they were finding it common in the MINIs and some of their BMWs that carbon/grime buildup was occurring on the valves due to BMWs direct injection. Anyway, they held it for a couple of days, gave it a SEA FOAM or other cleaner shot directly into the engine, then checked it out again and problem seems to be gone.

But here's a sort of unusual thing - I had originally purchased the 5 year tire/rim warranty which I believe was a whopping $699 for 5 years coverage. I had done this because experience with my Prelude thru the years (narrow profile tires) and heading into DC each day to work, had to replace tires from being pinched going over pot holes. Since the MINI has what seemed to be even narrower profile tires and rim could also get damaged, I went for the warranty.

So, here it was a couple of months ago having had the MINI 1 1/2 years and I hit (on the driver's front wheel !) a concrete curb section/block in a curvy section exiting work one day. The concrete block took a chunk out of the rim very close to the tire but tire seemed undamaged. Was not sure if this was going to be considered cosmetic or bad enough to be covered under the warranty. So ...the dealer not only replaced both the tire and rim but noticed a slight bulge on the other front tire sidewall probably from a past pothole event and so they replaced that tire as well. Their billing cost is about $315 for the tire, valve stem, etc w/labor and for the rim...~ another $250. So, that puts the "dealer" tire charges at $315 + $250 + $315. Then, unbelievable....a couple of weeks later I pick up a bolt screw in one of the rear tires. I started to unscrew it but it started hissing. So I jumped into the MINI and got to the dealership after 530pm to leave it for them the next day...but my service advisor was still there and he said...no problem for a favorite customer...we will fix it tonight ! So I stayed and figured they would repair it but I guess it is hard to fix flats on the run flats...so here they go and replace another tire !!! Now I just have to go back to where I picked up that bolt screw and see if I can get one driven into my other rear tire and then I will have had all the tires replaced at around 20,000 miles ! Not bad - Tire warrsnty company has shelled out way more than the warranty cost and I still have 3 1/2 years left on it. I will probably have to change out the remaining rear tire in another 5000-6000 miles...we shall see. So...maybe I will have to buy one.

 

Doing fine here: 26,000 miles on the 2009's odometer, 2 windshield chips sealed by Abra, 36 mpg average, nothing else to report, except happy motoring.

 

So far so good here too. Got the winter tires on now. We've been making it hills that other cars are getting stuck on. Paddy Hopkirk would be proud! Seems like the overseas tour is off for now so I get to enjoy the mini a little longer =)

 

Update: Made it through the winter ok and will probably swap back to summers next week. Just clocked over 18,000 kms now. Still loving the MINI. We have a baby due any day now as well, going to try to get a car seat back there.

 

Only 18,000km??? I must have missed a post about your JCW getting stored or something.

I'm at a little over 32,000km.

Summers should be going on soon. Can't swap them soon enough, to me this car looks a little odd with only 16" wheels on it and the 17"s are begging to get put back on.

 

Coming up on my two year anniversary.. I'm on a two year lease..

which means I am currently a member of the week 9 support group. My new MINI arrives in about 2 weeks from now.

I've had lots of fun with my modded JCW. I'm going to have a rough time transitioning to a stock S model from my uber JCW. I'll be losing about 90lbs of torque.

 

I am now at 26000 and MINI is going strong. I have had a total of 4 tires and 1 rim replaced under my tire warranty all due to potholes etc going into DC and some other events/road hazards.

 

Haha, I didn't stash her on purpose its just that the wife and I commute downtown together in the morning and her car was on the driveway since we have a 1 car garage. That made the MINI a weekend cruise car only hence the low kms.

 

i'm about 33-34k miles now

 

Going back to summer tires tonight! I'm sick of babying the winters so they don't scrub...I'm still amazed that I averaged 34mpg in the winter on winter tires and icy roads commuting through rush hour. Also, as others have stated before, my exhaust is continuing to get louder...some times I wanna check underneath to see if I rusted a hole in the muffler...it sounds great but its LOUD!

 

28,000 trouble-free miles on Lolly. Younger sister, Molly2, just born and now traveling the ocean

 

Two years old and I've almost racked up 13k miles on my S. Had the timing chain tensioner replaced at the 12 month tuneup based on chattering and measured slack in the chain. Otherwise, no worries and it still makes me smile everytime I start it up!
I still have no idea how it would handle in snow, but I didn't buy it for daily driving and now I work out of my basement office.

Motor on!

 

First drive of the season on my summers this morning. I missed the handling that only summer tires can give you. Winters numb the steering wheel feedback too...

 

Well more than a year later, how's everyone else's MINI doing from this group? We still have ours, up to 35,000 kms now. Still love it!

 

I'm done with Mini's.

Aside from the typical sticky sunroof, and melting hood scoop, this car has had problems.

The two biggest are the squealing water pump and the death rattle.

I'm at 52000 and have had the water pump and friction drive replaced 4 times. Seriously a car at 52000 is now on its FIFTH water pump!!!

I've had three timing chain tensioner replacements. One was the whole job as per the service bulletin, and I just had the tensioner replaced again.

I'll be getting rid of this car before the warranty is up that's for sure.

My dealer has been fantastic through all my mini head aches though. So ill be trading up to a BMW before next spring, hoping that it's more reliable.

 

2009 MCCm Lolly is still trouble-free Younger sister 2011 MCSm Molly2 is also fine

 

I'm at about 41000 miles, no problems other than a little bit of cold start rattle that I'm going to get looked at soon (before 4/50k is up), had the water pump recall done but other than that I still love my R56, so much so that I'm probably going to jump right into another one around this time next year. Best part is that we finally have a MINI dealer here in VT so no more 3 hour drives to the dealerships.

 

I just put the JCW shift **** in and man what a difference. Such a small change but you get so much more shift engagement feel. Also, new windshield. The roads here are bad for pebbles and the like.

 

End of summer update. I'm getting rid of the MINI this coming Thursday. My MINI has been far from reliable, and it looks like I have had the lemon out of our build week. Just too many water pump and timing chain problems to hang on to this car. Owning my MINI is kinda like dating a stipper, it can be really fun, but I don't trust it.

So this morning I signed the papers on a 2012 X1. I got a fair trade in on the MINI and a nice deal on the X1.

I re read this thread, it was a great little support group we had. All of us eagerly waiting for our new cars to come in. Consistantly checking the shipping websites, with OCD like frequency, to is if any progress has been made on the boats position. Good times.

A big thanks to my fellow Canadian here, Perihelion, for helping me track my MINI on the CN rail system.

Take care everybody!

 

Well after almost 70,000kms, we finally sold the JCW. Size of the family outgrew the Mini. Was sorry to see her go but it's time to get something practical as a family hauler. Happy motoring y'all. It was a slice.

 

I was quite surprised to see an email from NAM telling me there was a post in this thread.

So what car did you get? I'm now on my second car after the MINI. My wife now has the X1 and I've just passed my 1 year anniversary on my Porsche Macan S.

 

Well our family is growing so we're upsizing to a Toyota Highlander. It's practical family haulers from here on out I guess!