I was wondering if anyone else in this forum received a letter from Mini, asking to borrow your car for a emissions performance evaluation? I just received this letter yesterday stating that Mini would like to borrow my car for a emissions test to be conducted by BMW in Oxnard California, if there is any emissions problems, they will replace parts, and they will give me a loaner of some sort, and $250 for my trouble.

What do you guys think, would you do it?

 

Would and did, they have my MINI right now (except I'm in MI, so Lewis is at MAHLE in Novi). I'm driving a BMW-owned 535i loaner.
The program is EPA/CARB required - I run the same program for Hyundai-Kia here in Michigan so I did it partly for curiousity's sake as well, to be honest. I wanted to see how they run their program. So far, so good.
I can't vouch for MINI or the labs they use, but I can tell you what we do here. Customer cars are always treated with great care. The testing is simply an emission test or two, maybe an evaporative test (where it just sits in a box for a couple days) done on a chassis dyno in a controlled environment. Your car will accumulate maybe 100 miles in the lab and the technicians driving are very professional, it's their job. The results are reported to EPA and CARB in order to show compliance with the emission standards the car was certified to when it was sold. They only get into changing parts if a test fails (over limit) when they will try to find the cause, repair, re-test, report, and get it back to you even cleaner. We always use OEM parts and I'm sure everyone else does, too - it's not about saving a buck when it comes to compliance. There are huge potential fines and penalties (up to recall) for not completing testing or for having too many vehicles fail for no good reason.
So MINI really does need your help.

 

Thanks for all the information misslindsey

 

NP.

Forgot to add - people only get the letters in a radius from the testing sites, so here in MI around Novi, there in CA close to Oxnard, and when they do high altitude testing (which is required on high mileage vehicles, so '03s or '04s with 50k+), in/around Denver, CO.
The testing is required a year after production on low mileage vehicles with at least 10,000 miles, and then again within 5 years on vehicles with at least 50,000 miles.

 

wow.. i didn't know they did tests on high mileage vehicles as standard EPA requirements... I know they require those tests on brand new production trucks... (I myself run those tests for Dodge diesel trucks ).
When you say you did it out of curiosity, you mean you were allowed to witness them performing these tests on your MINI??

 

No, unfortunately Lewis is out of my hands. I'm sure I could have asked nicely and gotten a tour of the lab at MAHLE and saw them test him, but I have to stay at work during the day. (Also, my boyfriend works for the same company and I'm sure could get me the same tour MINI there on test or not).
I extend the same courtesy to any of my customer owners who want to see where their vehicle is being tested. I'll take them through the lab and at least show them the facility and where and who is going to test their vehicle.
I just wanted to see how they handled the procurement process (getting the car), how long it took to test, how long it took to get my check (he said he'd bring it with my MINI), and all the other little details that make people either happy or unhappy at the end of the day.

 

I also got one in the mail yesterday from the "greater Oxnard area" branch.
I'm more than happy to oblige, however, I installed a WMW turbo heat wrap around the turbo to prevent any further hood scoop melting, misslindsey do you foresee this mod being a problem for them? will they remove it or reject my car since it is not in "Stock OEM" condition?

also, I dont quite have 10k miles on my MINI, will they not even consider mine to begin with? (I listed the millage on the card that I mailed back to them today)

 

That would be something that they would have to have permission from CARB to reject your car for, since it's not listed as rejection criteria, and doesn't really have anything to do with emissions (thought I might argue it did if I tested your car and it failed ).
But sadly you probably won't get a call if you don't have 10k miles and they have enough responses that do (we're required to mail at least 5x more than we need to test, then it's up to customers to respond - we usually mail 20 for 1 or 2 vehicles). When I get through my positive responses and it's been a while since they mailed I will go back to the people that were within a few 1,000 of the milestone and ask what their odo is now. Or rather, my lovely assisstant with all the patience in the world who deals with the public on the phone so I don't have to will. Only after you do a few mailings and call a lot of people will they let you test cars without the required 10,000 miles.

 

ok, thanks. I guess I will play the waiting game with them and see if I'm good enough
FWIW my odo is just over 8k so I'm kinda close, maybe a road trip is in order

 

$250 WOW you guys are lucky EPA grabed mine from the VDC in NJ and held it up for a week and I got nothing.

 

Just received the letter today (I live in the Denver, Colorado area). See my post in the MINI5280 club area:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ml#post2893791

Thanks,
Rick

 

i'd definitely participate.

 

The folks over at ETC are good people - we do our high altitude testing there also. They're pretty good at getting cars in and out quickly, so don't plan too long of a road trip!

 

I've sent in the post card (with phone numbers, mileage, etc) but I think they'll reject my MINI when they learn that it is not 100% bone stock. It has an Alta intake (CAI) and a WMS 17% SC pulley, like many many MINIs around here. We'll see what they say...

 

I don't know MINI's rules, but I wouldn't test a car with a CAI. Actually, I have tested a car with a CAI (Tiburon) and it failed emissions pretty badly. EPA agreed with me that the intake was the culprit.

 

Very interesting read. If my car were bone stock I sure would take $250.

I still think we need to worry more about how much raw funky pollution China and India are producing. In my industry (off highway diesel), the EPA is only hurting our market. Sure, the majority of our engines are Tier II/III certified, but the requirements are getting ridiculous. My customers are going to love paying $8000 more for aftertreatment in 2014! But hey, the government knows what's good for us

 

Unfortunately it won't get better - but that's job security for me. Agree with it or not (and even I think some of the standards are, um, too stringent), the government/EPA/CARB can only control what they control, which is the US automotive population for mobile source and factories, etc, that are here in the states for stationary source.

 

Actually, it was tested by the Colorado State emissions testing contractor Air Care Colorado and passed without any problems about one month ago (for this year's licensing). Unlike other vehicles, however, Air Care did not put my MINI on a dyno, they only tested what was coming out of the tailpipe at several RPM levels. They also tested the gas cap.

 

Hello everyone! I realized this is an older thread but this was the only search that pop up.

I just received a noticed for my car 2008 R56 Mini. I am definitely thinking about doing it but my car is barely under 50k and what are the chances of them replacing my batteries. I am due for a new battery I would think so in order to run the test?