Getting ready to put a new exhaust on the MINI and I'm wondering if the CC's go bad on these cars and how long they normally last.

 

There's usually a reason they go bad. Vacuum leaks,exhaust leaks,O2 sensors etc. A smoke test should give you some insight.

 

The cats aren't usually the problem, usually the header cracks at the first cat or between all 4 collector pipes (huge pain to fix).

If you don't have any CEL on, or poor performance, rattles from a broken converter I wouldn't worry about it.

 

Thanks for the replies!