1st Gen R53 Cooper S Poor May is falling apart lately

Discussion in '1st Generation: 2002–06 R50, R53 & 2004–08 R52' started by t3hwookiee, Apr 2, 2012.

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  1. t3hwookiee

    t3hwookiee New Member

    Dec 30, 2011
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    Seattle
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    I have an appointment at the MINI dealership on Friday, dang recall of the newer models is taking up all their time slots!

    First thing that happened to May ('06 MCSc manual) is that it looks like the power steering pump is going out, and/or the aux fan. Last Friday after I shut her off a fan kept running. I had this feeling of doom, as I had read about the PSP going out around the mileage she's at (64k). I hopped onto youtube, and sure enough the noise was the same. I went and unhooked the battery ASAP. Took her in to a place south of us that works on a lot of BMWs, and they kept her 4 days before finally telling me what was wrong and getting around to calling my warranty company (never buying a used car without one of those for sure!). I told them to forget it, and went and picked it up. They were trying to charge me more than twice what they were supposed to. But yeah, power steering pump was bad, and the aux fan was dying they said.

    Fast forward to yesterday. I turned on the A/C for the first time this year, and it was really loud, kind of a whirring noise. I turned it back off, and tried it again after the car had warmed up, and the same noise was there, both at idle and on the road. Plus the air was warm, no matter the temperature setting or fan speed. Great. There is no getting through an Oklahoma summer with a bad A/C, cabrio or not!

    Also the throwout bearing seems to have gone. I have a really annoying rattle that goes away when I depress the clutch, and the consensus seems to be throwout bearing.

    I gave in and called the MINI service guy back and asked him to just do a full inspection and fix everything that will be covered by the extended warranty. Going back every two months is getting old! I went through 3 strut mounts and 2 bald tires since June, before finally buying some Ireland fixed camber plates in the fall from Way. Current tires are keeping their tread, imagine that? The coolant reservoir was cracked in August, so that got replaced then. Poor girl has been falling apart. Next MINI is being bought either new (Countryman for my husband) or used with either fewer miles or more so that all these things that seem to happen between 55-70k are already fixed.

    Still love her though. :biggrin5: Best car I've ever owned, nothing beats zipping through traffic with the top down.
     
  2. t3hwookiee

    t3hwookiee New Member

    Dec 30, 2011
    129
    28
    0
    Seattle
    Ratings:
    +28 / 0 / -0
    Oh yeah, need to ask them about the loss of power/real sluggishness I get in second gear several times a week. I've only noticed it on the 1-2 shift, but right after the shift it feels like I'm driving through tar or something, it's really sluggish, then all of a sudden the RPMs pick up and she takes off again. It doesn't seem to matter how much the gas pedal is depressed either, as it has done it with the pedal to the metal, and with it just in normally. So weird.

    My Astra used to do this with pretty much every upshift, and the dealership ended up doing something to the solenoid filter if I remember right. It helped for a bit, and then I gave up and traded it in for the MINI. Much better choice. I hated that Astra.
     

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