Most liked posts in thread: POS 1 :: 2002 MINI Cooper

This one wasn't beat up, we bought it from a friend. I guess mini parts age faster than most other cars, especially rubber hoses and gaskets! That's what we've been replacing. Oil pan gasket, valve cover gasket, hoses and crankshaft sensor o ring! There was a huge oil leak from that oring! I just figured out why it was having a rough idle and stalling! We thought it was cold weather because it kept stalling in weather below freezing and then it got warm outside and the car ran great! Again this week it went below freezing and the car would not drive! I took off the air filter hose and cleaned out the throttle body with carb spray and wiped it clean with a rag then tightened up the hose again super tight and it started like a champ! I drove it for a couple miles and she's back to full power! Please don't get me wrong, i love the little car! It rides like its on rails, but i do get pretty mad when stuff breaks thats not supposed to at 85,000 miles. Ie alternator, s drive pulleys, cooling fan and water pump. Im an aircraft mechanic retired from the navy and i absolutely hate bringing this thing to the dealer! They quoted me over 5,000 dollars for parts and labor for everything i fixed in a couple of hours and 1,000 dollars in parts! Hopefully she stays running for a while now that the throttle sensor is all cleaned up! I make my daughter do a lot of the work to it! So she learns how to repair it! She loves it! We've made a lot of videos on how to fix the mini! She did most of the work herself!

 

Because that's what it is! 1 Big POS! But trying to stay positive and fix it up. Seems like every time we fix a major problem a week later something else happens.