Thanks all. I was afraid the dealer was the way the more I looked at it. Sigh, I guess I just hope for a quick job with a small bill.
Well, thankfully, the bonnet fix was dirt cheap! BUT, what else they found made me throw-up in my mouth just a bit... . Very sad to find that my 3 years old car (60k) needs a new water pump already. Seems WAY early for something that big. Has anyone else with comparable miles had to have this replaced?
Is your MINI using or losing coolant? If so maybe a pump is needed. Isn't the intake silencer something you removed. Why put one back on? You can easily replace a micro filter. You can easily change your own oil. You can flush the brake fluid out yourself. Pour a bottle of Techron in the tank for your FI cleaning. I'm think a drive belt should last longer than 60K. Should be an easy job. I think they are trying to vacuum money out of your wallet. How much did the open the bonnet cost??
No fluid leak has been observed by me. I need to crawl under and take a look, as Sam seemed to think they probably saw 'green fuzzy stuff' (his words) that indicate a leak. 60k just seems early for something to die and need replaced... Maybe I'm off kilter on that thought, but yea. Like you said Chuck, the rest of the items don't seem too bad and can be covered quickly. How many times on your r53 has the water pump been swapped?
Watch the coolant tank. Make sure it is full & monitor if it loses fluid. My guess is it isn't. If there is a green fuzzy it weeped & is now not leaking. I'd take the wait & see approach. No water pump, but 4 thermostats & housings. :frown2:
I use Prestone all makes all models 50/50 mix. I guess you could buy a gallon of the MINI branded stuff too.
Bonnet release broken The bonnet release on my 2013 hardtop failed at the oil change shop and had to leave without service. In my case the latch is loose and there is slac in the cable so it hangs open. It looks as though the cable popped out of the cable mount built into the interior latch. So there is nothing to hold back the sheathing when you tug on the cable, so I'm not getting any tension on the cable. I need to pull the drivers side interior trim that surrounds the bonnet latch off so I can re-seat the cable sheath in the mounting (poorly designed as it is) and find a way to make it stronger some how, epoxy maybe. Any tips on how to get at the latch behind the trim? It looks like you start by taking off the drivers seatbelt mount screw near the rear of the drivers door.
I also took the inner fender liners out to see if I could manually trip the latch - no bueno. Most of the time the cable sheath has popped out of it's retainer, which makes the cable slack On my '09 Clubby, there was just one screw holding the hood pull in place, it was no problem to take it out. Once out I reseated the cable and sheath in their proper place then I put a cable zip tie around the cable so it couldn't come out again. I also lubed the latches and mechanisms under the hood once I got it open......seems like I pulled the seal back from the front edge of the door to get in behind the trim panel. Mine's been hard to open since day one, lubing everything made it work the way it should......but I have no idea how you'd get the hood open if the cable breaks or comes undone from the latching mechanism......I'm going to keep mine well lubricated from here on.
Mini dave is spot on. I'd recommend using a graphite spray lube on the cable, and under hood latches on a bimonthly basis to help keep things moving. That's what I did on my old R56 and still do on my current R53.
One of my cables is a little stretched. I put a shim behind the ball at the end of the cable to take up some of the slack and I also keep the latches lubricated. Did that a couple years ago and it's been fine ever since. I also have a set of new cables, but I'm too lazy to rout them in. You can usually get to the latch to trip it by taking off the wheel well liners which is what I'll try if it snaps before I get around to replacing it.