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New New Mini owner
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Author:  jbj4700 [ Wed Aug 01, 2018 7:58 pm ]
Post subject:  New New Mini owner

Hi everyone, in the next few days I am picking up a black 2003 Mini Cooper S JCW.
It has 150,000k however it's never missed a service and the current owner has spared no expense.
Being black it needs a good polish to remove swirl marks and there are some clearcoat bubbles on the hatch plus the spoiler needs repainting (15 year old car) I can ignore those issues or deal with it eventually. Overall it's not showroom but pretty good for it's age. I am more concerned with the mechanical which all appears great.

The owner recently had new rear struts fitted, bushes in front, oil cooler seals redone, valve cover gaskets, brake pads, brake fluid and coolant flushed, new dipstick, wheels re-coated, new passenger window motor.

When he bought it three years ago the SC belt was changed so it should be good for a while.
Very excited!

Author:  Harley [ Wed Aug 01, 2018 10:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: New New Mini owner

jbj4700 wrote:
When he bought it three years ago the SC belt was changed so it should be good for a while.


My 2003 model used to shred supercharger belts every 15,000km.....and I was buying new Gates ones too!
Keep an eye on it, cause if it breaks the engine will overheat instantly (water pump is on the back of the blower).

Author:  brett [ Sun Aug 05, 2018 8:23 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: New New Mini owner

enjoy i have a 2002 JCW with the 210bhp kit.. love it

Author:  jbj4700 [ Thu Aug 09, 2018 7:58 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: New New Mini owner

Well my first week has not been good, ready to trade and wear the loss.

1. When indicating right the high beams come on so shrugged it off and ordered an indicator, there was cardboard stuffed in with the stick.

2. Cleaned and polished and found lots of damage that was not apparent including rust bubbles.

Still ok with it, it's a 15 year old car.

3. Supercharger belt is slipping since the engine was cleaned, turns out it's five years old not three.

4. Oil leak I requested fixed and was told is fixed by mechanic doing rwc has not been fixed.

5. I didn't think to test the heater, never have but will now, it blows cold unless over 2000 rpm, it's not overheating but I've added 500ml of top up coolant and it's back to min, heater still cold, this has me worried as there's a receipt for "flush and treat cooling system" two months ago, it may well be an air pocket, thermostat stuck open, clogged heater core, waterpump or worst case scenario stuffed supercharger to wp gears.

6. Abs sensor wire has somehow rubbed on harmonic balancer down to the wires.

I have a terrible gut feeling about it now that I can't shake.

I'm able to fix most of these issues myself and have already ordered a belt and belt tool, abs sensor but I'm spooked.

Author:  9YaTaH [ Fri Aug 10, 2018 3:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: New New Mini owner

Sounds like a well used and barely maintained car (Company Leased?) ...as long as the Banana Skins in the sump were good Australian ones...you shouldn't have many drivetrain problems...keep at it and it will reward you (eventually) :P

Author:  jbj4700 [ Fri Aug 10, 2018 5:12 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: New New Mini owner

Looks like fleet originally, at some point private then the previous owner who is real estate agent, he's done heaps but perhaps some things were let go, service book has nothing missed but it's just scheduled before him, he's done 12m/5000km services. Feeling a bit more at ease since getting it back, not sure what gives with heater but the coolant swirls around in the expansion tank, no oil there, no milk in engine oil, haven't driven it for more than 30 min but temp needle never moves once it gets to half. The dents are from vandals apparently, looking at it today the paint isn't as bad as I believed, not good but not shocking, could get away with respraying hatch, spoiler, one rear quarter and driver door. Need to take it back to fix the passenger window lol, it's not quite high enough closed and whistles badly.

I have an indicator stalk, driver mirror gasket, abs sensor , drive belt plus tool on order, will do those, see how it goes then do thermostat, heater core, crank sensor o-ring, waterpump, sump gasket and SC service in one go, I don't fancy pulling the front off multiple times.

Author:  jbj4700 [ Sat Aug 11, 2018 5:21 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: New New Mini owner

Engine still leaking lol, it's dripping on the drivers side so pretty sure it's not Rear Main, I'll just keep topping it up and put a drip tray under until I decide what to do. Seems to drip after driving then will stop once it's sat for a while, I think, will monitor it over the weekend.

The mechanic says it's just seeping, if it drips it's not just seeping lol.

Author:  hpal [ Sat Aug 11, 2018 6:19 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: New New Mini owner

jbj4700 wrote:
Well my first week has not been good, ready to trade and wear the loss.

Go out and buy a second hand Land Rover and then get back to me! :P

Author:  jbj4700 [ Mon Aug 13, 2018 5:28 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: New New Mini owner

Heater working fine now, was a tiny bit of air in the system, likely from the flush, coolant has not dropped any more, the passenger vents are warmer than drivers which is odd. Might put it into mechanic with parts for sump, I cbf doing it in my narrow garage.

Author:  jbj4700 [ Fri Sep 14, 2018 3:16 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: New New Mini owner

So, since my last post the car has been off the road for almost three weeks..

19th August discovered passenger seatbelt had a large split in it, or rather my 7 year old did while sitting in the seat.

Put it in at a different mechanic on 28th to have sump and timing cover gaskets plus a few others replaced, by now I've replaced the drive belt and noticed the super charger bearings get extremely loud so the mechanic also topped up the snout. It took until Friday 31 for the work to be done, in that time the sump bolt was discovered to have been stripped out by the previous mechanic (same one who did RWC) or whoever last removed it, they've added a washer and tightened it up super tight, all the threads came out and it needed to be helicoiled. He was supposed to check the power steering leak but didn't have time, more on this later.


But I did not get my car back on that day because when the mechanic removed the oil filter the anti drain back valve popped out in pieces, not wanting to spend $800 on an oil filter assembly I ordered the valve off a Ford Powerstroke which Google says fits. Meanwhile after thinking about it hard I reported the original mechanic to TMR, the seat belt got me really annoyed because if I'd had an accident would my daughter have been seriously hurt? the valve finally arrived on 11th September, it was due the 6th but FedEx decided that they didn't want to deliver to my parcel locker so handed it over in Sydney to Auspost standard delivery, it fit and I was sent off with the oil light coming on at idle. I pull up at home to check for oil leaks and see coolant gushing from the expansion tank, the cap is stuffed so I had to order a new one, I hope it is just the cap and not something more serious, probably is. My mate and I made up an alloy plug to block off the anti drain back port since the Powerstroke one was no good, start her up and no more oil light at idle.

I waited until yesterday for the new cap to arrive, installed it and then decided out of curiosity I should check the power steering fluid which, low and behold is completely empty except for the small puddle of RED liquid in the centre of the filter.

Left a truthful review about the mechanics on their Facebook page and was accused of cutting the seatbelt and lying about the other roadworthy issues then threatened with defamation so I removed the review, seriously why would I cut a seatbelt, order a new one, wait a week to report to TMR and almost a month to post a review? What do I have to gain? I still have to fix the stupid thing even to try selling it. I had never dealt with this mechanic before, just ridiculous but shows the mechanics character, he spoke openly to me about the leaks saying put cardboard under it or tip petrol on it then claims there were no oil leaks? so I paid a mechanic $700 to pretend he fixed the leaks? Ordered over $500 worth of parts just so I had receipts and could defame him? If I had that much money to burn I wouldn't be driving a 15 year old Mini, nor would I be using loans to do so!

So, I'm going to replace the Power Steering hose clamps, try my best to flush out the red crap and then see if I still don't want to auction it off on Ebay and buy a Falcon. Am still tossing up if I should get it into TMR, RWC hasn't elapsed by time or mileage.

The original seller must have known about all these issues as his mechanic must have, I hate the car now and just want it gone but can't afford another, spewing I have thrown away about 11.5k and it's still stuck in my driveway.

Author:  9YaTaH [ Sat Sep 15, 2018 7:22 am ]
Post subject:  Re: New New Mini owner

You are not alone in finding it difficult to find a good, mostly honest mechanic...stories such as yours have been happening since the time when cars had wooden wheels...

Take a deep breath...and stop and regroup...

Ask around the BINI clubs who they trust?

Above all...don't hate the car, that can be mentally destructive...any car can be fixed and become a reliable fun machine...

Patience! :D

Author:  jbj4700 [ Sat Sep 15, 2018 8:07 am ]
Post subject:  Re: New New Mini owner

Topped up power steering, took about 250ml to get the level right. Drove out of town about 10k and back, no issues other than heater not working at all. Checked power steering fluid again and the green has turned red so someone has definitely put ATF or God knows what in it.

Author:  9YaTaH [ Sun Sep 16, 2018 2:30 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: New New Mini owner

jbj4700 wrote:
Topped up power steering, took about 250ml to get the level right. Drove out of town about 10k and back, no issues other than heater not working at all. Checked power steering fluid again and the green has turned red so someone has definitely put ATF or God knows what in it.


Green? Then maybe coolant was used :shock:

Author:  jbj4700 [ Mon Sep 17, 2018 8:25 am ]
Post subject:  Re: New New Mini owner

The correct fluid is green, fuchs Pentosin CHF or Penrite LDAS, red in these is not a good sign.

Have listed on Ebay. If nobody takes it will trade it in. I don't mind fixing issues but not one thing after another due to neglect, I don't need to stress about how I will get to work. I'll try not to get screwed with the next car.

Author:  jbj4700 [ Mon Sep 17, 2018 2:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: New New Mini owner

Can't even trade the pos, might get 2k, so I've just given away 10k to a scumbag.

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