The craziness of modern motors

Two years ago my son bought a Mini Cooper. It had one owner, he restored e type jags and looked after the car very well. My son has looked after it well, he had a black box in it for a year so couldn’t drive it hard and kept up on maintenance.

last week it suddenly wouldn’t go into gear with the engine running, obviously a clutch/hydraulic problem. In my mind I was thinking a slave cylinder or a linkage etc. Fluids all ok.

I towed it to our local garage this morning. The guy is straight as a dye and gives you honest answers. He has a brief look at it, and said “if it’s the clutch/slave etc then it’s fit for nothing but scrap. The clutches are very expensive and its about an eight hour job as the engine and gearbox has to come out as one”

complete madness, this car looks like it’s gonna be scrapped when the rest of it is perfect. Give me an old one to work with any day. How’s this saving the planet? Designing a car that has one major component fail in its entire life and that’s fatal.

I’m a bit peed off with the whole situation.

 

I bought a Cooper S off my brother in law two years ago.
Nothing but trouble and expense.
Cost me thousands to repair and I’ve only done 7000 miles in it, and have spent nearly twice the value of the car just to keep it running.
I haven’t spent that much in repairs on my Subarus in hundreds of thousands of miles.

 

Have a look around for a non-franchised MINI specialist or a clutch specialist; there are a couple of places in Sheffield that I have used for stuff like that. You should be able to get it done for £500-600. Make sure they change the oil seals whilst they are in there. You might find that the suspension bushes are shot when they take the subrame out, so that'll be more cost. It's not unique to MINIs, most modern cars seem to be a packaging nightmare.

 

Cam chains can snap on them too ,that's real expense .I think if the tensioner is slack they snap when you stop it as it jolts and like wise when you stop them .
This is according to a garage who specialise in Mini's near Stafford . Best get shot of them after 100 thou .

 

I did the clutch on ours it’s a know weakness, it is a bit of a job front off subframe off, gearbox off took about a day and a half.

look up mini mod on YouTube he’s done some good videos on the job.

 

The more see/read/understand about modern cars the less I want one .
Built in obsolescence seems pretty much taken as the norm in todays throw away society, it's fine saying the vehicle is 99.999% recyclable but if they're only lasting a few years it sort of defeats the object...

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Quarry Garage Sheffield. They own a BMW breakers too so supply used quality parts.

 

I prefer Josh and Jamie at German Auto Autohaus on Little London Road. Both ex-Sytner and very good on BMWs and Minis.
I've used Hidi's in Attercliffe for clutches; fair prices and knows what he's doing as he does a lot of them for the dealers.

 

I haven't, but they have a decent reputation. I know one of the auto box mechanics there and he is sound.

 

It’s not a Mini Cooper . It’s a bmw.

 

FTFY

 

I had the same on a Rover 75. Slave cylinder failed and it inside the gearbox housing . £800 repair. This is why you see so many being scrapped when the car is only worth £500

 

There is only one true Mini. All the rest are crummy BMWs.

All this rubbish is partly why my newest car is now 16 years old, and both my bus and that car have 135000 miles + on the clock.

 

I've got a 2003 BMW Z4 3.0 that's used summertime only and the airbag ECU has failed. I can't fit a used one as the VIN number is coded into it by the factory, BMW told me it's special order and £1500 in advance plus VAT and fitting with no guarantee that the main ECU will recognise it. If that's the case a new main ECU is around £2500, special order and in advance of course. Currently the airbag light is blacked out and I've got through the last 2 MOT's without them noticing. Problem is that it's worth around £3500 but I can't sell it as it is and with the fault declared it's virtually scrap!

 

Why can't you sell it with the fault declared ?

 

It’s only potentially worth £3500, just buy a used one and get it coded

 

I have a 2003 Polo 1.4, with 62,ooo miles on it. Its worth nothing and if it breaks I will just buy another cheap one, plenty out there. At that age and value, repair costs would be more than its worth.

 

I bought a used one but can't get it coded with my VIN anywhere. A couple of BMW indies and some "experts" off the forum have all tried and failed it's cleared all the original codes but throws an incorrect VIN code and puts the light on.