R56 mini cooper s reliability

[chris139ryan]

Hi All

New member on here from Dublin. My better half is looking at buying one of the above.

I asked for info on a fellow car forum (backroads) and I was pointed in this direction.

Over the past few days I have looked at a good few R56 owner stories. Not one of them has been good in terms of reliability, all horror stories.

I am not one to follow the dealers recommended service guides as in my head they are way too long which will lead to problems. Every car I have owned gets an oil change between 5-10k kms just for piece of mind. I have never had a problem with any engine doing this method.

Back to the R56. Are they really that bad. I know a good specialist is key for maintaining the health of any car.
As I am in Dublin I know there are bmw specialists but I'd like a mini one instead. I have already decided on O'learys in Cork if this purchase goes ahead.

Bar the following is there anything else to look out for

Rattle/tapping on cold start
Timing chain noise
Leak in a pillar
Rust
loose steering
unstable rear
Car bogging down when accelerating
oil leaks
the usual car checks like gearbox, clutch, brakes, rust etc

If purchase is successful we will probably de-chock the engine, get the breather system modified, remap, upgrade the brakes and tires


Thanks all

Chris

[irlmin]

Hi Chris , welcome to the forum , R56 S models have problems , however most of these problems are caused by totally inadequate servicing in the 1st 3 years , yes I mean TLC , MINIs service pack . I have many many examples of how inadequate oil changes have affected the N14 and N18 engines . I recently sold My Countryman S with 89000 km and it never consumed oil and in fact never even dis-coloured the oil between the 7000 km service intervals still on original timing chain and no wear whatsoever ,contrast this with a similar N18 engined car in yesterday with just 37000km and the owner followed MINIs schedule the result a very noisy timing chain and consuming 1l oil every 1000km , my point is if the car was maintained correctly it will be reliable , getting back to My Countryman S in the course of my ownership I had total reliability and only spent money on tyres and service items . it still continues today with MINI refusing to service cars until what they still consider to be adequate intervals, customer in recently with F56 MINI who wanted his oil changed at 10000km dealer refused , we did change for him , again at 20000km he wanted dealer to change oil again refusal , we changed it again , same at 30000km and he was told his 1st service would be at 34000km . we are finding this regularly now . getting back to R56 S unfortunately its not enough to look for main dealer history as this may or may not be a benefit . if you have a specific car in mind feel free to contact me with details and I may be able to help with what you should be looking at . as regards the other items you mentioned not usually a big problem , just make sure whoever you have working on the car is familiar with the model as we spend half our life fixing f**k-Ups caused by people diagnosing by elimination of components at the customers expence . no issue with steering , no wobbly rear end if everything is ok bush wise and if alignment correct . certainly no 'bogging down' on acceleration if everything ok . Yes timing chains give trouble ----- oil changes . carbon build-up yes ------- again oil changes . and also a poor breather design .we are replacing turbos recently as mileages increase --------- again oil changes , in fact most of the R56 engine problems can be attributed to lack of servicing . now the good news walnut shell blasting will sort the carbon build up , timing chain issues are a fixed price item with us .I could go on and on but the bottom line is each car is different . give Me a call if I can help with specifics .
G

[chris139ryan]

Excellent piece of information there.

Thanks so much for taking the time to write the above.

We have a car in mind I will send you the link via pm

Chris

[whirsk]

Hi folks,
Apologies for hijacking thread,but it has addressed most of my questions about R56 cooper s .
Further to that what approx would be the cost of decoking and timing chain repair,as it would be the first thing i would sort on vehicle.
Cheers whirsk

[irlmin]

You have a PM

[whirsk]

PM received.
Cheers for reply,

[cod7]

https://www.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/2 ... f/20382288

Went and viewed this car yesterday. It has service history from O'Leary's in Cork, does anyone have any previous on this car? My last r56 gave me some big issues so I'm a bit worried. Thanks!

[irlmin]

The MINI was in to us regularly for a while with a local owner, we haven't seen it with some time as it changed ownership approx 12 months ago , so cant comment on current condition . G

[cod7]

Thanks Irlmin!!

So I've gone and bought it anyway after someone had said that it was a very good thing that it had been with you guys. Is there anything major done to it that you know of? I was told to look at getting it de-coked. The latest owner got the timing chain done and hasn't put much mileage on it.

Thanks again!