MINI Complaints

This vehicle just went over 66,000 miles and the airbag warning light started appearing. An independent mechanic and dealership both diagnosed and said it's a defective front passenger seat occupant detection mat and I'd need to replace the entire system/seat. Several other vehicles with the same part have recalls however my specific 2008 model is not included in this recall. I believe it should be included in the recall as this is clearly a known issue and an obvious safety system/design flaw. No sort of crash or collision occurred and now the vehicle will not pass safety inspection and is unusable because of this until I spent roughly $2000 on the repair.

a broken $4 part in the shifting mechanism may cause the car to roll when in park unexpectedly. to replace the part costs ~$2000 in labor. this is a well known issue with MINI Coopers. there is a warning message about the car potentially rolling. given the cost and wide-spread nature of the issue MINI should replace at no cost.

When refueling, nozzle kept shutting off, a gallon was pumped after nine attempts, also fuel erupted as the fill tube was filled with gas. reluctant to drive this car not knowing how much gas is in the tank. The needle shows less than 1/4 and miles remaining fluctuates between 80 and 110 miles. We are told that this problem exists in many mini automobiles, dealer has replacement gas tanks, but same problem exists Parking our Mini, indication of "roll back" is possible when car is parked. Shifter unit was replaced due to torsion spring.

I had several repairs recently that I found that were part of a recall after the fact. This includes the Electric Auxilillary Water Pump and Timing Chair replacement and repair of damaged parts. They refused to reimburse me for the water pump repair that should have been covered. Secondly, when the timing chain fails as it did in my case can cause $2000- $5000+ in damages. My shop is stating this would be a very expensive repair. There is information that the timing chain warranty was extended because of a class action lawsuit and is now covered up to 100,000 miles. I am well within that range. My goal is to get compensation for the recall work and coverage for the timing chain.

The proportioning value that controls brake function had a catastrophic failure and caused the brake calipers especially the left front to lock suddenly. The caused the left front wheel to lock and caused the car to pull hard to left and become difficult if not impossible to control. The car pulled hard left and risked the car moving uncontrollably into on coming traffic. The failed part was saved and is available for inspection. The safety of the driver(my wife) was put at risk during the loss of control of the car. Other cars in the area were also put at risk simply due to the loss of control of our car. The problem was confirmed by the independent service center. The vehicle was not drivable and was towed to the dealership. The dealership thought the root cause was the brake master cylinder. This turned out not to be the case. The root cause was the failed proportioning valve. This caused the calipers to lock. The discs, rotors, calipers and proportioning value were replaced. There were no warning lights and the car had been taken for regular service at the dealership which was included in the purchase of the car. We were told that there is no warning light for a failure of this part.

While driving the car the engine stalls due to timing chain issues . These timing chain issues were part of a safety recall but this car's vin number doesn't qualify! The car will stall at full speed

The driver door latching mechanism failed this past week. For days, I was unable to latch the door closed -- all attempts to close the door would result in the door simply bouncing off the body of the car. I spent hours unsuccessfully trying to get the latching mechanism to work again, e.g. by repeatedly attempting to close the door, holding the door closed and trying to lock all doors. To drive the car home from work and to the dealership for repairs, I was forced to hold the door closed with my left hand while driving and by tying the door closed with my seat belt (on the highway, no less). I eventually took the car to my local dealership and left it for diagnosis and repairs. I took a video of the door's fault, and left the car locked and with the driver's door tied closed with my seat belt. To my amazement, the dealership called a few days later and told me that they were unable to duplicate the fault; as far as I know, no repairs were therefore made. I shared the video of the door's fault with the dealership; they hypothesized that the latching mechanism may have intermittently failed because of the weather. I now feel anxious about driving the car. This is a major safety issue. There are reasons to suspect that this reflects a manufacturing defect: 1) door latches should never fail, irrespective of the age of the car, and force drivers / passengers to e.g. use their seat belts to hold their doors closed; 2) my car is low mileage (~36,000 miles); 3) my car was not involved in any preceding accident or incident that could have caused the latching mechanism to fail; and 4) this is the second time this has happened with this car -- the same issue occurred with the front passenger door ~2 years ago. I'd be happy to share the video that I took of me trying to close the door (already shared with the dealer). At this point, I'd like the NHTSA to investigate; initiate a recall, if necessary; and I'd like Mini to replace the remaining latches on my car.

Foul odor coming from vents when starting up AC, and after turning off for 10 - 15 minutes.

Center console phone charger Center console is and enclosed component and when a cell phone is placed in the console and used for Bluetooth navigation and or phone calls it shuts down the system. The phone heats to such a temp that all phone operations and interaction with the vehicle system freeze or shut down and the phone continues to heat. I have spoken to the dealership and have been told it's a problem. When I communicated to MINI USA they acted as if this had never been reported. As far as warnings all car play functions slow down then freezes, and all functions stop. The phone had become so hot I was afraid it may cause a fire or explode the battery. This process usually takes an hour or so to happen.

Front Upper Arm Bushing on both the Driver’s and Passenger sides needed to be replace after less than 25,000 miles. Bushing failure causes upper arms of suspension to whack against the body and greatly effect handling, could lead to accidents.