Mini Cooper s

[89325iturbo]

Hey guys, not an e30 question, but still BMW related. I was thinking about picking up a Mini Cooper s. Needs some work, at a minimum a blown head gasket. The guy said its getting exhaust gas in the coolant. Is that more of a possible cracked head situation? Looked at the car oil still normal.

Thanks dusty

[djjerme]

..run away.

run away fast.

You don't want it.

[dnguyen1963]

On the other hand, you can replace the engine and have a decent car to drive around.

[89325iturbo]

I've heard bad stories of them, and others were they are straight forward fix issues and your good to go.
But I don't know a ton about the r53 coopers s.

[89325iturbo]

I was thinking worst case replace the head if it has an issue with other associated gaskets ect.. A used head in eBay is $500. The car is a 2005, and got it talked down to $750.

[dnguyen1963]

Seriously, are you going to do the work yourself? If yes, then $750 is a pretty good price. A friend of mine has the Cooper S and it is fairly easy to work on after he pulled the engine out.

[djjerme]

The only reason I say that is because these cars have a mess of problems. My buddies shop is primarily Mini, and I have never seen so many blown motors in my life. I mean seriously, I don't know the how or why they sell so many of them, but DAMN!

If you do end up picking it up, and the motor is toast, they are not hard to swap by removing the whole front end. But, you may have some trouble locating a good motor to swap in. For a while they were on back order nationally from places like LKQ.

There is a laundry list of issues and most of them have to do with oil starvation issues or the turbo's self destructing because of center bearing failure. Also, if you do swap a motor, make sure you take the flywheel all the way off!

[glnr13]

If you're doing the work yourself and it's clean inside and out I'd step into it. Especially if it's a 2005-2006 with the updated gear ratios. And big plus if it has the LSD.
I'd most likely go straight to a motor swap instead of replacing the head.

most of them have to do with oil starvation issues or the turbo's self destructing because of center bearing failure.

wrong chassis. he is interested in a supercharged R53 (which has it's own set of problems) R56 and onwards are turbos.

[89325iturbo]

Yeah I'd be doing the work myself. Didn't think about a whole motor replace. I wanted to keep it cheap as I could since the car was $750. The car overall is in pretty decent shape some dings and scratches of an 11 year old car. And could see some bubbling under the rear lights where they tend to.
Do the bottom ends tend to have issues? Just curious as to why not just stay with replacing the top end components unless obviously if there's an issue with the bottom end

[glnr13]

from what i know about the bottom ends they're pretty stout. i just suggested full motor replacement since you won't know what damage there is to the original motor until the head is off, might be more work than just going straight to a "fresh" motor.

really easy to work on that car once you get to "service mode" and have the whole front end off.

[djjerme]

wrong chassis. he is interested in a supercharged R53 (which has it's own set of problems) R56 and onwards are turbos.

Didn't see the year. If it's a pre-Prince engine, then he would be in a lot better shape. The R56 engines are so terrible. Heck, there's been several class actions over them..

And yet people still will buy them used because they are Sooooo Cute.

http://www.law360.com/articles/530596/bmw-sued-over-mini-cooper-engine-defect

[varg]

easy to work on after he pulled the engine out.

easy to work on that car once you ... have the whole front end off.

You can't make this stuff up

[Stanley Rockafella]

And yet people still will buy them used because they are Sooooo Cute.

Yeah I dont' understand that either. Where I live there's oodles of these things all over the streets all driven by females.

[89325iturbo]

The biggest attraction for me was the price, but if there can be a lot of headaches still might not be worth it. Then again the worst I'd be out is $750.

[dnguyen1963]

Yeah I dont' understand that either. Where I live there's oodles of these things all over the streets all driven by females.

There is not much to understand. "Honey, there is something wrong with the car. Can you fix it in the next five minutes?" They drive the car and you fix it when there are problems.