Anyone else know of issues with the crank seal on the post 2014 3 cylinder Minis? My step-daughters car has had a “rattle” on and off for a month or so, couldn’t trace the fault so it went into the dealers. It’s a four year old car with 20k on the clock, she is the only owner, she was just about to pay the balloon on the PCP to own the car. Dealer has got back today, crankshaft wear resulting in a £9K new engine! They have asked her to contribute £500 toward this, which I don’t think is too bad as the car is out of warranty. She’s not happy of course. Reading online there does seem to be a growing number of these failures, it wasn’t a recall over here (possibly was in the US?) but some dealers were doing the work to replace the faulty seal during services. Hers clearly hasn’t been done. Not a great story for the reliability issues.
Well, the upside is £9k worth of engine for £500, although I can understand how she feels unhappy. Bit of a bargain I'd say.
They did replace “some oil seal/leak thing” ( her words not mine...) in Sept and did an end of warranty check. Probably the crank seal, but the damage must have been done internally by then, hence the failure now. I’ve given her my thoughts on getting the work done and then owning a car, a new engine after all.
If she pays towards it then she will get warranty on the replacement engine. Pay £500 and the car has some value in it. Don’t repair it and it’s worth nothing so a no brainier for me Cheers Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
She is going ahead with the work, bartered them down to £411, random figure, and they will give an unlimited mileage/2 year warranty on the new engine. A result I would say.
It will be an exchange engine not a brand new one but as good as. Very rare to get a brand new major unit these days. Cheers Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I've heard of Mini engines having a death rattle - but that's usually failure of the timing chain guides. I presume it's the petrol she has? In any case, £411 for a new engine and 2 year warranty is a great result!
I look at it this way, even if under an extended warranty it would have cost more in real terms, to you/your wife. Peter
Should get the car back on Tuesday. Only the lower part of the engine will be new apparently. The majority of the £9k was labour!
I’m sure it was the early 3 cylinder engine that had an issue with excessive crank end float so most likely that at fault. Still a new short engine for £411 is still not too bad, doubt many other manufacturers would be doing that even if it’s an issue they know about.
Pics of the Mini?! It’s a black Mini Cooper with black wheels....lol. Does nothing for me. She loves it, so that’s all that matters. Will be clean and shiny when she gets it back this week.
Car is back and sorted. I think that Mini did a decent job in all, after agreeing to fix there was a quick turn around. As said, I don’t think there are many other car makers that would be as proactive.