Hello,
I purchased a 2015 Mini Cooper S Paceman All4 about 3 weeks ago. It has 84k miles. This past Monday I was driving to work and an engine light came on. Long story short, got the car to our mechanic that has 30+ years with Foreign cars. He checked the codes and it was in "Limp" mode because it wasn't allowing the turbo to engage as a means of protection. He said that he would check the solenoid and hopefully that would be it. Well, he pulled the solenoid and there was a significant layer of debris with very obvious metal flakes on one of the 3 screens. He said that this is indicative of engine damage, probably from one of the previous owners running the car too low on oil. He said there is a small chance that with and oil change and new solenoid that it would be ok but more than likely that is a temporary fix and the problem would happen again because of the engine damage so really to fix it, he would replace the engine. Now I have a 30 day/1000 limited warranty, so I was basically getting his advice before taking it back to the small used car dealer where I bought it.
He also said that if they recommend flushing tell them not to as that is not recommended and hasn't been done since the 80's ish because flushing could push the metal debris into other areas of engine causing further damage.
I just spoke to the dealer and the manager said his technician doesn't fully agree with our mechanic and he wants to "replace" some things first. I asked if his tech was concerned about the metal flakes, and he said that his tech has 20yrs of experience with BMW's & Minis and he's seen this before with them and it's somewhat "normal".
I feel like they're going to just do an oil change and change solenoid which will turn off the check engine light and getting running for right now.
Has anyone every experienced this metal flake issue... since it's apparently somewhat "normal'? Pic of solenoid below.

TIA for your advice
Rachel