Minis are sporty so they ride stiff normally. you can take the car to the dealer and they can tell you if it is sport or not.

 

I just purchased a 2004 Mini Cooper S and the ride is quite stiff. The combination of a sport suspension package with low profile tires will cause this according to the dealer. I love the firm ride as the car delivers such great feedback and is so responsive. Good luck with your new 2007 MrBulletProof!

 

As one who's considering a Mini, I've heard that the ride is stiff ... that's not what's bothering me, however. I've also heard that it's loud and noisy in the cabin while driving. My hearing isn't the greatest, so this could be a problem for me.

 

External factors like road surface, tire quality/life could be playing a role with the noisiness - but for what it's worth, our project MINIs are not that loud inside and they're being driven on LA roads.

 

We have a few minis and the cab does get a little loud, I would recommend getting a 2011 or newer. The R50,52 and 53 have a rather loud cab and you can really feel the road when you have the hard wall run flat tires. Also all of the 2007 and newer have an noise maker so you can hear the engine and the same issue with the run flat tires. On our 2012 R56 we can talk on the phone using the blue tooth on a smooth road but if it gets ruff the person you are talking to can hear background noise. I would say that the 2011 or newer with the N18 has the quietest cab.

 

Can't do a newer model Mini. This is going to be my DD for errands and trying to stay below $9-10k, so '03-'05.

Has anyone tried an application of Dynamat? I did a reasonably thorough effort to an '03 Focus ZX3. Honestly, if it helped, it was only of very modest help in reducing road noise.

Oh, btw, Mini road noise was mentioned in a C&D review a few years backs, IIRC.

 

My first crisis with my beloved 07 Cooper S. It's been two months since I bought my Cooper S with 70K miles but I've been getting low oil warning light from my engine. Also the alarming rattling noise from the engine started. I immediately added a quart of Mobile 1 and took it to my mechanic. He had a hard time looking at the oil dip stick because of the unusual design but added 1 more quart and checked for leaks, which there was none. It was ok for two more weeks until the low on oil warning came out again. I checked the dip stick and added another quart and took it to my mechanic again. He said, my turbo is burning oil. He topped it off again with oil and we waited to see how much it would actually drink. Again, two weeks later, the light came on again. This time, we drained the entire oil in a pan to see how much we had left. Only two quarts came out and unusually black. This means, that in a span of two months, my engine drank an additional 3-4 quarts of oil. How serious is this problem and is there any repair for this? Is it still under the warranty by Mini for a problem like this? My mechanic tells me I might have to replace the engine which will be very costly. Please let me know if this is a common or a unusual problem with the mini s. I'm still in love with my Cooper and don't want to break up with her.

 

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, however it sounds like your turbo and catalytic converter both need to be replaced. I don’t believe it is the engine, turbo failure is pretty common. Since your car has such low miles on it I would guess that the person who owned it before you didn't change the oil often enough or followed the recommend oil change intervals. We change our cars oil 3 times as much has Mini recommends in our turbo cars and 2 times as much in our non turbo car.
This is a normal occurrence for any turbo car if the improper spec of oil is used, it is not change often enough and/or the engine is turned off before the turbo has been able to cool after driving. I have seen failures as low as 50k in some poorly maintained cars.


A turbo car needs to be cared for a little different than a normally aspirated car. You just cant run it hard and then immediately turn it off. You also need to only use synthetic and change it often. Below are some videos that explain what items can cause your turbo to fail quick and what damage is done to your car when a turbo fails.


The unfortunate thing is that the oil interval recommendation was not baste on when the oil actually needs to be changed. but how long they can stretch it out before it will cause immediate damage. This is because they are paying for the oil changes when you buy it new. On our cars I drain and refill the oil 2 times before we go in for the free service.

The other unfortunate item is that they advertize a specific brand of oil to be used and mark it on the dip stick or housing. The bad thing about that is people will go grab that brand of oil without knowing that it is not the right oil for their car. This causes a lot of premature failures due to people putting conventional oil in a car that requires fully synthetic oil. And even this is only part of the story, Mini Cooper uses a European specification oil “ACEA” (European Automobile Manufacturers Association) most people will see the brand or the word “synthetic” and think it is ok to use in there car.


Unfortunately they couldn’t be more wrong, most oils that we have in America are “API” (American Petroleum Institute) spec oils. API oils only need to have 1% synthetic in them to be called “Fully Synthetic motor oil” (API oil specs. have been out dated since 1983 and now most manufactures have spec-ed there on oils). So now you end up waiting to long to change your oil, using the wrong oils, and/or conventional oil and over paying for an outdated spec of oil.


This is why turbos that should last over 100k last only 50 to 70k. Hope that was not to much information for you and it answers your questions. The unfortunate thing is that this could all be avoided if you had the proper information or it was provided by the manufacturer. But profits always win over truth.


Also make sure you change the oil line and catalytic converter when you change the turbo or you could end up repeating the process with in a year or two. See the video links below for and explanation on why it is a good idea to change them both with the turbo.



How to kill a turbo with the wrong oil.



How oil can kill your turbo.



How not changing the oil line can kill your turbo


How low oil can kill your turbo.

 

Boost,


Thank you so much for the comprehensive answer. Now I finally understand the entire problem. I checked out the 4 videos and it looks like , I may have to replace the turbo and the catalytic convertor. But in the mean time, I'm gonna cool off the engine for two minutes after a long drive and see if it make a difference. But as I was browsing on Youtube, there are many Cooper owners with the same problem or worse, a leak. I hope Mini addresses these problems since they seem more common than not.
Thanks again for your help.