Mini Hatch Cooper Questions & Answers

A pretty risky gamble buying a 2004 model with 85K on the clock. In my opinion, it's not worth the gamble and would be akin to throwing away good money after a bad investment. These cars are expensive to maintain and the older they get the more expensive the maintenance, due to the number of issues that increase as they get older.
Again, this is just my opinion...

For a first car I would look at a Honda Jazz, they are cheap, hellishly reliable and a great car. My wife has had one for 5 years and it has not had one single problem. Mini's of that era are unreliable at best and were frought with problems.

Hi Will,sounds like a Sensor fuel-air failier.. or just a”Wrong Code”in the System!!! I don’t know where Ur from,but don’t go to BMW-MINI dealerships$$$$$$...If Ur from Melbourne I can suggest U few places to go.. Cheers Tomas

It would be perfect. Ticks all the boxes... cheap to run, great handling, good safety record etc

European car for a first car, nope. Expensive insurance due to expensive parts and repair costs, go asian for your first car, Suzuki Swift, Honda Jazz, Mazda 3 etc.

Suggest you get your service agent to check the bolt holding the electrical harness in place underneath the car...I had to replace my harness at great expense and when they reinstalled the new one, the bolt was left loose and threw up an endless array of electrical faults for two years before they finally resolved the problem with a wrench (even got locked out for awhile). Repairers came up with an endless list of phantom electrical faults to replace in the interim but it was just the harness bouncing around shorting everything out. MM

Did you check the fuses & relays ? If these are not the issue take it to a non BMW mini spesialust - BMW quoted me $4000 to replace the stereo. The non BMW specialist charged me $1400

I had a Mini for 4 years. the brakes do wear quickly. if you want to avoid excessive cost don't take it to a Mini dealer or BMW - Find a good reputable mechanic. I never took my mini to BMW - my mechanic did a great job looking after its servicing. BMW quoted me 3 times the price. - they tyres also wear quickly.

Had my Mini for 8 years (110,000kms) and changed brake pads three times to the best of my recollection. Have you been driving with the park brake on? Doesn't sound right in any event.

Apparently it's the cruise control. To slow you down going down hills, the car applies the rear brakes. Same thing happened with my car..

... Hi there. I am guessing you have two options,

Mini themselves or eBay. Perhaps a wrecker may have one?

Best of luck!

Or you could try Leyland coopers spare parts devision to see if that helps if you haven't already got a new part that is if the wreckers were no help

This can be a few things the most common is you need to replace the wheel speed sensors.

It's possible it's time to take the car to a Leyland coopers Australia workshop or a tyres specialist shop such as kmart tyres and auto or it could be even be a electrical problem in which case a auto electrician shop might be able to help you further though with kmart tyres and auto you could get the best of both worlds

If the wheel speed sensors are at fault like the other answer stated it you could also try taking the car to a mechanical repairs workshop might be able to help though while you are at it perhaps you could have the braking system looked at even by a braking specialist workshop