2003 MINI Cooper S Suspension Problems

“I was starting my vehicle and it made a bad knocking noise then it was like crunching noise so I stopped turn it off and waited for a while went back to the car still making a strange noise but once I put it in the drive it stopped making noise drove down the road a bit and talking about apparently slips off of the car so it just pulls over inside all the all the wearing lights came on so pulled over apparently this happens quite often but the harmonic balancer separated and with spinning against itself and knocked the pieces off of it and through the serpentine belt so that needs to replace…”

“My Mini Cooper S has less than 27,000 miles on it. It has been carefully driven and has sustained no crash damage. Had several warning lights come on the car and had failures with the ABS, steering angle sensor, and front wheel sensor. In addition and most importantly, I was told that I had mushrooming and cracked front shock tower mounts on both sides of the car, and that alone would cost over $1,400 to repair. I was told that hitting potholes or other road hazards caused this. …”

“While pulling into the parking garage at work, the rear of my Mini Cooper S made a noise. The control arm on the right, rear suspension broke. When looking under the rear, the control arm was in two pieces, broken in the middle. The vehicle is at the dealer and I will be requesting the part back.”

“After reading internet forums regarding the Mini cooper cars. I learned of a recurring problem with the front strut towers deforming under regular driving conditions. Upon inspection of my own Mini cooper by myself I found that my towers were distorted in a mushrooming of the top sheet metal . I found online the manufacturer of a machined aluminum plate that bolts on top of the tower adding additional strength to the top of the tower. My vehicle did not have cracks in the tower but other people are finding cracks as well as the distortion. …”

“Just driving along on a straight smooth road at 40 MPH when the lower rear control arm broke clean in half nearly causing me to lose control of the car as the wheel rotated up into the fender well. Scottsdale Mini insists that this arm should only break if the car was crashed and therefore they will not honor the warranty. I am the original owner and have never hit any significant potholes or other road hazards. There are many similar cases of this failure reported on the internet but Mini is apparently reluctant to classify it as a design flaw.”