Mini Clubman/Countryman servicing info?

For people who can work on their own cars, most cars are reliable and the brand isn't critical. My experience of breakages are always caused by shops. If you don't take it to shop, it doesn't break. The mini is as good as any if you do your own work, and so long as you don't start off with a broken lemon in the first place.
 
Nige F said:
Hitler's revenge
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LOL The strange thing is that although BM designed the Mini, the engine components are made by PSA in France & shipped to the UK for assembly in Scotland o_O

Why would an established manuf. like BM opt for a foreign (possibly inferior) powerplant?
 
DiyNutJob said:
For people who can work on their own cars, most cars are reliable and the brand isn't critical. My experience of breakages are always caused by shops. If you don't take it to shop, it doesn't break. The mini is as good as any if you do your own work, and so long as you don't start off with a broken lemon in the first place.
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Count's me out then, haven't worked on cars for years & wouldn't know where to start on today's (ie anything post 1990) offerings :giggle:

I'm also remembering the time 2 years ago when I tasked my local garage with replacing the water pump on my old V8. The pump was probably original & two of the studs sheared, but the garage guys had the knowledge & tools to extract/replace the studs .. sure I had to pay for their time but it was money well spent & the car was back on the road on the same day.
 
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DiyNutJob said:
For people who can work on their own cars, most cars are reliable and the brand isn't critical. My experience of breakages are always caused by shops. If you don't take it to shop, it doesn't break. The mini is as good as any if you do your own work, and so long as you don't start off with a broken lemon in the first place.
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Not really true though.

All things are not equal, plus how easy it is, or not, to work on
 
nicam49 said:
Hi All! My son in his early 30s has never driven, now has a young family and is coming to live with us in the UK after being abroad for 9 years. He's anxious to want to learn to drive asap, and I'd like to get him a smallish suitable family car. I watched an episode of Wheeler Dealers Dream Car recently and was impressed with the choice of a Mini (Cooper?) Countryman that was the desired car. I do most of my own repairs on my Mondeo mk3 TDCi and Classic Impreza, and there's a wealth of advice and knowledge on forums and youtube videos to help me. I'm wondering if there's the same support out there for the Mini, - my daughter has a Renault Modus and the available tech info is next to impossible to obtain.
The Renault forum is paranoid about divulging any info they deem 'copyright' and suppress any 'helpful' stuff.....
How so with the Mini.....?..... .are all the engines cam chain driven and easy to access? What about code readers that read 'Mini' not just generic OBD codes, that sort of thing I'm thinking about.... I've been spoiled with the Mondeo as there's a software called Forscan that's supported and written by enthusiasts and free to download and runs on a very cheap reader and can do live monitoring and code injectors too......
Thanks for your thoughts!
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All manufacturers are legally obliged to provide access to "Repair and Maintenance Information" (RMI), as part of their type approval. They normally fight like hell to try and keep it quiet (for obvious reasons!), but they are legally obliged to provide you with a service schedule. The trouble, is that they can make a "reasonable charge" for it... I think this is the site with which you would probably need to register, in order to get it:


But be prepared for a fight! Technically, when we left the EU, this was part of the "retained legislation", but I think they'll try to fob you off by every possible means available.

One of the problems, is that they are increasingly moving over to "dynamic service schedules". This tends to happen as a result of experience in the field - for example, a rash of cam belt failures, might cause them to change the recommended replacement interval - which they would update online, but won't go out of their way to tell owners who have already bought cars!

If you fancy digging your heels in and forcing them to release this data, I can probably help, as I deal with the relevant civil servants who have the job of enforcing this, but it will be a long slog!
 
Even trying to get exploded parts diagrams ( to be able to order parts from dealers) can be a fight, let alone actual information
 
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