5 Ways To Make Your Mini Cooper S More Reliable!

what's up guys welcome back to my channel thank you for watching as you can see i'm with my mini cooper today unfortunately these cars have a very bad reputation when it comes to reliability so many people ask me how i keep my car reliable um if i've had any issues and i have had issues in the past but i'm going to give you five different tips five different ways for you guys to try and keep your mini cooper more reliable now just because you do these things doesn't mean the car is not going to break but hopefully it'll prolong the life of your mini and it'll give you less headaches so let's hop right into it these are going to be five different ways that you could keep your mini cooper more reliable all right guys the first way to keep your mini cooper more reliable is the engine oil that is one of the most important things about these cars you need to use the correct oil this car uses a full synthetic oil i use 5w40 liquid moly it's right up on the screen right now exactly what i use right here and uh it's a little more expensive than going to like autozone and buying like a cheaper full synthetic or whatnot but that's what i use it's worked great and i've had no issues and these cars tend to burn oil if i'm not mistaken if you go on some forums it even tells you that some of these cars like to burn a quart every like 1 000 miles so frequently you want to check everything out you want to make sure that the level is always good i mean you got the dipstick right there on the side i check mine about once a week when i drive it just to make sure that the level is okay that's what i recommend you guys do maybe once a week once every other week just pop the dipstick out get a napkin check the the level of the oil to make sure it's good and another thing too if you look on the manual if i'm not mistaken it'll say that you know you should change the oil every like 10 000 miles i think that's kind of ridiculous ten thousand miles is a lot i changed my oil every three to four thousand miles max and that's what i suggest you guys stick to uh ten thousand miles i don't think the oil is gonna look pretty and you face having issues even though from the dealer says it i mean i know some tech some places might you know say oh you know the oil is good enough don't worry you'll be fine i just recommend you guys change it every three to four thousand miles it'll avoid a headache you know using or spending forty dollars fifty dollars on oil change could save you thousands on a rebuild on a motor so that's the first thing guys the oil you use make sure you're checking the oil level and don't change your oil every 10 000 miles that's just my recommendation all right guys reason number two is right here coolant you want to make sure that you're using the correct coolant when it comes to these cars and make sure that your coolant level is right these cars tend to run very very hot and again these cars have cooling issues as you know if you have one of these cars these cars suffer from you know bad water pumps the thermostat housing likes to crack uh right down there has you know uh the thermostat housing again likes the crack likes to leak right on top of the transmission so it puddles up right down there and you want to make sure that your level is good mine actually is a little low i do have to add but you want to make sure that you're using the correct coolant because again these cars run very hot and you don't want to risk like warping the head having engine issues because you decided not to put the right coolant or you ran low on coolant and the car ran super hot so these cars like to have cooling issues again so another way to make the car more reliable is make sure you're using the correct coolant in the car and make sure that the level is always topped off check it you know well you can check it every single time you check the oil like before when you're checking the oil just make sure there's enough coolant if it needs a little bit buy the correct one this is the one i use right here up on the screen right there use that it's the correct one for the mini cooper um it might be a little pricier than going to like autozone and buying like a 50 50 autozone brand one just don't use the incorrect things use the right stuff and the car won't give you any kind of cooling issues and it'll prevent something from possibly the thermostat going out or your water pump going out the coolant pipe in the back of the engine going out it'll save you from a lot of headaches all right guys so the third way to keep the car more reliable is that making sure that your ignition system is good these cars suffer from misfiring when it comes to the spark plugs and the coils for some reason again they prematurely go out they don't last very long and it kind of sucks but basically the way i do it i've been changing my spark plugs like every like 15 to 20 000 miles so that's the way i've done it for the past couple of years mind you is not my daily so i don't put that many miles on it but like i said between 15 and 20 000 miles just to be safe i use the ngk 1422 if i'm not mistaken it's an evo spark plug they're a little bit colder so it's really good when you have a tuned mini with some bolt-ons on it um they still work even if you use it for a stock application they're a little better than the stock plugs and they don't wear out as fast but that's another way to keep your car more reliable is the spark plugs make sure that you're using good spark plugs make sure that you're using good ignition coils to avoid the misfires because again these cars like to throw check engine lights for everything and it's a misfire and most likely it's going to be a plug or it's going to be a coil so i suggest again i would show you but you know the n18 engine cover it's right under there it's super simple to do it'll take 10 minutes for you to change the plugs and honestly these plugs on amazon i can even link them down below they're like forty dollars for four so again if you're doing it once a year once every two years you should be good and they're really good plugs that's what i recommend that's what i use i've had them in the car for the past like i said maybe not even 10 000 miles they've been perfect no issues so that's my recommendation so the third way check your addiction your ignition system make sure it's good so the fourth way to keep your car more reliable is these cars suffer from carbon buildup very badly especially the n14 engine the n18 not as much usually you could get away with it but the carbon buildup on the intake valves is awful on these cars especially if you're not using the correct gasoline obviously always put premium gasoline these cars call for 91 obviously if you're on the east coast put 93 if you're on the west coast 91 it's a given you have to do it use the right gas it'll avoid as much carbon buildup but you need to do a walnut blast on these cars it's just good preventative maintenance that's a way to keep the engine running well there's times where you might have a misfire and you know you change your plugs you change your coils you might even go as far as changing like an injector or something and you still have an issue you might have really bad carbon buildup and you need to get a walnut blast done now walnut blasting it might not be the cheapest thing in the world depending where you go you could spend upwards to probably like about a thousand dollars could be cheaper depending if you go just like a regular independent shop or if you have a buddy or even you know you could buy this stuff yourself and try and do it which obviously if you have no experience i don't recommend but doing a carbon um i'm sorry a walnut blast for the carbon buildup is super important especially if you have higher miles now it really depends how much you drive your car it depends if you're putting good fuel in how often you might have to do it now if you have higher mileage if you've never done it i would recommend to do it it'll probably prolong the life of your motor and let me this is a picture of right here right now of a dirty valve on your intake and now this is a picture of a clean one so obviously it's a big difference the before and after so it's definitely recommended i would totally do it it'll prolong the life of your engine and your car's gonna run like it did from factory right out the showroom floor because when you have a lot of carbon build up the car runs super sluggish and it might give you issues that you really don't know what is causing them and then once you do the walnut blast you realize that everything has cleared up and the car runs good again so definitely way number four is to do a walnut blast it's worth it you should do it so for the last way to keep your mini cooper reliable i'm in the car and it's this right here believe it or not so this is my ultra gauge guys i made a video about a year ago maybe year and a half ago about it now the good thing about this it tells you everything in real time now why i say it's gonna keep your car more reliable you'll be able to see if there's any errors uh unfortunately the mini cooper does not have a temperature gauge so this right here will let me know if the car is overheating or not so these cars do run hot like i stated before in the video these cars normally will run anywhere from like 220 to 230 degrees which is normal and if you see anything upwards of that it means your car's running too high if you see you know 240 to 250 you're overheating you should definitely pull over to the side and see what's wrong but this temp gauge right here it's in real time it could really save your life it could save your car from blowing up it can save your car from running out of cooling whatever the case is this will tell you obviously you have your boost pressure right here um if you don't want to run a mechanical boost gauge or tap into anything you can run the electronic one it'll read from the ecu how much boost the car is making so obviously if you're over boosting or whatever you can cause the car to blow up the engine to have an issue whatever so you got that um it shows you the timing make sure everything is positive and in the right realm of stuff you got your intake temperatures might are really high right now because it's 95 degrees outside and i'm just sitting so obviously the car's gonna be hot but this tells you everything in real time you guys will know if there's something wrong with the car i recommend a gauge 100 like even if it's an ultra gauge the scan gauge uh a lot of people use the torque pro app anything you can get your hands on connect to the car seeing things in real time is super important you can catch a catastrophic issue before it occurs if you see that the car's doing something weird this will tell you so and there's many gauges to choose from this is what i use for important too oh well that wasn't supposed to pop out but it shows you the fruit the fuel rail pressure of the car to know if maybe your high pressure fuel pump is having an issue right now it's good like i said these cars are somewhere between like 650 and like 720 when it comes to idling so the car is fine but if you send any low numbers like four or 500 it probably means your fuel pump is going out so this will let you know guys super important i definitely recommend getting a real-time gauge it's gonna save your car it could probably save you thousands of dollars in repairs all right guys so that's going to conclude the video thank you for watching now just because you do these things does not mean that the car is not going to break that it's not going to give you issues but this is going to be some preventative maintenance and ways to keep your car running correctly things that are going to keep your car running strong so again i've had issues with the car myself i do maintain it very well in my opinion so again just because you do this does not mean that the car is not going to give you issues so don't take it that way it's just ways that you can have the car have a prolonged life less maintenance and these cars are super expensive if you're not doing the labor yourself if you take it to the dealer independent shops remember this is a bmw so parts are expensive labor is expensive people don't like to work on these cars and if they do they like to charge a lot so if you know how to do things yourself that's great you could probably get away with certain things but if you don't and you're not mechanically inclined i suggest you just do the preventative maintenance that anybody can do in their driveway that'll allow the car to have a long lasting life but anyways guys i appreciate you watching um please like comment and subscribe unless youtube know i'm doing a good job and we'll see you next time please maintain these cars because they're really fun they're great cars when you do what you need to and yeah so have a good one we'll see you next time

Channel: Diego Arias

Views: 67,002

Rating: 4.9228725 out of 5

Keywords: 1.6 mini, 1.6 mini cooper engine problems, 1.6 mini cooper engine timing chain, 1.6 mini cooper specs, 1.6 mini engine, 5 ways to keep your mini cooper reliable, big turbo mini, carbon build up, darias_, diego arias, keep your mini cooper reliable, mini cooper s, n14 engine, n14 engine mini, n14 engine problems, n14 engine rebuild kit, n18 engine, n18 engine mini cooper, n18 engine mods, r56 mini cooper, r56 mini cooper s, turbo mini

Id: 84-gj-R0tXc

Length: 11min 13sec (673 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 12 2020