Good Warranty Service

[Nil Time]

Greetings;
Since we tend to hear a fair few bad news stories about car dealers, I thought that it would be nice to follow up with a good one!

OK, last Friday I returned from Portland to Melbourne after working there for a couple of days. When I pulled up at home, my lovely wife came out to greet me whilst I was opening the garage door. She then uttered the dreaded words "it looks like your car has an OIL LEAK".

Sure enough, near the front right hand tyre, there was a patch of fresh oil (so I thought) about the size of a 50c piece. Oh dear ...

Stifling my initial urge to panic, rant and then rave to the dealer - who would have been closed anyway, I thought that I would wait over the weekend and see if the oil leak re occured - usual denial mechanism - "could be an oil breather overflow, etc". But on Saturday, after a brisk early morning run it was there again...

OK fast forward to Monday morning, and I am on the phone to the Geelong MINI Garage, explaining the situation to them. I spoke with Aaron, who was most helpful. Despite being fully booked, he asked me to bring the car down to them as soon as I could, so they could have a look at it.

I got there at about 1000, and Aaron took one look and asked if I had noticed if there had been a bit more harshness and vibration when driving the car. I replied that there had been, especially over the last couple of days. He then lifted up the bonnet, and pointed out the RHS engine mount. There was a trail of oily fluid leaking from it! He explained that the fluid filled engine mount on that side had obviously sprung a leak, thereby emptying itself and leading to the increase in vibration and harshness.

He asked me to leave the car with him.

I received a call from him at about 1630 yesterday, advising me that the car was ready to be picked up. I caught a train there this morning and everything is now OK - new engine mount put in, all done under warranty.

I guess that this should NOT be out of the ordinary - but having been through a number of less than satisfactory warranty episodes with other Euro and Japanese brands, it certainly came as a very pleasant surprise - as indeed did the flexibility they showed in squeezing me in at such short notice.

Well done to Geelong Mini Garage!

Cheers,

[MickyD]

VERY common fault.

not as common as radiator bottles leaking (i've had 8 replaced under warranty), but common nonetheless.

[Nil Time]

Quote: Originally Posted by MickyD (original)

VERY common fault.

not as common as radiator bottles leaking (i've had 8 replaced under warranty), but common nonetheless.

Thanks for that, Micky - I thought that it was something that I did!

[Minipnut]

So far ive had 3 of those buggers replaced on my S, at only just 37'000 k's along with alot of other components, Paul at Bris mini garage always gets me in and out as soon as he can every time, great bloke! and great place!

[DaFlake]

Yes, very common. I just did my mount this weekend (took me about an hour to do) and apparently there was a recent change in part number as well. This usually indicates that an upgraded part is being released. Perhaps MINI finally got the mount right.

[Mr G]

so is the car under warranty or have they done you a favour?

if its under warranty my question is - what were you doing on a train? they have loan cars for that.

[Nil Time]

Hello Mr.G.

Yes, the car is still under warranty, so you are correct they did not do me too much of a favour. However, given the fact they were very busy, they could have taken a fair degree longer to do the job. As it is, they turned the car around pretty quickly for me.

As for the loan car, they also do have them. But since I did not give them much notice, they did not have one immediately available. I could have waited for one, but since I had some time up my sleeve, and there was a convenient train both nearby and timely, I decided that I would take that instead. Whilst I try to avoid the Melbourne city train network, I quite enjoy riding on country trains

Cheers,

[Mr G]

Quote: Originally Posted by Nil Time (original)

Hello Mr.G.

Yes, the car is still under warranty, so you are correct they did not do me too much of a favour. However, given the fact they were very busy, they could have taken a fair degree longer to do the job. As it is, they turned the car around pretty quickly for me.

As for the loan car, they also do have them. But since I did not give them much notice, they did not have one immediately available. I could have waited for one, but since I had some time up my sleeve, and there was a convenient train both nearby and timely, I decided that I would take that instead. Whilst I try to avoid the Melbourne city train network, I quite enjoy riding on country trains

Cheers,

yes, it is nice when a busy establishment can fit you in, even though they're heavily booked. And they did get it done quickly too, which is nice.

I guess the reasons I've become a loan-car nazi are 3-fold.

1.- the first time I ever went to a mini dealer and asked for a loan car they told me they were only for BMW customers. so I changed dealers to someone who promised me one every time.

2 - When you have their car, there's an extra incentive to get it done quickly for you. (well debatable probably because the longer you have their car, the more BMW pays them so forget this one )

3 - and the most important is because I did it once - I caught a train to work. I kid you not - it took about 2 and a half hours. you reckon the Melbourne train system is shocking.....I'd love you see the crap they give us. (sydney)

[CoolJamJar]

Make sure that all the leaked oil is cleaned off ASAP (if not done already) as once it has dried/baked it does not come off.
We had ours replaced and it involved having the chassis leg and 2 wheels repainted where the oil had etched into the paint (all under warranty fortunately).

[DaFlake]

I didn't have a problem with mine. I put a little simple green (bio cleaner) on it and took a tooth brush to it. Came right off.

[Nil Time]

Thanks very much for the info, Flake - guess what I shall be doing this weekend?

Cheers