Desperate: Reaching the end of my rope

[MiniDeLux]

Sorry for starting another thread, but the problems with this car are diverse. Hands down, it is the worst vehicle I have ever owned. My level of frustration with this car has now exceeded new limits never before achieved. It is a black pit of financial despair disguised as a car.

The car was in the garage yesterday for a replacement of an enhanced friction wheel for the water pump or something. Apparently Mini recommends this in a TSB about the water pump. I don't know the details. At first they said it was a tensioner or something but it's not. It's gotten to the point where I don't even care what they do to this thing anymore. If someone stole it, I'd throw a party.

However, I still have a very strange sound coming from the car. I don't know how to really describe it and I'm afraid a video won't capture it. The engine idles smoothly, car delivers power and seems to drive well. HOWEVER, when driving, it sounds "bad" like the engine is labouring or something even though the mpg is staying consistent and it drives and handles very smoothly. The noise is almost like a combination of a gurgle and a rhythmic "brm brm brm brm brm" noise as though the exhaust pipe was wearing out or something. But this is not the case - no exhaust leaks can be identified. The noise occurs all the time - under hard load and when coasting downhill with my foot off the gas. The noise is less evident when driving at even speed, neither accelerating nor decelerating. That's what I hear when the car is being driven.

At idle, the car engine noise sounds "different" than it used to. There is almost like a subtle "whoosh whoosh whoosh" or "whir whir whir" noise going on. Before, I used to hear the clatter of the diesel injectors, but the engine almost runs like a petrol engine now and I can't even hear the normal diesel clatter. It's really bizarre. It's almost like the engine is too quiet.

I don't think this is an engine mount issue. I'm starting to wonder if it's vacuum pump or EGR valve or something. It seems to have become more prominent since the Garrett turbocharger was replaced. If either of these were the case, would it be throwing codes? Could this be an O2 sensor or MAF or MAP? Something to do with the particle filter maybe?

Anything, any small little bit of advice would be welcome. This is driving me nuts.

[deanjmccreary]

I agree with your description of the car. I am looking at mine sitting in the driveway with a trashed engine due to the vacuum pump failure design problem that BMW ignores. "black pit of financial despair disguised as a car"...I am right there with you.

[MiniDeLux]

Is yours a diesel engine Mini?

I'm guessing you're out of warranty, too. It's all I can do financially to keep this thing on the road. I'm scared of what the future holds for this car.

At least it's a good ol' clutch setup. I've seen the horror stories of 8000 dollar plus repair bills for the CVT transmissions, mind you I'm rapidly approaching that figure in repairs now. Probably have breached it if I count in work done under warranty. Two and 1/2 year old car with about 10,000 in repairs on it and not finished yet. I find that incredible.

I could have bought a second car with all that cash.