SCCAForums.com

B1mmer:

vvt4me:

Toyota BACKED IT UP 100% and fixed it free of charge, and it would have been 1500-2000 or so.  So your wrong on the Toyota front.

 

Big overstatement there Dominic.  Lift bolts breaking costing $1500-$2k to be fixed.  Come on.  It's parts worth $2 at dealer prices and the labor is about 3-4 hours, even if they have to pull the cams to fish out the broken pieces. - AB

 

Thats just what the service manager told me at the dealer. I didnt investigate further after they did it. I thought they had to pull the head off.  So quick to pull the trigger on calling me a liar (in so many words), 'preciate that.  I was told something that wasnt true at a dealer. Shocker.  They had my car 4 days, and they told me the engine was apart for 3 of them. Get bent.

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Dominic Stone #77 2005 Dodge SRT-4 ACR >:) -- G-Stock

Oregon Region Chief of Safety
myspace.com/vvt4me

FYI, Toyota did issue a TSB for the lift bolts.

http://teamcelica.com/tech/installs/liftbolts/liftbolts.pdf

That's a relatively early version; IIRC, subsequent versions have new part numbers for the bolts in question (having trouble finding it at the moment though). I believe they are now on the 2nd or 3rd generation of bolt design.

BTW, let me know what it takes to get in on that TRD parts program.

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Manfred R.
2001 Celica GT - STS

As of today, MiniUSA has taken the "raced" label of my VIN and I am told if I have any future problems with my Mini, I won't be hassled with legitimate warranty issues. I would now like to thank those who supported me on this post as well as all the other posts throughout the Net on various sites. It seems that Mini USA heard all of our voices loud and clear and acted appropriately to resolve the issue in regards to my warranty and autocrossing.  For that, I would also like to thank Mini USA for doing the right thing in the end.  Anyway, I am glad this issue is now laid to rest once and for all. ;-)

Craig Wilcox

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2006 GS National Champion
2007 GS National Champion....Runner up lol
2008 GS National Champion
2009 BSP National Champion....Runner up, lol again, although, not so funny lol

Congrats Craig, The Mad Blogger posts were modified a few days ago

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buy my book
project350z.com

OasisTan:

As of today, MiniUSA has taken the "raced" label of my VIN and I am told if I have any future problems with my Mini, I won't be hassled with legitimate warranty issues. I would now like to thank those who supported me on this post as well as all the other posts throughout the Net on various sites. It seems that Mini USA heard all of our voices loud and clear and acted appropriately to resolve the issue in regards to my warranty and autocrossing.  For that, I would also like to thank Mini USA for doing the right thing in the end.  Anyway, I am glad this issue is now laid to rest once and for all. ;-)

Craig Wilcox

 Good news Craig!  And hats off to Mini USA for helping the autox community!

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Ted

2003 C5 AE Coupe AS
2004 Z16/Z06 SS

OasisTan:

As of today, MiniUSA has taken the "raced" label of my VIN and I am told if I have any future problems with my Mini, I won't be hassled with legitimate warranty issues.

Does this good news extend to anyone autocrossing a mini? Is there a new policy published somewhere? 

Glad to hear the problem was resolved Craig. Hopefully this will help bring about clearer warranty policies and better owner/dealer/manufacturer relationships. Of course some manufacturers and dealers, will, some won't.

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Bryan S.
StL. Solo School Chair
91 Miata ES
2010 plans: few events on rock hard street tires to teach the 15 year old how to drive : )
04 Forester XT, 00 Golf, 08 Scott Speedster S30

vvt4me:

B1mmer:

vvt4me:

Toyota BACKED IT UP 100% and fixed it free of charge, and it would have been 1500-2000 or so.  So your wrong on the Toyota front.

 

Big overstatement there Dominic.  Lift bolts breaking costing $1500-$2k to be fixed.  Come on.  It's parts worth $2 at dealer prices and the labor is about 3-4 hours, even if they have to pull the cams to fish out the broken pieces. - AB

 

Thats just what the service manager told me at the dealer. I didnt investigate further after they did it. I thought they had to pull the head off.  So quick to pull the trigger on calling me a liar (in so many words), 'preciate that.  I was told something that wasnt true at a dealer. Shocker.  They had my car 4 days, and they told me the engine was apart for 3 of them. Get bent.

What difference does it make if it was 1500.00 or 15.00? The important fact is Toyota did the right thing even tho the warantee had officially expired.

Craig, Glad to hear that there was positive outcome. Brad your the MAN, thanks again!

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TEAM DYNAMICS

03 GSL, 05 HSL Nat Champ
AS 07 Solstice GXP

OasisTan:

As of today, MiniUSA has taken the "raced" label of my VIN and I am told if I have any future problems with my Mini, I won't be hassled with legitimate warranty issues. I would now like to thank those who supported me on this post as well as all the other posts throughout the Net on various sites. It seems that Mini USA heard all of our voices loud and clear and acted appropriately to resolve the issue in regards to my warranty and autocrossing.  For that, I would also like to thank Mini USA for doing the right thing in the end.  Anyway, I am glad this issue is now laid to rest once and for all. ;-)

Craig Wilcox

 

Brad, thanks for helping out your fellow auto-crosser(s)!  We need more support like this in the industry.

Craig, I'm glad to hear that this worked out for you and hopefully all Mini owners! 

When I first started reading this thread, I thought of what GS at nationals would look like for the '08 season.  If you took all minis out of GS which ran last year, you would have...    A total of a 2 car class: (1) 2003 Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec V and (1) 2006 Honda Civic SI (and the SI driver is co-driving in a different class this season).  The SCAC would have to panic... 

I don't think it matters what company the car was made by, I had the exact same trauma go round with Mazda, even after winning several contingency prizes and sending in results for years.  They used my name for advertising and and want to say that they are behind this stuff, but then turn around and say you're abusing your car.  I can honestly say that I cause less harm to the car (transmission, clutch, motor, etc) autocrossing it than my husband does daily driving it!!

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Cindy

I've been researching the Mini since I'm thinking about buying an '08 Cooper S.  When I read the first post in this thread my first thought was "you autocross your car and you're upset that your clutch is acting up?  How many times a month do you launch the thing with race tires?"  then I read further and saw the bit about you being told that your warranty would be covered despite the contingency payouts.  That's pretty much the kicker here.  I really don't blame manufacturers for making the warranty process a little more difficult for people who autocross their cars.  But being told one thing, developing trust, and then betraying that trust is really quite wrong.  At that point it doesn't much matter what part broke and needed to be replaced, even if later in the thread I learned that the part that went bad probably would have went bad without the autocrossing.

It's good to hear that Mini USA is backing you up on this.  Makes me feel better about having their car as my #1 pick for a new car purchase.

But I don't see where people get off saying that autocrossing either isn't racing, or isn't any harder on your car than driving it to work.  Launching your car on race tires is hard on the entire drivetrain, and bouncing it off the rev limiter can't be good either.  We're out there running our cars very hard, in high heat conditions, at very low speeds without much airflow through the engine bay for cooling.  I just don't see this as "normal use." 

 I also think some are overstating the impact autocrossing success has had on the Mini's sales a bit.  By the end of this year more than a quarter million of the things will have been sold in the United States.  If there was no contingency money or even autocrossing I'm fairly certain this number wouldn't be much smaller than it is.  But this is pure speculation on my part;  a subjective opinion.  Take it as such.

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Michael
'04 STi

Micmic, I guarantee that if  (Non-Mini)G Stock drivers knew there would no Mini's running at Nationals there would be just as many entrants in G Stock. There would be a more diverse turnout- cars that might have a shot with the Mini's taken out of the equation. It would open it up for a different "car to have" in G.

 

Jeff Smucker

G Stock (non-Mini)

Mykl:

I've been researching the Mini since I'm thinking about buying an '08 Cooper S.  When I read the first post in this thread my first thought was "you autocross your car and you're upset that your clutch is acting up?  How many times a month do you launch the thing with race tires?"  then I read further and saw the bit about you being told that your warranty would be covered despite the contingency payouts.  That's pretty much the kicker here.  I really don't blame manufacturers for making the warranty process a little more difficult for people who autocross their cars.  But being told one thing, developing trust, and then betraying that trust is really quite wrong.  At that point it doesn't much matter what part broke and needed to be replaced, even if later in the thread I learned that the part that went bad probably would have went bad without the autocrossing.

It's good to hear that Mini USA is backing you up on this.  Makes me feel better about having their car as my #1 pick for a new car purchase.

But I don't see where people get off saying that autocrossing either isn't racing, or isn't any harder on your car than driving it to work.  Launching your car on race tires is hard on the entire drivetrain, and bouncing it off the rev limiter can't be good either.  We're out there running our cars very hard, in high heat conditions, at very low speeds without much airflow through the engine bay for cooling.  I just don't see this as "normal use." 

 I also think some are overstating the impact autocrossing success has had on the Mini's sales a bit.  By the end of this year more than a quarter million of the things will have been sold in the United States.  If there was no contingency money or even autocrossing I'm fairly certain this number wouldn't be much smaller than it is.  But this is pure speculation on my part;  a subjective opinion.  Take it as such.

Umm... If you really did read further, you may have noticed the issue was with the clutch pedal making a noise. Hard launch, easy launch... it doesn't matter. If the pivot squeaks, it didn't start doing so because of autocrossing.

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Jim Plotkin
'05 FSP Echo

Mykl:

  We're out there running our cars very hard, in high heat conditions, at very low speeds without much airflow through the engine bay for cooling.  I just don't see this as "normal use." 

In six seasons of autocrossing, including several events where temperatures were above 100 degrees, I've never had an issue with coolant or oil temperature. Not the case with a track day I ran when it was 105; car was overheating after a few laps with plenty of air flowing through the engine bay. Not-so obvious weaknesses come to light on the track that won't during an autocross. Even with a longer course, there isn't the kind of long, full-throttle acceleration that's possible on the track.

Brad: It's great that Mini is making this right.  

 

 

 

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Bob Beamesderfer '94 CSP Miata
Cal Club and SDR