Unclassified problem on the 2005 MINI Cooper S
2 fires 2 of the 43 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
Only 40 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When unclassified problem gets reported
Owners of the 2005 MINI Cooper S report unclassified problem at a median of 70,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 42,500 miles and a quarter after 87,500 miles, from 40 reports that carried an odometer reading.
It is the 37th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 30,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 117,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 88,571 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
18% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29,429 miles | 42,000 miles | 70,000 miles | 86,750 miles | 118,000 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 2 a fire is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 11 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2014, at a median of 20,000 miles, and latest on the 2002 at 90,000 miles.
By volume the 2005 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
Tl*the contact owns a bmw mini cooper s. The air bag cover emblem has a defected edge. If the air bag were to deploy, it could cause serious injuries. The dealer replaced the cover three times, but the defect is still uncorrected. The current and failure mileages were 20,000.
I have now had a second failure of the passenger airbag sensor (sensor mat in passenger seat). The first mat failed at 3 months after purchase and the replacement lasted just over 2 years (warranty on part is 2 years). *tr
Passenger side airbag is disabled when passenger is in seat. If passenger shifts in seat, the airbag may or may not enable. Have been told the fault lies with the airbag sensor mat under the seat. This is a common issue for several bmw models and an extended warranty has been offered. For several mini models, the issue has been reported and an extended warranty has been offered. So far, the 2005 model has not been included. *tr
Also reported on the 2005 MINI Cooper S
Other steering problem
Power steering pump or fluid leak
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Loss of power steering
Seat belt or retractor failure
Cooling fan failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 43 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 43 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does unclassified problem happen on the 2005 MINI Cooper S?
Across 40 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 42,500 miles and a quarter after 87,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is unclassified problem on the 2005 MINI Cooper S?
43 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 4.0 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed