Other engine problem on the 2003 MINI Cooper
3 fires 3 of the 18 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.
When other engine problem gets reported
Owners of the 2003 MINI Cooper report other engine problem at a median of 35,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 1,700 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles, from 12 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 7th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 900 miles at the tenth percentile to 115,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 111,770 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.
50% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 870 miles | 1,725 miles | 32,550 miles | 86,600 miles | 112,640 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, 3 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.
Putting it right typically runs $300–$4,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 14 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2002, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2004 at 80,000 miles.
By volume the 2008 carries the most reports, with 19; the 2003 has 18. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
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.
When the vehicle took off from a stop, at times the vehicle lost power. *jb. Lost of throttle control, engine braking effect in first gear slows car rapidly while traffic is bearing down*ts *jb
My mini cooper july 2003 build has what is referred to as either a "stumble" or a "hiccup". Basically what happens is that the engine momentarily cuts out when accelerating from a stop, causing a pause and than resumiing with a jolt. This problem is being complained about by numerous mini owners for over 1 year (see numerous complaints on this subject at http://www.minicooperonline.com/mod...opic&topic=9951 and also at mini2.com yet the mini dealers claim ignorance about the problem, or say they have heard of a few complaints on the s but not on the cooper. Some mini usa reps (1-866-ask-mini) admit it is a known issue on both the cooper and the cooper s. Othes claim ignorance. They give people different responses, but generally when they do admit it is a known issue they also say that "engineering is collecting complaints" or "they are working on a fix" but they offer no projected fix date at all. They do take some people's VIN number when filing the complaint, but say they have no system of letting you know if or when a fix is to be expected. We mini owners are frustrated over this ongoing, annoying, and potentially lethal…
While driving on a low speed, stop and go traffic in the freeway the car suddenly stalled and I was stopped in the first lane of the freeway. I tried to re-start the engine several times with no sucess, after waiting a few minutes the engine started. I was very lucky that the SUV driving behind was able to stop but not before hitting my bumper. This is the second time it happened, the first time it happened I was in the middle of the street and had the car towed but the engine started as soon as I got to the dealer and they told me that they could only check when the the cars is stalled. I have 2 little kids and I am scared to drive with the car.*ak
Also reported on the 2003 MINI Cooper
Power steering pump or fluid leak
Other steering problem
CVT failure
Other powertrain problem
Loss of power steering
Complete transmission failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 18 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 other engine problem happen on the 2003 MINI Cooper?
Across 12 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 35,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 1,700 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other engine problem on the 2003 MINI Cooper?
18 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.7 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