Sandrine B., a devoted reader from Fontenay-les-Fleuries (age 78), jumped at the chance when a friend offered to sell her Mini Countryman 1.6 122 Cooper, in January last year. The SUV, registered in August 2015, barely counts 40,000 km and has a tracked maintenance log. Therefore, our reader is happy to benefit from the chic presentation of her car, which does not forget to meet the needs of her family as well. But this joy turns out to be short-lived, because in the month of August jerks from the engineaccompaniedsignal lamp, to appear. Carefully, Sandrine stops the car to call a tow truck. The verdict on the concession, to which in Countryman falls after two weeks. Costs are high: a valveAND head gasket and one timing chain tensioner does not work to declare the account for 3097 euros! However, Sandrine remains confident, expecting a positive response to the support request she sent to the manufacturer. His hopes are quickly realized: participation will not exceed 50%, under the pretext that the vehicle is more than 5 years old.

The age of this Countryman in no way justifies too little involvement

Given its low mileage Countryman, which has just over 44,376 km, Sandrine can’t be happy with that estimate. What strategy should be adopted in such a situation? Here is our plan.
This engine block, which is shared by the BMW and PSA groups, has attracted a lot of attention due to problems with distribution chain and with Cylinder head, mainly until 2011. Oddly enough, this is only a variant of the 1.6 gasoline engine with a capacity of 122 hp. This is the engine that was placed under the hood of our reader’s Countryman. This engine is shared with Peugeot and Citroën under the VTi name and they all have engine problems. leaks and overheating (HS thermostat that won’t start the fan) which can cause a blown cylinder head gasket. But the problem is that very often breakdowns appear only after 80,000 km, and not at such an early stage of the mechanism’s service life. How much does Sandrine really have to pay? The low mileage of this Countryman warrants attention full load with repair costs. Rate maximum aging time 20%, related to his age, however, remains acceptable. Therefore, our reader should not give up on the Mini, because this is a known problem of this model and is specific to the 122 hp engine.