I had lunch plans with a few local MINIacs today so we all met at Minspeed before heading over to the restaurant, as it is a nice central place for us locals to meet (plus we get to say hi to our good buddy Pete!). While at the shop, I was talking to a fellow MINI owner named Warren who was getting some work done on his MINI and we started chatting about the upcoming Sebring track weekend on Saturday and my recent suspension changes.

I popped my bonnet to show off my new BC Racing coilovers (more on those soon in another post) and Warren asked – “Hey, what’s all that oil coming from?”. I rushed over to see what he was talking about and my stomach about dropped! I knew exactly what was wrong from all the posts I have read on the issue – my motor mount had busted and oil had JUST started leaking out. Well I thanked Warren for the keen eye and called the good folks over at Vista MINI to see what could be done to get this situation fixed ASAP. As usual, they told me not to worry and to bring the car in so they could take care of it.

I drove the car like a grandma until I got to the dealership and handed the keys over. At this point, oil had spilled all over and I was relieved that I had made it to Vista to get this fixed up. You can imagine the thoughts running through my head as I sat there thinking if this would have happened at Sebring in just 3 days! Someone was looking out for me for sure on this one! While I was there, I decided to go ahead and get my oil changed as well (had 3K miles since last oil change, but with Sebring coming up and me already at the dealership, I figured why not).

Two hours later, my car was ready sporting a brand new motor mount. A special thanks to the entire service department at Vista MINI for taking great care of me and Scooter. I think I may spend some time looking at engine mount options in the aftermarket. If you know of any stronger mounts – post them in the comments. I am aware of the engine dampers, but am wondering if there is an actual stronger mount.