[petrolblue83911]

Just had to bring my mini to the dealer for an issue where the car has a slight hesitation when accelerating, most noticeable when merging onto the highway/at highway speeds.

They ended up taking the top end off, and cleaning the combustion chambers in a sand blasting cabinet, (using walnut shells) it cost me nothing as it the car is under the mini next warranty but.. the dealer tells me, this is normal for these engines, and be prepared to do this every 20k miles or so...are you kidding me?? they charge 600+ for this service if its not under warranty...

wow.

I have only ever used good quality, premium gas, and the car gets mostly highway mile's, and I while I enjoy driving it I don't abuse it!

I was told that the direct inj. engines "all need this" because carbon builds up on the top of the cylinder heads.

is this true?? -I'm assuming it is common as they actually have built their own setup in the dealership to specifically perform this work. When I got the car back, it was perfect, no more misfire...

how many others have the same issue?? makes me want to ditch the car honestly because this, as well as the insanely fast wearing brake pads make maintenance quite a hassle..