I was starting my vehicle and it made a bad knocking noise then it was like crunching noise so I stopped turn it off and waited for a while went back to the car still making a strange noise but once I put it in the drive it stopped making noise drove down the road a bit and talking about apparently slips off of the car so it just pulls over inside all the all the wearing lights came on so pulled over apparently this happens quite often but the harmonic balancer separated and with spinning against itself and knocked the pieces off of it and through the serpentine belt so that needs to replace now that should not happen it's one piece is this one piece this needs to be recalled for these whatever cars had these harmonic balancers is dangerous and it could blow your car up thank you

- San Antonio, TX, USA

The left rear control arm broke in half. I noticed my car was not reversing correctly as if the rear wheel was dragging. I exited the car and elevated it with a floor jack to find the rear control arm on the driver's side broken in half.

- Carlton , GA, USA

This MINICooper a 2003 w/130K miles driven by a young female. She had no idea her wheel was going to fall off the driver side front. She had called for a check engine light on and intermittent battery failure. It was ask that I drive the car and listen to a pop coming from the wheel section. The pop was the entire wheel assembly moving forwards and back bumping the wheel wells as the car went forward. Needless to say I didn't drive far nor did I accelerate faster than 10 mph. I told the parent of the driver that the car was not drivable under any condition and that it needed immediate attention. The lower control arm bushing rubber was completely gone. I do not know if this is a defect. This part is a mount and it's holding many components of this car together. It is nothing like I have seen before used as a mount. I have seen the rubber worn from this type part but they were not being used as a mount. When the rubber on this part deteriorates it causes the mount to be unstable resulting in the whole wheel assembly moving like a swing forwards and backwards while driving. In a traffic situation this could be devastating to more than just the driver of this car but also to the cars driving near if the wheel were to come off in their traffic. Needless to say the MINICooper would immediately fail in traffic with the brake cylinders hitting the road causing flying sparks, if rear ended it would more than likely flip. This is a dangerous scenario. This car was purchased second hand as are a lot of cars. This is not a part on anyone's check list and not one you consider to be one of this type of failure. I am filing this complaint but I am not the owner of this car. I am merely concerned at the implications of the deterioration of the rubber and what those implications mean to the other purpose this part is suppose to perform and can't when the rubber is gone.

- Canton, TX, USA

The contact owns a 2003 MINICooper S. while the contact's wife was driving 60 mph, the wheel and tire detached from the vehicle. The vehicle was towed to the dealer and has not been diagnosed at this time. The contact was informed that the cost for the repair would range from $3,000 - $5,000. The affected components were the steering, brakes, suspension, and shocks. A police report was filed and the contact has pictures available. The VIN was unknown. The current and failure mileages were 30,000.

- Derwood, MD, USA