I special ordered a 2008 Mini Cooper S in 05/08, got the car in 07/08, brought in in for repair in 09/08 because of the engine misfire. The service was done properly and the car runs fine since.

However, I have recently experienced the engine losing power 2 times. Each time the engine made noise like a diesel engine and barely had any torque. After being revved up 9-10 time, the car got back its power and functioned normally.

Could anyone tell me what could be wrong? Should I bring the car in again for a repair? If I bring it in, how would they fix it if they couldn't replicate the problem?

Any insight is appreciated.

 

1) Moisture in the gas. Engine does not combust correctly when "water" goes into the chamber: "hesitating" without power until gasoline again burn in the chamber & power returns.

2) Dirty valves: gets "stuck" & does not close or open properly in sync with the engine cycles. Can make mechanical knocking noise & loose power. Use Teckron (Chevron) based engine cleaner & see if the problem recurs. My 911 did this & engine had stalled. My mechanic couldn't duplicate & eventually used a fiber optic endoscope & found my valve guides were unusually dirty. Cleaned the engine with Teckron & no more problems since and always use top tier detergent gasoline.

3) Your ignition system could be at fault: but modern automobiles - if the fault is with the ignition system, "check engine" light usually comes on. So doubt it.

I hope these helps....

 

Thank you for your response.

The moisture in gas could be the culprit at the problem occurred once after I washed my car and once after parking in the rain. It's kinda ridiculous that moisture can get into the mini's gas chamber though. I have never had this kind of problem with my other cards: a 2006 Volvo S60 and a 2001 Nissan pickup truck.

I don't think the valves can get dirty that quickly (the car is barely 4 months old) but I am not so sure. Again, Why did it not happen with my other cars? I buy gas for my cars from the same Shell station.

Anyway, I called the Mini dealer and was schedule to drop off the car tomorrow. Will post their findings here.

 

Moisture in fuel line usually occur as result of less than full gas tank, particularly during colder months as condensation can happen within the tank, and not from exterior source like rain or car wash

As MINI's tolerance for engine parts can be 0.0005 inches, even a new engine can "foul-up" if contaminated gasoline was used. My Porsche was only few months old when it stalled from valve fouling. My mechanic said my engine was particularly "tight", and probably had exacerbated the problem.

 

Okay, this is to follow up with my previous message. Since then, I had to bring my car in 2 times for warranty repairs. In the firs time, they thought that the fuel injectors did not work properly, so they replaced them. That did not fix it.

In the second time, they were able to duplicate the problem and saw that the fuel pump did not provide enough fuel pressure during an engine test. So, they replaced the pump and the car appear to be fine now. How confident I am after this fix? Pretty low after 3 times to the dealer since I got the car in 07/2008. However, things make more sense now as all the symptoms appeared to be related to that faulty fuel pump.