So this will now be my second post.

Originally, I had come on with a problem of a bad turbo wastegate, and what seemed like no hope. Amidst the COVID-19 outbreak, Mini of Kennesaw held a "25%" off sale on parts that allowed me to drive my car down, get a loaner, and get my turbo as well as two motor mounts fixed for nearly $500 less than what it would have cost to fix just the turbo in Nashville.

Not too long before this past january, my exhaust from my muffler back fell/blew off. This was no doubt a result of the previous owner not paying for or doing a good weld job. As I have gone through the car, the stock airbox had been removed, and a DIY "Spectre" cone filter was thrown on. The air inlet duct was completely "floppy" with just the intake on it, and when taking it off to clean it, I noticed that the "grate" that should have been in front of my MAF sensor had been removed (cut). This was easy to tell by the jagged edges of the edges of the plastic of the MAF housing. All of this has led me to be skeptical of what this idiot of a previous owner did to this poor car before I had it...

Before taking my car to ATL to get it fixed, my issues had started to grow more and more. When I first started my mini, especially when it was cold, it did not like to "go." I do not mean "Slam on the pedal, lets see what this kickdown thing is" type go. Just a very easy roll through the neighborhood to warm up. The problem mostly happened when switching gears. A "complete loss of power" would be accompanied by a jerk of the car wanting to slow down due to no engine power, and as soon as you either back off the pedal, or let go, the car would quickly return to normal function. No CEL however. I assumed this issue was due to my faulty turbo, and made the hasty decision to take it to ATL with the 25% deal still on for the next 2 days. However, on the morning of my departing to get the turbo fixed, my Check engine light came on, so I was able to deliver it with an active fault code.

Mini of Kennesaw reported back to me before I got my car back telling me that my engine was "running rich." When I first got the car, BP premium gas was not readily available, so I used E85 for about 5 months. Nearly 20,000 miles. About a month before taking the car to Mini, I made the switch to BP premium, recommended by mini, and threw a can of high mileage Sea Foam in the engine to see if it could clean out any dirty fuel injectors that could be causing a problem. When they told me that the car had "seen this fault as a trend over the recent weeks," the first thing I thought of was me switching octanes not too long ago. I asked, and the tech responded that that would not have caused an error. He recommended that I replace my cylinder valve cover, as well as gasket. This was at the time that I was already dropping $5,000+ on the car, and another $1500 for a plastic cover at the time did not enthrall me. He also mentioned the battery having low voltage: 300CC rated for 800CC, and recommended lastly putting the stock air box back on the car, because the MAF was reading too high.

That being said: the car has a new turbo, the motor mounts are fixed. I bought a performance air intake (mishimoto), I have replaced the battery and coded it into the car, and now I have the spark plugs and tools to change them on the way to me now. Since I have put the new air intake on the car, most of the "complete losses of power" have gone away, to be replaced by short "blips" where it seems that the engine hesitates right before it reaches its top RPM's before shifting. This is much more noticeable in mid mod than in sport, however, you can feel somewhat of a "choking" sensation on the gas pedal, that leaves you feeling that the car is being held back by some invisible force.

I am not much of a mechanic myself, but I am trying to get to the point that I can work on Minis myself. I have saved nearly 1000 dollars already by doing the battery as well as the air intake myself. While I believe and trust the mechanics at mini, I wanted to exhaust all of my options before I buy a $400 part that I will have to pay someone else to replace because I don't have all the tools needed. If this is the fix that needs to happen, I have no problem paying for it, I just want to make sure that this is it before I buy some very expensive parts...

I have also noticed that my car does not like to "give up" it's horsepower without really "coaxing" it out of it... It seems like it gets to 100hp, and anything above it will only be achieved by driving in the M/S mode with paddle shifters. I am unsure if this would have anything to do with a rich fuel mixture, but I thought it would be worth putting out there.

Please let me know if you have experienced anything similar, or have any other "half measure" ideas to try before I continue down this pricey road.

 

So today, I changed my spark plugs out. The plugs that were in there, i'm pretty sure, like my battery, are from the stock car sold in 2015. I am putting a picture of my old plugs down below.

My new spark plugs are not the same brand, and are rated for one heat level lower, therefore making them "performance." I got these plugs from ECS, and they went in perfectly. Here is the link: https://www.ecstuning.com/b-brisk-pa...h/2mor10s~bsk/

When I put the plugs in, the engine started up fine, everything checked out. I was still feeling a little bit of the "lag" on the pedal that I was hoping these plugs might fix. I decided to take the car for a drive. I put it in sport mode, and started to drive with my paddle shifters. I was still noticing restricted horsepower when I was driving.

This "lag" or "lack" of horsepower is what I have been trying to figure out how to describe for weeks, and I'm pretty sure after my drive today, I have a pretty good way to put it: It feels like there is a governor on my pedal. Especially in Mid Mode, but even in sport, it feels like my pedal, or my engine only wants to respond to a certain "angle" of my foot if you will. Like today, going up a hill in mid mode, the engine was in it's slower RPMs, and no matter how much more I pushed the pedal down, it did not want to give more power, or downshift to a lower gear to try and give the engine the power it needs. This is accompanied by incredibly low engine sounds (it almost sounds like bubbling it is so low)from the engine loving to stay in the fifth and sixth gear even when just cruising around town at 30mph.

A few other "symptoms" that I have become aware of is when shifting gears, it seems like the engine "rocks back" on itself, or to "lose" RPMs before actually shifting to lower RPMs. This gives the sensation of the engine slowing itself down before changing to the next gear.

Also, in the middle of my "hard test drive" today, I got out of the car to use the bathroom, and left it on so the turbo as well as the transmission could cool down before getting back out on the road. We were in the country, so I got the opportunity to look at my car, and listen to it idle, the entire time I did my business. I noticed an incessant clicking sound coming from the passenger side engine bay: I looked this up and have seemed to find that this is the sound of the fuel injectors, however it looks like it was coming from a belt beneath the area. I also noticed that the car was not beginning to idle unsteadily. Not in a constant manor, just every once in a while, it seems to "fire harder" for a beat. I would also use the word surge, or swell to describe the sound.

If anyone knows what I should look at/attack next, please let me know! I want to get my Mini back!

Plugs that came out of my 2015 F56

New "Brisk" plugs I put in the car (left) next to old plug (right). The main difference I noticed was the top of the Brisk plug has a "bulb" shape.

 

This is a clip I caught of my exhaust "blipping, swelling, stuttering..." whatever you wanna call it. It happens completely irregularly.


This was recorded off of my iphone speakers about 6" away from the exhaust tips.

Please help me figure out what this is!

 

My car does this. Did you find out what caused it? I recently cleaned my MAF and the problem seemed to get worse.
I do have a cracked turbo inlet rubber spacer thingy that my intake hose fits over, but I'm pretty confident there's no leak there. I'm also really frustrated that the only fix for it is a part that Detroit Tuned won't ship to Canada.

 

We ship to Canada. Got to make sure the plugs are gapped correctly as they can get knocked around in shipping. Also check for boost leaks or intake hose leak.

 

Hello!

I do want to preface this message by saying that I no longer own this car. It was totaled last November in a completely unrelated issue.
However, I did take quite a few steps to fix the car before it was taken from me.

For this issue in particular, I installed a new air intake (the last owner cut the stock one out and did not replace it)
I also cleaned my mass airflow sensor and installed new spark plugs. The problem continue to persist.

I finally took it to my local euro shop, to which they told me the car would need a new valve cover. When the valve cover was replaced, this was no longer an issue.

I will say – about a year after replacing the valve cover, I had to do a complete engine swap due to cracked headers. The car sounded like death when I turned it on. Almost like taking a wet towel and slapping it up against a concrete pillar for every cylinder firing.

Needless to say, with a brand new mini engine, it fixed the problem!

I am sure that this is completely unrelated, but right before the car was finally taken away from me, I was having issues with my high-pressure fuel pump as well. After refueling from anything below 3/4 of a tank, the car would struggle to restart.

If you have any other questions or care to bounce any other ideas - I will tell you everything that I know

P.S - I upgraded to a JCW

 

Haha, happy to hear the experience didn't deter you from another Mini!

I hope I don't need a new valve cover. That sounds expensive.
I might have a leak at my turbo inlet, and the only fix I'm aware of that makes any sense is this:
https://www.detroittuned.com/detroit...-inlet-flange/

I guess I just need to bite the bullet and pay to ship it to Canada, customs, etc.

My other theories are that I have a leak due to my oil catch can. When I cut the PCV recirculation line to add the catch can, I might not have joined the additional tubing properly.
Or could it be an issue on my diverter valve, on the upstream side of the turbo inlet somehow?
Or just dirty o2 sensors, is my last bet.