My 09 JCW with 6000+ miles on it is sitting at the dealership. It will be two weeks on this Tuesday and there is still no answer as to what exactly is wrong with it.

The problem began about 1000 miles ago when I noticed that while stopping quickly the engine would rev to about 2000 rpm and then return to idle. At first I wondered if I might have been mistakenly hitting the gas pedal. No, the issue began to get worse and worse as time went on. After the second visit to the dealer I asked that they return my car for the weekend (I hated the Altima they kindly gave me to use as a loaner), I noticed that the idle speed was much lower, like 500 to 600, and not that stable. Peak power was way down too. They have no idea why! I brought the car back in on Monday last week and this time they gave me a BMW 328 XI to drive. Much nicer car but this one seems to have an issue that makes it shutter on light acceleration. Feels like the lock up converter can’t decide what it wants to do. It has averaged 20mpg for the last fuel tank too. Pretty pitiful BMW, this car has just 1400 miles on it, no warning lights but I am certain this can not be correct behavior for this drive train.

Dealer couldn’t be nicer. They seem to be trying hard. They just do not seem to have any answers. They put up with my whining pretty well.

I should mention that I understand their position pretty well as I own and operate an independent European auto repair shop.

I’m losing faith in the car, I know that soon I can initiate buyback but what do I want to replace the car with? Certainly, not an automatic 3 series. I might consider a 135 but that was eliminated from the list the first time.

I really only want my car back and running well, we’ll see what this week brings.

 

British-built cars with French engines FTW!

The 135 is a brilliant car out of the box. Some minor suspension tweaks and it would be near perfection. I would take another look at it.

 

One series are pretty close as far as head room, I'm 6'3".
I like the concept but I'm not sure about anything right now. What's with the lack of fog lights? My Mini has equipment I cant get on a 135? Maybe the'll figure my car out. I am just afraid I'll be stuck with a lemon.

 

That sucks....the delaer should be talking to tech to figure this out. Can the dealer duplicate the problem?

 

Yes, they have duplicated the problem/problems. Just don't have any answers as to what is causing them. They are trying.

 

My MINI is home! The dealer has been working on this problem for over two weeks and they finally just re-loaded the software into the DME and voila all is well again! I am happy again! Mini runs well, no more mystery revs on decel and I got it back in time to mount my snows for the bad weather tomorrow.
I was really missing the car so it is wonderfull to have it back.

 

Computers are great as long as they function correctly. It's not the first time any car with a computer burped. The dealer should have checked it first. Everything on any of these new fangled cars are computer controled. The gas pedal is a wire controled devise as well as the fuel system etc. It's nice to see it is repaired and I'm sure you will not have any more problems.
Ronnie

 

Uhm... Being software engeneer I would just do this first place. Not sure why it took them two weeks to realize they need to reflash? This car is just too much computerized.

 

So if I'm reading this correctly, everyone's engine doesn't slowly rev up and then back down a bit after a 1 second delay over about 3 seconds as you are coming to a stop? Usually to only about 1500rmp but sometime 2000rpm? Mine doens't always do that but sometimes/often. I haven't figured out a pattern when/why yet. I thought it was there to aid you downshift... and normal. IT'S NOT?

I'm not having any other problem as described tho (and not considering that rev-up a 'problem' per se either).

I know this threads a few weeks old now and may not get a lot of traffic. But fingers crossed. Please folks, do tell.

 

This is exactly how my engine began to act at about 5000 miles. At first I thought it was my size 13 shoes hitting the gas pedal but no it was not. After the re-flash (this was not a newer version of software I was told) of the original software the car is happy again with no un wanted rev on deacceleration .
BB

 

Let me ask you. Do you normally blip the throttle on downshift to match revs? I'm wondering if the ECU is learning incorrectly that when I go into neutral to expect a throttle blip and gives one if I don't (tho, really really slowly). I do so on downshift, but not if I go into neutral as I glide to a stop sign if I decide to do so.

 

I will "match rev's" once in a while in a downshift. Pretty unusual behavior for me but I will play with the car once in a while. I wondered the same thing myself and on the first trip to the dealer I asked that they re-set adaptive values for the DME. This had no impact at all on the issue and it just steadily got more and more pronounced. It was finally so bad that the car would only need to be stopping from more than 30mph and it would rev to about 2000 for a 2 or 3 count. It was pretty annoying! My dealer had the car for a few weeks and I finally begged them to re-program/flash the DME. Again the engine management software is exactly the same as was originally installed in the car by MINI. This fixed the issue and in the past 1200 miles the car has been flawless! I don’t know why it worked I’m just happy it did! Dead stable idle now always.
BB

 

I took delivery of my JCW in the middle of November. It has 1500 miles on it. I occasionally heal/toe to match revs, but have never experienced the "rev up" condition. I took special note of it this morning and paid real close attention on my commute to work (50 miles) and I can say that my car does NOT do this...

 

So just a reflash from the dealer and it's all good now?....did that reflash affect performance tho, i've heard they can limit peak boost.

 

I can't imagine why they would have limited boost on my car. When they where working on the car I was told that the tech had noted that the boost was sometimes not hiting the peak. After re-flash I was told that all was well again. Certainly seems ok to me at least seat of the pants!
BB

 

Computers make these cars amazing, but they can often be the cause of great anguish. I guess reflashing was way down on the repair protocol - two weeks down!!!

 

Huh, interesting. Maybe once a week or so as I'm approaching a stop sign or such, I'll put in the clutch and the revs will drop to about idle, then climb to maybe 1500rpm or so, then back down to idle. It's not my foot hitting the pedal, but it acts as if I did, it's very quick. I'll keep an eye to see if it gets worse...

 

Oh, I thought I'd check back in in this thread. When my JCW went in for an oil change a few thousand miles ago, I had them try to fix a few things one of which was this problem. I asked them to re-flash the ECU with the base program and nothing else.

The dealership made at least one problem worse. But in regards to this reving issue, it's been gone for the past few thousand miles. I thank you bba.

 

I have this same revving issue. Decelerating quickly in neutral causes a rev to around 1500rpm. I though they all did it, even my old R53 did it. Maybe I'll go and take it to the stealer.

I need a new (3rd) unwarped scoop anyway.

 

That quote really made me laugh because I deal with it at work all the time. Especially when upgrading sinc on the fords... It is so true...

 

Fog lights would block the air reaching the inner cooler. Hence why the 135i doesn't have fog lights, while the 128i does.

 

Common issue I guess. My JCW does that too (the revving thing, but not much. maybe ~1000rpm). I always thought it was normal because of the turbo as it continues to spool when you let off the gas and brake really hard.