At the dealer again....

 

They are going to do a fuel system cleaning now.

 

Like an earlier poster said, sounds like the high pressure fuel pump causing misfires, stumbling, stalling. I had that problem with my 2009 Clubman at 55,000 miles. Search my posts and you'll find at least 3 posts I've made explaining all the symptoms, codes I was getting, process I went through with the dealership. I also had intake valves blasted, but it didn't help. High pressure fuel pump.

 

Here, copied from an old post of mine:

I had sudden stalling and misfire codes (read with AccessPort) on my 2009 Clubman S around 55,000 miles. Initially it was cylinder 3, then 1, then all cylinders. Stalling/stumbling/misfires occured only on cold starts or after sitting for 30 minutes or more, slowly getting worse over a couple months. CEL would come on when engine stalled/stumbled. After about 30 seconds or so the engine would start working properly and I was able to drive the car like normal. A few months later the engine stumbled for the first time while driving and accelerating hard.

Had my local Mini shop do the intake valve walnut shell blasting for $440. Did not help, but did improve power and throttle response a lot (recommend). Dealership wanted to charge me around $700 to redo the intake valve cleaning as part of their diagnosis steps, but didn't (they took pity on me and bypassed this step since it was already done). Dealer's diagnosis showed that the HPFP was not the issue (no fuel pressure-specific codes, and good pressure I suppose) but they replaced it anyway. This completely fixed the problem! The HPFP warranty is 10 years or 120,000 miles, unlike the rest of the car which was 4 years 50,000 miles.

These were my codes:
P0304 Cylinder 4 Misfire Detected
P0302 Cylinder 2 Misfire Detected
P2781 Misfire Mult Cyl Max
P2779 Misfire Cyl 4 Max
P277D Misfire Cyl 2 Max
P2783 Misfire Mult Cyl Error
P277B Misfire Cyl 4 Error
P277F Misfire Cyl 2 Error
P2773 Misfire Cyl 1 Error

 

Sounds like you had a fuel pump replaced before. Was it the high pressure fuel pump? Maybe the "new" one is going bad.

 

Yes it was replaced I think at about 30,000 miles and we have about 75,000 now

 

I've been looking up videos on YouTube and the sounds my car makes aren't really like the videos people have posted with a bad hpfp. My car doesn't sound near as bad, but maybe it is at the beginning of the pump going bad. I don't know we will find out I guess. The car started ok today for the first time in awhile, but it was also warm overnight. It tends to be worse when it is cold out. The next 2 nights it is supposed to be cold, so we will see how it goes.

 

Ok so I asked the dealer for the codes, and the service guy said he had to ask the mechanic. I asked yesterday after he had already left, and he wasn't in today. Hopefully I find out what the codes were tomorrow then.

As far as how the car is doing since the fuel system cleaning. The mpg had gone up to 32.3 then the engine light came back on, this is when I took it in to see what the light was and they did the fuel system cleaning. Now since the cleaning down to 28. This is getting irritating.

 

The P-codes I gave from my care came from my Alta Accessport. The dealership told me they don't use P-codes, so my codes may not help you, unless the dealership codes indicate similar misfires. Hopefully the dealership will give you the codes' meaning, not just the actual codes.

 

I'm surprised that the codes weren't documented in their computer and that he has to ask the mechanic. Last time they told me it was misfire codes and that was all. I have tried to scan with an actron scanner, but apparently they don't work with Mini.

 

ok they finally gave me the codes
2771
2773
2781

 

And from what I found it is
cylinder 1 misfire
cylinder 2 misfire
multiple misfire

 

Since you are so far into it with this dealership, I don't know it another dealership would do any better.

Can you talk to the service manager and make sure they are not using your car to train a new mechanic?

 

Yeah, seriously. This should have taken no more than a day or two. Sounds like the high pressure fuel pump failed again. The first one failed at 30k, so it's not surprising this one could have failed 40k later. The HPFP has a 10yr/120k warranty. You need to push the dealership harder. They are wasting your time. The HPFP is a $200 part. Ask if they'll replace it under good faith. It might fix the problem like it fixed mine. Or ask them to contact some other dealership or Mini USA for advice. This is taking far too long. Keep us posted.

 

Don't know if they can do this... Have them talk to my service manager Travis at Mini of Camarillo (California), 805-299-2667. Look up my car's last 7 of VIN TP90299. They replaced the HPFP even though their diagnostics didn't point to it (but we suspected it). I had same misfire codes as you. It fixed the problem. I am getting frustrated just listening to this sorry story!

 

I know what mechanic has been working on it and he isn't new. Another update though, I found the gasket for my MAF sensor laying on the seat. I am going to be contacting the general manager again. The mechanic has also left screws laying under the the hood and stuff. I am not too happy, and I'm sure they are getting sick of me too.
My next closest dealer is about 2 hours away, and they charge about twice as much as the Mini dealer that is closest to me.

 

Man, this story is exactly what I'm going through with my '09 Clubbie S (48k). Stutters, CEL, garbage start... blah blah blah. Dealer did the walnut cleaning. Tried to charge me $900 but I said try again, ended up getting covered by MINI. Picked up the car excited. 2 days later at cold start... stutters, chatter, almost stalled backing out of my garage. Took it back to dealer. Said they couldn't reproduce symptoms after 4 days of cold starts. Talked to the service foreman. He said based on the codes the next thing they would replace would be the spark plugs which MINI won't ever cover. That I can do on my own. I was fine with that response and planned to do the plugs in the next few weeks. Car continues to stutter and run terrible at startup. I also had my HPFP replaced at around 25k. Now I'm thinking that could be the issue again...

Why does it have to be such a love/hate with these stupid cars!?!?!?!?

 

My spark plugs were just replaced. I have no clue what it could be other than the hpfp

 

another update. I sent another email today about the gasket and I received 2 different replies(one from service adviser and on from gm) Service adviser said they found it in the battery box...???? Makes no sense. The gm said they took it off because it was for an aftermarket intake I had, and the stock box was back in. What happened there was during the whole process they said I needed a new air filter and I thought well I should just get an aem intake, and I got a brand new one for $200 so I thought it would be worth it. I installed it the same week as the walnut blast and they blamed the intake for the first light after the blast, so I removed it and put back to stock and still got a light after. The MAF sensor has a gasket you remove when putting the aem intake on, and that is part of the stock intake. So this dealer really must not know what they are doing, because they don't know that the MAF stock has the gasket. I also informed them I found a tool they left behind too. It is probably pretty expensive, it is a Actia scan tool.

Anyway, they said they checked the hpfp and it checked normal. I still have my doubts. I'm not really planning on making a special trip to return the scan tool either(it is an hour away), I figure my engine light will probably be back on sometime in the next couple weeks so I can return it then.

 

Could be fuel pump, one of the coils, bad gas, or ect. What code popped up? Or is there none?

 

I contacted him to see what he would have to say. He said what I described of how it starts sounds like the hpfp. He said that the engine light has to come back on though for the Mini dealer to be able to replace it under warranty or something like that. He was very surprised at how the dealer has handled it so far. When I was telling him all that happened he was thinking it was an independent mechanic.

 

The temperature was warm yesterday(about 50 degrees) and this morning it was only 29 degrees. Anytime it is below freezing it tends to have some issues with the rough idle and sometimes getting the engine light. 29 degrees is hardly "cold" to us in WI, but being that the temperature during the day was 50+ as compared to the mid 30's that it has been I knew it would react this morning. So, we took a video...

 

So hopefully the final update. I took it to the dealer the day I took the above video, and .....

It was the hpfp, so y'all were right. I kept on them about it and they finally checked it out.

Thanks for the help

 

Hopefully! So did they replace it that day? Or are you still waiting to have it replaced?

 

It was replaced that day. So far so good, gas mileage has greatly improved. Averaging 34mpg