I have a 2007 Mini Cooper (that I lovingly call Charlie). I've had it for a little over 2 years now and I haven't had any serious problems. I have had issues with the tire pressure monitor and every couple of months the warning light just goes off and won't go away unless I take it to the dealership. Once its reset it usually takes about 4-6 months of driving for the light to come back. I've talked to a few people at the dealership and they all reassure me that everythings fine and that it might just be the extreme heat that is causing the problem (I live in Puerto Rico and the weather is regularly at 90 degrees).

The other problem I seem to be having is a random engine shut down. It's only happened twice and I have noticed that both times it happened during stop and go traffic when I was accelerating and braking regularly. I want to think that that might have something to do with it but I'd like to know what everyone thinks. I don't know a whole lot about cars but I do know when something is wrong and I definitely understand quite complex explanations of engine issues so if anyone has any thoughts...please feel free to explain these issues to me.

Thanks!

 

You should be able to reset the TPM system yourself with the instructions in the manual. I have after tire/wheel work, pretty simple.

 

Tire Pressure Monitor can be reset easily by yourself as MCS Fever stated. Just look in the owners manual about that.

As for the reason that it is going off could be weather related. If the normal temps are in the 90's and then one day the temp is down to about 50 in the morning that will cause the tires to have low enough pressure to cause the light to go on. We in the northern parts of the US have this problem regularly during the fall months as the summer temps drop by 30-40 degrees in one day.

As for the shut down problem it may be because the engines computer is thinking the engine is overheating or maybe a sensor starting to go bad in the hot weather.

 

I definitely have reset the TPM on my own a few times as well but that only seems to work for about a day or two and then its back. I know its no big deal and a lot of mini coops, as well as other cars in PR, seem to have the same issue so I'm not totally concerned about that.

As for the engine, I really want to think that maybe its just stalling? Because last time it happened, I was driving at or below 5mph in traffic.