Let me begin by saying I am utterly baffled. I consider myself a fairly handy individual, but this issue has forced me to turn to the internet, because I am at a loss.

I bought a 2007 Pepper White MCS in December. It is my first Mini. She had just under 60,000 miles and now has just over.

Up until now I have had no issues with the car. Allow me to begin.

I went to a friends house a couple days ago (Sunday) in a rather snowy part of town. I had to park off their driveway in some fairly deep (for here anyways) snow; about 3-4 inches. I ended up staying for about 12 hours and I went outside to leave. I started the Mini just fine and went to back out of the snow, only to stall it in the process. Sheepishly, I reached to restart the Mini, but pushing the button did not result in the engine firing. It would crank and crank and crank and sputter but would not catch and turn over. I attempted starting it quite a few times before I decided I was going to kill the battery and found alternate transportation home.
I went back the next day (Monday) to try and resuscitate Pepper, but I experienced the same issues. My friend told me he could see little puffs of black smoke coming out of the tailpipes when I was cranking it. I ended up using the tow point on the back of the car to drag the Mini up my friend's driveway, roll down, and bump-start the car. This seemed to work rather well, and I went about my merry way, thinking that this was some kind of fluke, as I was able to start my Mini without any problems anytime I tried after that.
Now, today (Wednesday), two days later, I left work at about midnight, went out to start my car, and was greeted with the same problem. Crank, crank, sputter, crank, but no ignition. I ended up bump starting the car again (Luckily the parking lot was sloped).

What I can't figure out is why the car has only not started these two (three?) times and will start pretty much anytime else.

The conditions of the first no start: 11 degrees F, nose pointing slightly downhill, full tank of gas (I did space and put 85 octane in this one tank; what I get for filling up at 2 am), snow on the ground
The next day when I bump-started it was the same conditions as the first.
And the most recent occurrence: 48 degrees F, nose pointing slightly downhill, same tank of gas minus about 80 more miles, no snow

Any ideas on what I should check/get checked out?

 

When you were cranking it over many times did it sound like usual or did it ever seem like the starter was weak while cranking? As for the black smoke that's probably all the unburned gas you've been dumping into the engine cranking it over and over again. It's not recommended running such a low grade gas, but I'm sure you knew that was coming.

It almost sounds like a HPFP (High Pressure Fuel Pump) issue only if it was that you wouldn't have black smoke coming out the exhaust. Blue smoke would indicate the burning of oil. I'll tell you that batteries have a hard time in cold weather, especially when a battery in toward to end of its lifecycle. How old is your battery and is it a factory battery?

Is this your first time using 86 octane?

 

The battery I honestly have no idea on.
It's probably factory original, and after some reading I was thinking that might be the problem. But the car has started no problem when it was colder outside and had been sitting 8+ hours between these two incidents. And then last night it was a balmy 48 degrees out and she still wouldn't start.
And I usually run 91-93 octane, I just filled up on autopilot last time (my old car would have ran on Africa gas, I'm sure) so yes, this is the first sub-par tank I've run through it. The previous owner seemed pretty fastidious about the car (big ol' stack of service records) so I can't imagine they would have run less than recommended gas, but I can't be sure.

 

My 2006 did the same thing a few weeks ago on a Friday at work. Car pulled away for approx 2 metres then died. Would not turn over. Got picked up and came back to work Monday with battery charger as felt I may have drained it continuously trying to turn over again.

Battery was the original so whilst off measured in and order one of the new agm type batteries. My car is not stop start but thought a better battery would be a good idea. 2 days recycling charge and a delay in the new battery arriving meant I was forced to try old battery on car. Same outcome. So enough charge but not turn over of engine.

With battery discounted I got car recovered and had them fit brand new hpfp that I had just in case as it was the original one on car. Still no joy. Ended up being the in tank fuel pump. A dealer only part and have to replace whole sender unit. I did want to look into options to just replace pump and may do that now I have old one so people know make and model of pump which should be replaceable rather than having to get whole new sender unit.

 

Your 2006 (gen1) car does not have a hpfp....just a standard pump with standard injection...the gen2 motor is very different....
Try a post in the gen1 issues...different motors, very different solutions.

 

My car was the 80th car built in sep 2006. R56 MCS

 

That makes it a 2007 model year....why call it a 2006?
My 2005 was built in late 2004....it is still a 2005 model...
We just try to ensure as little confusion as possible...
To the op...
I might get a compression check done...
If it seems to crank ok, but not start, but push starts ok....
Could be a bit of carbon resulting in lower compression... Resulting in beaing hard to start...
I would also get some "high"octane gas into it...
When I lived in CO, even my wife's normally asperated Toyota Highlander had some issues on the 85...with modern computers (at least in Denver) the car seemed to adjust to altitude and ran fine on the midgrade (87 for Denver) but ran like crap on 85.....very different that older cars (like pre 2000 or so that in my experience 85 can make run better at altitude)...

 

Call it what you want. I would say a car built in September 2006 is a 2006 car. I don't go in for model years. Think the clue was in the fact I already had a hpfp for my car which I would not have if it was a R53.

I am not the only person to have had the intank pump go. The penl in Greece also had this happen to him so it seems to be age related.

Luckily I still had rear seats removed from when I soundproofed the rear and replaced fuel filter, which at 80k miles didn't really need doing but as it was apart and I had the bits I did anyway.

With rear seats out pump replacement was an hours labour. Be careful of aftermarket suppliers as here in the UK Delphi advertise a fuel sender for the R56 and states it fits MCS but is rated at 3 bar. When real oem state the part only fits MCS and JCW and Bentley publishers states pressure should be 5 bar I realised mini dealer was the only option.