This morning on the way to work (35 mile drive interstate) at about 80 MPH my car suddenly went into limp mode for about 2 seconds I let off the gas and everything returned to normal.

2003 CVT Cooper (UNI Chip, CAI(both running for 10k plus miles))
The rest of the drive 10 miles or so everything was fine gave it a couple sharp accelerations still nothing.
It was very cold this morning -1 F with 30 MPH winds

1.) What would cause this?
2.) Would there be any readable code?
3.) Is there any danger to drive?

 

You should have a check engine light on if something was wrong. You could go Autozone and have them stick a coder reader on it. Might have been a bit of water in the fuel ,frozen.

 

It could be a bunch of things but I am betting on the bypass valve. Has ti ever been changed? Try hard acceleration up to the red line and be prepared for your Mini to shut down during acceleration (pick a clear straight road). If it goes limp you can shut it down and restart and it will work fine but that would suggest a bad bypass. I posted a couple of years ago that I suspected that a lot of the valves were bad and the owners didn't push their Minis hard enough to notice the power reduction.

But it should also trigger the Check Engine Light and it will be more than just 2 seconds. That said it is a simple, and fun, test to see if the bypass is stuck open.

Rich

 

2003 CVT Cooper BYpass valve?????

 

How much driving in the rain have you done lately and have you cleaned your CAI filter within the last 3 months? If your filter is soaked, it's not working properly and needs to be cleaned and re-oiled.

 

Really no rain driving but quite a bit of snow lately however the Filter appears clean and was recharged about 2 months ago

 

Sorry.

Rich