At least in my case. Got a Check Engine Light so I took it to the dealer; SA ran my fob and said "increased emissions. Could be a bad tank of gas, or a catalytic converter. But if it's the gas, we have to charge you $120 (1 hr labor). He suggested I run it down to near empty and get another tank, and it would "reset itself."
Needless to say I opted to drive, since the car ran fine. The light went away half a tank later. Then after I got another tank of 93 elsewhere, it came back while I was on a road trip. The car was running fine so I let it go, and finally took it in yesterday.

This time they saw misfires on all cylinders, and ending up replacing the fuel pump and the spark plugs. And noted "you'll probably notice it runs better than it has in a while!" I haven't noticed much difference, but it makes me wonder if the fuel pump had been fouling my plugs for some time now. I got an MCS vert loaner and it didn't feel any faster than my MCS. And I did put it through its paces.

I'm just glad the fuel pump didn't die on the way to Niagara falls!

 

Whats with these dealers calling "bad gas" all the time? Ive been driving 30 years, had probably 10 new cars, 5 used. Not once, not a SINGLE time have I heard a dealer say "oh, its bad gas" when I brought in a vehicle.

Is this just a MINI trick, or is it a BMW trick also?

I read the VW and Acura forums quite a bit for our other cars...nobody ever hears a dealer say "well, we will test the gas"

As if we, the drivers, have any friggen way of testing gas when we pull up to a gas station.

 

I live in the Philippines and there's no dealer support here. My cel light went on and we replaced the fuel filter element only. It's been 52km since we have done the filter change and so far, there's no CEL yet. I hope this is the really fix to my problem. That CEL light is giving me a big headache for the last 2 months.

 

And of course, the light came back on 30 miles after my first tank of gas. Beginning to wonder if Sunoco 93 is the culprit. I'll be switching to Shell.

 

just dont let them blame the gas.... because you wont be able to make Sunoco pay for your carboned-up engine. The MINI turbo motor (Peugeot) will carbon up with shell also.

 

Yup, this time they cleaned carbon build-up on the valves, and replaced the ignition coil. Under warranty. We'll see if the problem returns, I just filled up with premium.

 

were you not using Premium pump gas before?

 

Is this carbon problem only with the MCS?

 

I have a 2009 S. This week at 2,100 miles I had a misfire and the engine light came on. The car also had very low power. I found out that it had gone into safe mode that cuts power 40%. The dealer asked me to bring it in. The codes were misfire and increased emissions. They diagnosed it as bad high pressure fuel pump. SA said they had a service bulletin. They know there are 2009 S with bad pumps, they just don't know which ones they were installed in. It was replaced in about two hours. While they asked about the gas, there were no comments on the type. I have since driven about 1,000 miles with no further issues. I have been using premium from Quick Trip, which was on the approved list.

 

Sunoco USA does not seem to be in the "top tier gas" list, but Sunoco Canada is. It isn't so much premium vs. regular, as how much detergent, etc. they put in the gas.

 

Be careful with the "Top Tier" issue.
A few things to consider:

NOT on the Top Tier list: EXXON-MOBIL, ARCO and BP for example
YES on the Top Tier list: Turkey Hill Mini Mart, Kwik Trip. Huh? what?

Before the Top Tier thing existed, BMW had their own testing done. Only ARCO was the only gas to meet the highest BMW mark. And ARCO isnt on the top tier list, now that it has come out.

Ford lists BP gasoline on fuel caps. BP not a top tier gas.

Top tier has a maxium ethanol content of 10%. GOOD. But they also have a minimum of 8%....my guess is due to the agriculture lobby.

Top Tier is not a government test body, it is a club so to speak. Obviously larger companies (BP, Exxon, ARCO, etc) arent too worried about such silliness.

[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']There is an EPA requirement that all manufacturers of gasoline and cars have agreed on. "Top Tier" appears to be primarily a marketing term. There are requirements to meet "Top Tier," but this does not mean that those who are not top tier do not meet such requirements. The bottom line is, you can safely purchase gasoline from any major brand station because the quality of the gasoline from all of them is very high.[/FONT]
[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']I can provide citations for all the above if you really insist... but save me the trouble and look it up if you feel like making this a debate.[/FONT]

 

After 2 months of trial and error, I finally solved my CEL issue. the culprit? FUEL FILTER

 

I follow some pretty simple rules when it comes to gas:

1. Go to the busy stations as the gas is fresher.
2. Do not fill up when the tanker is there.
3. Do not fill up for at least 30 minutes after the tanker has left.

The trick is to not get the crud and water from the bottom of the tank mixed in with your gas. All underground gas tanks have some seepage and contaminants do get into the gas.

BTW, the same tanker seems to visit gas stations of many different brands, Tier 1 or not.

Also my Mini dealer says he never uses gas from the approved Tier 1 list because the closest Tier 1 station is just too far away.

 

So glad you finally got it fixed.

 

It could be that Top Tier is a pay-to-join club. I don't know. The site claims, "Six of the world's top automakers, BMW, General Motors, Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen and Audi recognize that the current EPA minimum detergent requirements do not go far enough to ensure optimal engine performance."

If this is not a blatant lie, how would one determine who has the detergent requirements that "go far enough" for those car companies?

When was this? I would like to see some reference to this. If you go to arco.com they don't have much to say about the quality of their gas. Their claim to fame is high volume/low price. Other than "meets or exceeds" EPA regs, I couldn't find much about the additives they use.

I have a Shell station and a BP station near me. When I used BP in my 1990 Integra I had problems with it stalling. The Acura dealer looked at it and found no problems but said that it could be caused by more than 10% ethanol in the gas.

I wasn't sure I believed it, so I tried BP again at a later time. Problem recurred.

Yea, corn ethanol really is a scam.

If you are going to refute a statement, have the courtesy to provide the citations. You are making it a debate. Your looking it up saves all interested readers from having to do your job for you. Oh, and it would be nice if you could take the time to remove the formatting commands that don't work here.

Definitely worth watching.

If that were true, Shell stations advertising V-Power on their pumps would be committing fraud. I think someone would have rumbled them, if this were a common practice. Can a tanker truck fill more than one station? Or, is it just that several stations use the same trucking company?

Some MINI dealers put 87 octane in new cars to save money.

With the reports of carbon build-up in the Prince engine, this issue seems like it may be important.

 

The point I was making is that there are perhaps more problems with the gas after it has been delivered to the gas station than you will get in the formulation at the refinery.

Not sure Shell is on the list of stations but it is the no label gas tanker visiting many stations. This is common practice to reduce the cost of distribution.

The dealer I know does not put low octane in their cars. But the gas station is next to his lot so he uses it. BTW, it is quite expensive gas (more expensive than the others in the area) because they get so much business from him. It is just not Tier 1 but he says it has the freshest gas around.

Not sure if the carbon build up issue is caused by gas. More likely the design of the Prince engine with is direct injection and oil recirculation.

 

I'll agree with oil recirculation being a major factor with these engines. Just talk to any MINI tech whose pulled a head on an R56. These engines(both the N14 and N12) blow a hell of alot of oil through the PCV hoses. The sad thing is that probably most of the folks who have catch cans have them connected to the turbo vent side instead of the pre-intake manifold side where the oil makes it to the valves and cylinders. Anyway back to the OT.

 

I've only used name brand premium in the car.

 

Sure hoping to see an answer to something.

 

One dealer in North Carolina, blamed bad gas for my stalling/CEL problem. Charged me $157 to drain a nearly full tank of Shell V-Power, claimed it had over 20% Ethanol. Did not fix the problem, other North Carolina dealer "Flow" recognized the problem and replaced the high pressure fuel pump under warranty. This fixed the problem, do not trust the fuel test method the dealers use insist on having a sample checked by the oil company. Reported problem to Shell interested in what they have to say. May have to go back to MINI USA to get my money back, good luck there right.

 

slinger688, I have spoken too early. After 75km with the new filter, CEL came back on. I think I'll be changing the high pressure fuel pump next.... This car is really giving me a lot of trouble

 

Guys, a little help please. Can you tell me what's the part number of the high pressure fuel pump that was replaced? i will be ordering one this week. Thanks

 

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...76&hg=16&fg=15

 

Our R56 is in the shop now, was towed in this week. Has the dreaded cold start rattle, and started sputtering and idle surging Monday evening. They say it's the Fuel pump causing the idle/run sputtering, and timing chain tensioner causing the noisy rattle. Odd thing is that the rattle doesn't go away now as the engine sits there sputtering, like it did before. Don't know. Fuel pump will be $1200 installed. TC tensioner is about $140 installed. Car is just out of warranty at 1000 miles.

-vidd

 

I think the High Pressure fuel pump runs about $400, see link in post #23. Takes a short time to install. I spent 1.5 hours at the dealer having mine done, most of that time was waiting for them to take the car around, doing diagnosis, and washing the car afterwards. $1200 seems like a lot of money for maybe 30 minutes work. There is service bulletin "SIM-11-02-07" on the Timing Chain Tensioner would have thought that would be free, even if you are out of warranty.