A couple of times during the past month on a cold morning, I get a little hesitation for a few seconds and then it went away, so I didn't think anything of it. Well, a few days ago I got into the car, started it and it ran very rough. Service Engine light came on and I was able to move the car about 100 feet to a different parking spot before I gave up. The next day I moved it another 100 feet and the MINI barely made it because the engine was running even worse. After that, I can't restart it at all (just cranks). So I picked up a scanner at Autozone and it returned codes for misfire detected in cylinder banks 3 and 4. I pulled those plugs (Brisk from Alta) and they were wet with fuel and black, but still intact (no noticeable damage). There was minor corrosion on the coil terminals, so I figured that was the cause. I then went out and picked up a new coil pack at Autozone and MSD wires at Alta. Sadly it still has the same problem. I also confirmed what I think is the correct fuse (F34) is good too.

So before I give up and have it towed to a mechanic, I thought I would ask for some feedback. Any suggestions? I have a timing light, so I might hook that up next just to make sure the new coil pack is good.

 

After reading "misfire in 3...." I instantly thought "replace that defective stock coil", but you already did that.... :(

 

I am assuming (although you did not say) that you replaced the plugs?
I fouled my Brisks recently and had the same problem. Car chugged a LOT and then would not start. This happened while at my mechanics shop (in for state inspection) so the mechanic cleaned the plugs (it took forever) and it ran fine.

It would be important to note that in my case, I had a leaky fuel injector that caused the plug to foul.

 

Ya, to be honest I was relieved when I saw that because I figured troubleshooting the ignition would be a lot easier then another issue.

This is very helpful! I honestly didn't think twice about the plugs since they weren't physically damaged, so I just popped them back in! I still have the factory plugs with just 15K miles on them. So later today when I get back home I'll swap those in and see if that makes a difference. Worst case they get fouled too and I need to take a closer look at the fuel system and get another set of fresh plugs. Thanks for the tip!

Oh, this morning I had a few free minutes to at least take a volt meter to the new coil. It measured .6 Ohms of resistance between each coil, same as the factory one, so it looks like both are good. I'll post an update once I swap out the plugs later today.

 

Yeah, I recently had the same thing happen. All plugs ended up being fouled up pretty bad. They'd still spark when I pulled them from the car, but I guess under compression it wouldn't.

My money's on the plugs for sure. Hope you get it running today.

As a side note, I had a random misfire in cyl 3 for awhile and couldn't figure out what it was. Tried new coil packs, plug wires everything. What fixed it was spark plugs. They were fine, but for some reason my car didn't like the factory plugs. Once I switched to NGK Iridium's it went away. Probably something to do with having a 15% pulley haha, but it ran fine for awhile. Mind you, the random misfire would only happen once awhile on moderate to hard acceleration.

 

I hope I'm right! Plugs are cheap and easy (relatively speaking).
Let us know what the outcome is once you've swapped plugs!

 

I'm up and running! I put in the old stock plugs and the car fired right up. Now that the plugs are out and I can see them in better light, they are very fowled up. It makes me think a Seafoam treatment is going to be due in the near future. With all the cranking I did, I probably put some fuel into the oil too, so I may do a very early oil change as well. Attached below is a picture of the plugs.



But for now I'm going to monitor the car and see what happens to the current plugs in 1-2 months. If they get fowled up, then I know I have something else wrong with the car that I need to address. If not, I probably will go back to some NGK Iridiums and not use the Brisk plugs again. They ran great, but I only got about 10K miles out of them before this issue happened.

One other note, if you get the coil pack from Autozone, the bolts from the OEM pack won't work. They are too big to fit into the holes on the Autozone unit. So I had to go to a Ace Hardware and pick up some M6x60 bolts and small fender washers. This then allowed me to bolt the pack down using the existing rubber bushings. At least I was able to find a way to "justify" getting the MSD wires to add a nice look to the engine bay and go along with the red Alta intake hose!

Edit: Hey, how about that. This is my 300th post!

 

HOLY CRAP those plugs are bad! Glad you are up and running!