Maybe you need a valve clean. After that oil leak you mentioned earlier.

 

Driving to work today, I get the yellow check engine light. This time not on the tach cluster but on the speedo cluster.

Soooooooo, after all the work that's been done and all the time at the Dealership, she's still pooched. Up side is at least this light stays on and doesn't get reset on re-start of the car. Maybe it may help in tracking down the problem. Who knows. All I know is I'm near the end of my rope patience wise. This f-ing motor is really pissing me off. SM at the Dealership says this motor is dumb as a stump and unlike a BMW motor with regards to hooking it up and scanning it for issues.

My check engine light(s) have been on SO F-ING much, I'm sure I'm going to have to replace the bulb soon.

 

Hopefully hear something today

 

Have them check the inlet camshaft adjustment unit (the Vanos cam), that was bad after I had the tensioners replaced a few months earlier and was producing similar results. The code the engine was giving for this was P1338.

 

Mine did the same hunting right before she blew up on a long road trip. I still think it is HPFP but MINI doesn't really want to check that. Easier to blame the driver.

 

My thermostat apparently was bad. That has been changed. Nothing brought up regarding the inlet camshaft tensioners.

I got to work today and parked near a wall. The car still idles with a gentle *farty* sound that was seriously noticable where I parked and I get a slight shake once in a while. I'm still not happy about how it runs. Only thing left to do now (I think) is clean the intake valves/chambers on the head !?!?!?

 

I should be getting the car back today after the walnut treatment was applied to the head. It's the last straw in the hat. After this, I have no idea what to do or where to go except to Mini Canada.

IF............if she's running true once again, the oil catch can will go back on and stay on as preventative maintenance. I'm REALLY hoping to not be disappointed again. I luv this car but it's becoming a real painful experience. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best outcome. I will report back after all is said and done.

Just to note, the following has been done:

HPFP replaced
Intank fuel pump replaced
Thermostat
Spark plugs
All gaskets
Some other stuff that I cant remember for sure from earlier on??!?!
....and lastly the walnut head cleaning treatment



......stay tuned.

 

**UPDATE**


Well, it's still not fixed

At idle the engine is still "puttering" and the car still slightly shakes sometimes. AND, it still looks as if the valve cover is leaking some oil at the gasket on the driver's front corner......... even after it was JUST replaced. I double checked this by wipping it dry and watching it ooze again.

So, back to the Dealership I go. There's still another year almost left on the warrantee. Thank gawd for that. VERY disappointing though

 

*****More rambling thoughts*****


I've spent some more time reading all over the forums about 2nd Gen Mini Cooper S idle issues across the planet. LOTS of people with Mini Cooper S vehicle that will not idle smoothly. Mini has NO fix or understanding of the problem. Mini seems to be doing absolutely NOTHING in this area as I understand it outside of providing their dealerships with excuses and other horsesh*t catch phrases to blow off their customers. Mini headquarters seem to be heading in the direction of wanting to wait you out on the warrantee and then hanging you out to dry once it expires. I feel sorry for all the service managers caught in the middle dealing with irrate customers.

And a lot of owners are just *living* with it as a characteristic of the car. Sad. I love my Mini but they have lost me as a future customer. And it has nothing to do with the Dealership as they have been first rate in trying to help. But their hands are tied as they are only allowed to complete warrantee work in accordance with what Mini authorizes them to do .......... which apparently is all written up in a step by step manual somewhere. As a Mini mechanic, no thinking outside the box or using your brain is allowed.......... unless the customer wants to pay for that service out of their own wallet.

I don't know if the 2011's are better because of some of the changes under the bonnet or if these same issues will surface again.


Anyways, what a farkin' sad day.

 

I have the exact same puttering exhaust and slight shake that tominizer has. Sounds like the car has a slight occasional miss. No lights come on though so the dealer says nothing is wrong. I never noticed this until they replaced all of the timing chain stuff. I'm guessing maybe they left something slightly loose but with no light on they aren't gonna bother to check it out.

 

August 31, 2011.

Brought the car back today again. Just after leaving home, check engine light in the center cluster. Dealer read of the key shows codes that have something to do with carbon build-up and misfires. Yeeeeaaaah You have to be kidding me ?!!??!?

I farkin HATE this car. I hate how much time I'm spending at the Dealership. And I absolutely HATE how there are no answers or solutions for the problems my car has. There should be some kind of rebate from the Dealer for sh*t cars that do not perform as they should. I believe the MONEY I spent on this car has performed as it should have.

This is by far the WORST car I've ever owned with regards to problems and issues. What a piece of garbage. If anyone ever asks me about buying a Mini, I will punch them in the face and tell them that's what it feels like to own a Mini <end rant>

 

I am sorry.. I know how U feeling.. I am waiting and watching my car.. if things go the way it is now.. I will be trading it in for Fiat 500 Abarth next year and never look back. For now, I cant wait what next will need to be fixed..

 

**Update Sept 13, 2011***

After getting the car back, it's now working somewhat better. The idle still isn't perfect but it's WAAAY better now. I think it had a lot to do with the timing chain work/update they did to solve the death rattle cold start issue a LONG time ago. Apparently the timing chain gears were out of spec and had to be manually adjusted (WTF ?!?!). This is not something that should have gone wrong with that servicing apparently.

Anyways, the Clubman is a LOT healthier now. Not perfect like it should be for this mileage but good enough that I no longer want to drive the car into a rock wall... backwards.

 

I have a 2004 Mini (non S) and it's been hunting about 5-600 RPM at startup (doesn't matter if it's a cold start) for the last while and only does this intermittently. I have had zero issues since I bought it 8 years ago. The only thing that I have changed on the engine is replacing the spark plugs, pre-cat o2 sensor, serpentine belt tensioner and adding a high-flow intake. I can't seem to find any variables that would cause the hunting (i.e. humidity, temperature, etc...). I've looked the engine over and have no leaks anywhere. I am up to 106K miles, so if there's anything glaring that I need to look at let me know. Any ideas.

As always, thanks for the help.

 

I have an "08" cooper s hatchback. Mine was doing the same thing and I decarbonized the valves and it solved the problem.

 

Can you describe the steps on how to decarbonize? Is that a similar process to spraying seafoam into the vacuum hose or something? Thanks for the help.

 

I removed my intake manifold and physically cleaned the valves with sea foam treatment. Kind of a PITA but it made a big difference. There are some really detailed posts on how to do it if you search under decarbonize you should run across it.

 

You may not have the carbon issues w/the non turbo. Sorry I was thinking yours was an "S".

 

My Cooper S 6-speed manual is exhibiting the same type of idle hunting previously described here. It began doing this at about 7k miles on the car (and less than 3 months old) until it just didn't want to start one day. Had it towed to the dealer (as I'm 100+ miles from the closest one), and it was found to be a bad thermostat. Since getting the thermostat replaced, it had been idling well until the last 5 days or so, and the idle hunting has begun again. I'm now at about 10k miles and just 4 months I've had the car.

I'll admit I'm not too knowledgeable about cars and am not sure if this is just something I have to accept about the car or not. Sure, I could just contact the dealer and see where that goes, but I thought I'd start here first. Any suggestions? I'd be very grateful!

 

I wouldn't accept "hunting" at idle. Take it back to the shop ASAP, and tell them the problem is back. Don't wait; the longer you take to get it back to the shop, the harder it'll be for the shop to believe the problem wasn't fixed the first time.

There are a lot of people here that think dealers all have bad shops, but not all dealer shops are bad. Take it back to them to take full advantage of your warrenty and give the shop three strikes before deciding they can't fix your car. And treat them nicely, even if they did make a mistake on your last visit. I've gotten a lot more out of people by being nice to them, than yelling at them.

And pay attention to what they say to you about what your car's problems are. And don't be afraid to ask here what it all means. That's how you learn more about cars.

Good luck!

P.S. Instead of Seafoam, I had a walnut blast done for my MCS, made a world of difference. It's expensive, but it makes a huge difference after 50000 miles or so. Plus all the carbon gets removed without having to flush it through the entire engine and exhaust system.

 

I had the walnut blast done and they admitted after it doesn't work very well. So the head was removed and sent out. It's my opinion that the only way to decarbonize is by manual cleaning or to have the head removed and rebuilt. That sucks. Once the car is out of warrantee, the job will be the responsibility for the owner to bear due to bad design. It's looking like a regular maintenance item every 50k-60k. Nice way to spend the weekend if you do it yourself.