Hi all,

I am a newbie and need help. Just last weekend I changed oil on my manual transmission 2007 Mini Cooper (non-S) with 91K good miles. Oil change was nice and smooth. On Monday, I drove to work, and CEL came up. I didn't worry too much, made 5 restarts to clear it. In like 10 minutes, it came back. I also noticed engine wasn't running smoothly, not as much power as before. Didn't know what was the problem, so I went to AutoZone to have OBD read, it came out P2187. The engine would not stall when idle, but if I put a little gas, to about 1500RPM and let go, I can see my tacometer came down to less than 1000RPM and then, by iteself, go back up to 1700~1800RPM for like 2 seconds and then came down to idle.

Engine starts fine, sits in idle a little rough, but will not stall. Is there any easy fix? I don't have a lot of money to spend on this car anymore....

Any help is appreciated, thanks a bundle.

Justin

 

P2187 System too lean at idle, bank 1

Is what I show for the error code...

Sounds like a possible vacuum leak/air horn connection loose... when you did the oil change did you dig around the engine, checking air filter...

I would start with checking all the air intake lines/connections vacuum hoses/connections and double check the injector connectors both physical and electrical.

Best of luck...

Motor on!

 

Thank you James.

I didn't poke around during oil change, but I found out the motor oil cap wasn't closed tight. After I replaced it tightly, the engine power came back, and all symptoms were gone. But now CEL is still up.... At least it's running great again. Thank you very much.

 

Nice find! I love it when problems are rectified simply.

Greg

 

CEL may go off after five restarts without the condition active.

Glad it was a little thing (I'll have to remember that, add it to list of Troubleshooting steps)

Motor on!