Hello. I've got an '04 Mini Cooper base automatic. About half the time when I start the car after it's been sitting for several hours, when I shift into drive, it's really rough and sometimes the car even lunges forward. One instance causes the engine light to pop on for just a split second. It doesn't seem to be related to outside temperature at all, but leaving it running for 5 minutes before taking off seems to prevent it. 2 minutes, though, it still does it. During this the RPMs also drop by a lot down to about 500-700, and then back up.

Another issue I've been seeing is while accelerating, sometimes the RPMs will drop to 2k (usually between 2500 and 3000 while accelerating) and stay there until I let up a tad bit on the gas pedal. A friend suggested fuel filter, thought I'd ask for opinions here as well.

Thanks!

 

Sounds more like the nature of the transmission. Read up on the CVT Coopers, they are a totally different driving feel than any other automatic.

Have you ever changed the trans fluid? We have had good luck with Redline No Slip CVT, every car we have done a fluid change on has had better park to drive engagement as well as smoother more progressive shifts.

The load the trans puts on the engine when you first dropped it into gear was what caused the CEL, basically coming near stalling.

If you persist to have these issues I would recommend having a qualified tech look at it, as you could be in for a hefty repair bill if the trans does fail on you. (CVT trans alone is about $5400)

 

That's what it keeps sounding like when I try looking things up online, but it just seems like it's more severe than it should be, which is why I'm a bit concerned.

Just had the trans fluid changed last year, mid November. The guy put in AMSOIL CVT fluid. Didn't seem to make any difference before and after. I also mentioned to guy about how it was acting and asked if they could just pay attention to that when it gets started up to bring into the garage, but reported nothing unusual.

 

Have my car at the Mini dealer now. Left it there overnight and, naturally, they weren't able to reproduce it this morning. So now it's down to taking bets on how long it'll take to get diagnosed. :(