Bought my 2011 Cooper S back in July in Nebraska. It was exactly what I had my heart set on for the last 4 years and was finally able to get exactly what I wanted. Unfortunately now some issues have come up and I'm in Alaska where we have no dealership and nobody that can fix my car so for the time being, she's sitting in the garage until we can figure out what's wrong with her :(

 

Welcome, congrats and hmmm....what seems to be the problem?

 

Mini ought to tow her to someplace that CAN fix it. Beautiful car

 

congrats

 

Unfortunately the closest dealer is 2000 miles away and I'll have to pay to get the car back. The BMW dealership that I took it to up here thinks it has a problem with the fuel system but don't know for sure. It could be the cold start issue but the easy way of describing it is that it refuses to stay running. It'll start about 30% of the time and stay running for 5-7 seconds then die on me. Pretty frustrating when it's only got 8000 miles on it.

 

Given that the number of BMW dealerships is far greater than the number of MINI dealerships, BMW ought to provide service to MINI owners who live more than a 100 miles or so from the nearest MINI dealer, IMO. It wouldn't be that tough to train and certify a couple of the current BMW techs to be MINI experts.

 

Almost sounds like it could be the dreaded high pressure fuel pump issue and I am surprised the BMW dealer wasn't able to troubleshoot it. Did the ECU set any codes?

 

^ completely agree with Cobra, sounds like hpfp to me. Mine had that issue this past spring and it would stall about 7 times before finally idling properly.

 

Hmmm...I should read fine print on the roadside assistance plan that comes with new/CPO cars. I thought for sure they will tow you to the nearest MINI dealer. I guess there's fine print (like "up to a maximum of 50 miles"). Darn - sorry to hear your stuck.

I agree with the others. BMW should be able to troubleshoot this for you. For cryin' out loud, the cars share the same diagnostic tools software and interfaces. Just tell 'em to scroll past all the Exx models until they get to the R's .