I've got 3000 miles on my R60 Countryman Cooper S All4, manual transmission, and I'm noticing 3 things:

First, my tailpipe tips have a dark covering of soot...
Second, in "sport" mode, I get that awesome burble as I slow down at lower RPM which implies running rich (of course it'll lean out at higher RPM)
Third, a friend following me commented that the exhaust smells rich

So...Does anyone else notice this? Is there an adjustment that the dealer supposed to make after "break-in"? Should I get this checked out? Or do I merely need to drive harder and faster at higher RPM?

Thoughts?

 

Same for all countrymans afaik, all the pipes i've seen are covered in soot, its all normal according to all the tech's i've spoken to.

 

Normal. No check engine light, no worries. The real reason cars have exhaust tips that extend slightly past the bumper is so the carbon builds up on the tips instead of the bumper. The burble in sport mode is because it's programmed to do it. Your friend must have been smelling the car in front of you, cause a car with two cats won't allow excess fumes to get through the tail pipe without causing a check engine light. Drive however you'd like!

 

Thanks everyone! I'm looking forward taking it to Streets Of Willow Springs next month to see how it compares to my Miata...sport mode, w00t!

 

Nice! I predict you'll have far better power and braking, but push in the corners if driven in the same manner.
Have you done any mods, or going for a few stock baseline runs?

 

Actually, it's a lease, so this will be baseline and pretty much every line. :-) My usual track day car is a well set up Miata but this has almost twice as many horses so it should be a fun change. I'm thinking it'll need some trailing throttle oversteer help to get the rear end around in stock setup.

Thinking about it, I could probably do some alignment tricks since that won't affect the lease. I'll have to do some research.

 

Now if they would just add the pop back to the burble.

 

Wait a minute, I though my Borla tips got soot all over them because of N14's burning oil, even the N18's have soot covering the exhaust tips? I don't get it, not with 2 catalytic converters!?

 

Turbo cars run very rich out of the factory. I don't know how the results are for Mini tunes, but a friend had his evo 8 tuned and got more power AND better gas mileage. A brief explanation...

Normally aspirated engines will vacuum a given amount of air for a given amount of throttle at a given rpm. With each variable (ambient air temp, modified intake/exhaust size) there will be a certain amount of correction needed.

Turbo cars can vacuum the same amount of air at 1800rpm and 3000rpm, depending if the pedal is at cruise or WOT. To compensate for this unknown and rapidly dynamic variable the manufacturers program the cars to dump fuel when the throttle input increases at a high rate; more so than with normally aspirated engines.

Running lean is far more dangerous than running rich, and relying on a pressure sensor to correct fuel demands in real time is too much of a liability. Matter of fact, if you're aware of what you're doing while tuning, it's actually difficult to cause engine failure from richness. You'll usually run terribly before you have enough fuel dumping to damage the engine. On the other hand, if you aren't watching exhaust gas temp carefully and lean out too far you can melt a piston.

And THAT is why turbo cars run rich

 

every vehicle i have owned with a cat has black soot in the exhaust pipe ... it is how unleaded fuel burns ... the light tan or gray exhaust from way back was lead oxide

this goes back to my 1976 rabbit

my airplane still runs leaded fuel and the exhaust is still tan / gray

 

Didn't realize that, but then again until owning my Mini I never had chrome exhaust tips before, just the standard cheap Nissan, Toyota or Honda tail pipe the wasn't immediately visible. Lol.