I'm currently at Cecil County drag strip in Maryland.

For the past several months my car had an issue where if I drive it hard for a bit sometimes it would just lost all boost. You couldn't hear the turbo at all. It happened infrequently.

Right now I drove from NY today to test out the Alta AccessPort. The highway drive was incredible but I'll save my review for another time.

The issue I have is the car launches hard and in the middle of 1st loses all boost for the entire run. I'm running 80mph. :(. This is by no fault at all of the Access Port. It's an issue with my car. Now due to the added boost it's happening at every attempt down the track.

Does anyone please have any suggestions on what I can do to fix it? I'm here with several cars and a lot of tools....sadly no mini experts.

Ok I'm staging in a grand sport. Hoping for 11s.

Help!!!

Gene


5166690766

 

Mine does the same thing, sometimes it just wont boost over 6lbs, hit the sport button while driving a few times, that sometimes fixes it. or re flash your tune if you can

 

It 100% is a physical issue. Not ECU related other than the fact the physical ailment is even more sensitive to the wonderful increase in boost.

Faulty turbo inlet tube perhaps?

 

This is the exact problem we are having. At first i thought there was no boost at all but now that i installed the hks bov instead of the alta and it has a smaller valve that opens at low boost i think its boosting a few lbs since i can hear the valve ever so slightly.

Along with this i have noticed that the tone of the exhaust seems slightly deeper and louder during these times

Problem started about a month ago and has been intermittent, but happening more and more frequently. I'm gonna try to pull things apart this week and see whats up, if not it returns to the dealer

Car was in Mini service dept last month for engine mounts and this started to happen right after, i am wondering if a vacuum line is loose or something, someone posted in my thread about other possible causes

Good luck and keep us posted!

 

This is a common problem for those with increased boost levels running a stock IC. Heat soak will do this to your car. Used to happen all the time BEFORE I installed my new IC.

 

I'd just check for boost leaks...I had one at the turbo inlet that I was never aware about, but caused some weird boost issues. And with the tune, it was even more amplified.

 

It's not an accident, it's not physical, and it's not a problem - not in the technical sense, anyway. It's intentionally built into the ECU to dump boost in 1st gear, supposedly to keep from ripping the transaxle apart. Notice that the boost is back when you hit 2nd and stays there all the way up to redline. I hear a rumor that RMW may be working on a tweak for that ...

 

That's not his issue....plus he is using the Alta AccessPort tune, which does not have the 1st gear limiter.

 

Correct.


After speaking with Jeff at Alta for a good half an hour last night (Thank you!) going over all the variables of what it would be.....I figured it out today.

Went on another run and sure enough it pulled hard in first then died before going to second and the remainder of the run.

Pulling back into the pits I was sorely disappointed. There was some talk that it's possible my DIY CAI was the culprit...I didn't believe this was the issue but I figured it can't hurt to change it out. Once I started pulling things apart I realized the main intake hose into the turbo was practically off the turbo. Needless to say.... culprit found. I performed a few passes with the tube tightened and holy smokes...I gained about 10mph in the quarter. I then put my stock air filter back on, now 100% stock other than tune, and picked up some more time and mph. I drove like a maniac back to NY from Maryland. No issues...didn't lose boost once.

Thank you for all the replies and help. See I told you it was a physical issue. :p Thanks again!

I'm doing a full writeup on the AccessPort so I'll have to wait to provide actual numbers. But if you were on the fence about it? Don't be. Hop over already.

-Gene

 

Oops ... sorry, I misread. Didn't realize Gene is miles ahead of me (I'm not a wrench by any stretch, I just spend too much time on this board!), and I surely didn't realize the Alta tune gets rid of the 1st gear boost dump. Glad he figured it out!!

 

My friend I assure you I'm miles ahead of no one. Sincerely thank you for your help. I just got lucky that I noticed the huge tube under the hood was off.

 

So what was your best run??