Alright guys. Typically, I know my way around cars quite well. But this is really worrying me.

The problem: As I was driving to work this morning, just accelerating along, all of the sudden I lost a lot of power, car started running very rough and I got a check engine light. I pulled over as quickly as I could and scanned the code and it came back P0304, cyl 4 misfire.

I have tried swapping plugs around, same rough running and same code.
I tried swapping coils around. Same rough running and same exact code.
I pulled the intake manifold off and looked into the ports with a mirror and flash light and noticed cylinder 4 has FAR FAR more carbon build up than any other cylinder. I am assuming this is because the PCV hose that provides this oil and gunk feeds directly into the cyl 4 side of the intake manifold.

Is that normal? I can either think that is the direct cause, or is a result of something larger. Cylinders 1-3 had a fairly light, dry, coating of carbon that didn't really yield any alarm. Then cylinder 4, the valves are gunked up with a large deposit of nasty, wet looking, build up. I don't see why, without underlying problems, 1 cylinder would be that much worse than the rest.

I soaked those valves in carb cleaner for a while and scraped them a bit. I knocked it down a bit, but not all, and buttoned it back up to try again. Same exact issues. Engine does not sound healthy, hardcore misfire in cylinder 4.

I'm at my wits end at this point. These cars are such unreliable, over priced pieces of **** and I fear this is another large issue.

I haven't got the right adapter for my compression tester to test my Mini yet, I'm working on that one.

Any and all insight is greatly appreciated!

 

Any more insight? At this point, I feel I've rules out the coil and the plug.
My next attack is going to be checking the wires going to the injector and coil.
Given there are no broken wires, I will be swapping around injectors and trying again.

My big fear, as unreliable as these cars are and as shitty as their build quality seems to be, is that this is something more serious. Be it a dropped valve, blown rings, or a cracked piston.

 

compression test it...may be a piston issue

 

Before I would do any more swaping things around I would do a comp test.. That's going to give you your best insight on whats going on at this time.. my guess is you will find low comp in that cylinder.. good luck!

 

Thanks for the insight guys. I had done a compression test and it came out to be perfectly fine. Entire ignition system checked out, has perfect spark. Testing of each fuel system component related to the specific cylinder(electrical test of wiring to injector, electrical test of injector, and finally swapping injectors to test mechanical function), resulted in finding that the misfire followed the injector. New injector on order!

 

With the cold weather over the last month, you may have had some extra crap accumulate in the PCV hose near that cylinder. I'm just trying to rationalize why one cylinder looks wet and the other ports look dry with less buildup.

Glad that you figured out the issue. It is refreshing to see someone use solid planning to figure this out, not just throwing money at new parts.

It will be running shortly and putting that smile back on your face.....

Have fun,
Mike

 

I've been working on cars my whole life, and unlike a stealership doing warranty work the manufacturer pays them for, throwing parts at a problem costs me quite a bit lol.

As for the abundance of carbon build up, I'm going to assume because the PCV connects to the manifold at that cylinder, it accumulates at that cylinder faster. Knocked out 2 birds with this issue though as I cleaned my valves while waiting on the new injector. Tomorrow morning the new injector goes in. Merry Christmas to me, wake up and fix my car lol.

 

Alright. So the original misfire code (P0304) followed the injector (swapped injectors with cylinder 1 and it turned to a P0301). New injector in, car still running rough and the codes are now showing multiple misfire codes and of course the random multiple misfire codes.

Could this be an HPFP issue? I checked the carbon build up when I had the intake manifold off and they honestly don't look even half as bad as some I've seen without causing issues. I don't believe that a bit of carbon build up is causing a consistent multiple misfire issue.

I'm really fed up with this car and would love it to just run right. I'm also really hoping it IS the HPFP because of the warranty on the part and having it replaced for free.
Thanks again for any input or insight on the issue. I refuse to give up on the car as I'm now making payments on a car I bought from a MINI dealership less than a year ago that is giving me major driveability issues..... Can't say I'm entirely happy with that ******** in a modern car.

 

Certainly all of those codes and the sudden power loss while driving occur with HPFP issue. I'm guessing you don't have any of the cold start issues, or you would have mentioned them?

Like you said, the HPFP seems like the best answer (since it's warrantied). I'm guessing you're using a code reader that you know will find BMW and MINI specific codes, right (because the 2880 HPFP code didn't show on my generic reader)?

So, I'm not great at diagnosing these problems, but your symptoms could match the HPFP. Good luck, let us know what happens.

 

Thanks. I am definitely keeping my fingers crossed on this being the HPFP. I just can't bring myself to believe that you can buy a fairly modern car from a dealership that specializes in the brand, do good maintenance, and have multiple issues within less than a year of ownership. And this problem being completely debilitating. Really blows my mind.

 

Dropping the car off at the dealer tonight to be diagnosed. With any luck it's the HPFP and they fix it tomorrow and I get her back on the road. If it's anything else, I'm looking at dragging it home from the dealer and tearing into it to send more money on parts for my little econobox....

 

Hpfp? Hope you got it back going!

 

No clue still..... I guess a lot of techs took the week off for the holiday so they were way behind. Dropped off Thursday at 5. Friday passed and I called at 5. He said they had just pulled it in. They were open all day Saturday and I called at noon and the service manager said a tech had just started on it and I didn't hear anything the rest of the day. SO they're closed today.

I really hope to get a call Monday morning as I have the day off and I don't fully agree with 2 working days passing after he told me I could drop it off Thursday night and no one has contacted me to tell me anything in the process. Friday, I called at noon, nothing done and "I'll call you at the end of the day". No call, I call at the end of the day, nothing done. Saturday, I call at 12, nothing and no call returned as promised again. Really sick of that.

 

dealerships are good at not calling and giving you the run around..Are you having them fix it? Or just find out whats wrong with it for you?

 

got the call and the car back today. The run down:
Not the HPFP at all.
The car I bought from that exact dealership less than a year ago, apparently has such carbon build up and moisture build up/condensation that in the cold morning(because we only had one of those this winter???), it caused this issue as a "symptom" of the carbon build up.

So then he goes on to tell me that the intake manifold design causes this issue to happen at a faster rate and MINI knows it so they require replacing the intake at the time of carbon cleaning($300 extra),

THEN plugs($28 each from the stealership) need to be done, then "You're close to 100k miles, so the coils will want to be replaced soon anyway"(Another $300).

He then goes on to say that it's "highly recommended" to remove the injectors and clean the tips of them with the carbon cleaning because that causes the carbon issue to happen faster when you don't have a good, strong, even spray of fuel(yeah because on a DI car, the back of the valves get fuel??). Oh, that's another $200.

AND per mileage, he HIGHLY recommends the serpentine belt to be changed. Oh no big deal, I could do that for a $20 part and a half hour to an hour in my home garage how much could they possibly charge? $425!!!! To change a ****ing accessory belt!

We're not done yet, sorry this is too good to be done yet.....

Because they would be putting the fancy new updated intake on, it requires a reflash so the car "knows the part is different and will perform differently", they charge two god damn hours to flash the computer. For a total of $280. Yes, $280 to hook a tool into the OBDII port and reflash the ECU.

Now that we're over $2300, BTW your battery isn't a MINI battery and it seemed to struggle to start your car. We highly recommend you replace it ($300).
So my battery should be replaced because it's not the right kind, but it's the exact battery that was in when I bought the car less than a year ago...from them.

I'm done with them and as soon as it's sellable, I'm done with that piece of ****. Even if I end up upside down on it. It's not worth making payments on a car that spends it's life being repaired.

 

ouch sorry to hear of the bad blood and the dilemma you are in...

 

Sorry to hear about it. I agree that in general, the MINI is unreliable and the dealers are experts at upselling (not that all dealers don't).

I'd be highly skeptical of the diagnosis. It may be right, but certainly MINI's approach is always to recommend carbon cleaning before they agree to replace the HPFP (which they'll never do even if it's having trouble, until it gets to the point that it shows the code). For me that meant driving for about 2 1/2 months with all the HPFP symptoms and misfires before any dealership (there are a few locally and I tried them all) would do anything.

HPFP topic aside, sorry to hear about the troubles. It sounds like it's passed this point, but perhaps you could consider asking for some goodwill effort from the dealer given the myriad problems? Who knows if they could offer enough to change your mind, but it might not hurt to ask.

Good luck.

 

Sounds like they want to sell you a new car.....
Or simply get the car to an Independent shop...they clean carbon too...usually $700-1000 from most posts...can install the same updated parts too....charge about HALF the hourly rate...
And you can say...just get it running, i'll do the rest myself....then again...you can tell the current dealer that. Stuff might need to be done...but it does not have to be a dealer...

 

The indépendant shop I'm taking mine to charges our local club members $250 for the walnut blasting. Look around for a good indi shop if you're getting that done.

 

One of our local members just built a blaster. Not sure how much it runs to make one if you already have a shop vac and compressor.

 

My wife just called The dealership to see if the valve cleaning might be covered by our extended Mini maintenance policy (I already knew the answer). Of course, it's not covered. And...the reason given...wait for it..."it's not a design problem." "The carbon build up is caused by the ethanol in today's gasoline". What BS! They also said $500.00+ and no mention of replacing the manifold, re-flash, etc. That will pay for a portable pressure blaster and leave some change.

Jon in SC

 

Yours being an 09 might mean it has whatever magical updated intake there is??? Either way I love how my dealership says "Mini acknowledges that it's a design flaw, but they will not pay for the work", and then yours just straight up blows even more smoke up your *** by saying the opposite. It's pathetic. If I get this thing running and can sell it for at least close to what I have into it, I'm just going to dump it off and buy a 330Ci like I wanted to in the first place.

 

so this weekend im going to do a battery test and valve cleaning. I'm going to take pictures of my valves when I'm done so when the car runs the same(and I know it will), I can show them.

 

I think this is just terrible the way the dealership has treated you on this.. Its bad enough at how expensive it is..Im a little shocked that they wouldn't at least cut you a bit of a deal.. good will... this is horrible...

 

The sad part is they will say you didn't take it to an authorized MINI dealer to perform the repairs and that it's running the way it is because you aren't a professional and discredit your work performed