Update: please see this post for likely resolution.

Over the last couple days I drove on a 500+ mile round trip with my new car to south Florida and back. No issues whatsoever; I was very happy with it.

I park and let the car sit for a few hours, after letting it idle for a few minutes which is what I plan to normally do with this turbo'ed car. I went inside for a few hours, during which it rained pretty heavily. After the rain's over an hour or so, I go back out to run a couple errands. Upon starting the car, it sputtered badly as though it was about to run out of fuel (1/2 a tank full at the time).

Image removed - I figured out (see below) I also had a simple bulb out error, that's not the main issue here.

I shut it off, started it again and same thing happened. As it was running, I rolled it back to a spot away from my building in case I needed it towed. I was parked on a very slight incline pointing the nose of the car up and the new spot is perfectly level.

Five minutes later, after a call to the dealer, I tried it one last time and it started just fine as though nothing had happened. It ran fine the rest of the day around down.

Any clue what this was caused by? It's at about 60k miles so I'm going to change the spark plugs and check the ignition wires but a brief look at the engine and nothing seemed frayed or cracked. I do plan on buying a ScangaugeII to check error codes in the future.

 

First things first, raise the hood/bonnet and check for any noticeable water leaks. (I know some time has passed since it rained, but some moisture may still be there). Does your MINI have a sunroof? You may want to check for any debris that may be wedged in there. There are drain holes/channels that allow the water to flow away from the sunroof instead of pooling up and making its way to places where it shouldn't be. (Learned this the hard way a few years ago) A water leak can cause all types of electrical issues...some short term, some more long term.

The light on your tach is the bulb out warning. You may have a bulb that's out...or it may be due to the potential rain/water leak.

 

That's interesting, because the light only came up when the engine was having issues. Haven't seen it before or since.

Sure starting to sound like an electrical issue then...

 

New update:

The bulb issue is, I believe, separate. I found that the connection for the license plate lamps is loose - perhaps the PO had backed into something slightly? One night I got the bulb out signal, found that they were out, and that pushing up gently on the bottom caused them to come on.

I haven't had the engine issue again until this morning. I have used the car after and during rain without issue. This morning it actually started and warmed up for a couple of minutes with no issue. However, as I was going over the speed bumps out of my residential area, it started giving me the issue again. I took a short video of the rough idle which you can download here (~24MB) if you're curious. Any new thoughts on the culprit?

(I am ordering a ScangaugeII today to check the codes. It was on sale yesterday on Amazon for $120 and now I feel like an idiot for missing out.)

 

I had the same light bulb warning light on my '09 but the car ran fine. The warning light would come on / off at random times, sometimes when the car was wet. Eventually the bulb burned out and was replaced.

 

ive looked around and alot people with the similar issue as yours said it was the high pressure fuel pump, but you wont know for sure until you get the code scanned. Let us know the update!

 

I had that same light warning on my 2008 Clubman S. The front parking light burned out The yellow one above the fog light, in the same housing as the fog light. I changed that out, the light went away.

 

I got a Scangauge finally, and there are no codes stored or pending - none whatsoever! I'm going to force clear it tonight and I'll have to keep an eye on it. I put in the XGauge entries to monitor my Air/Fuel ratio. Oddly, it does not pull any data on the standard gauge for fuel pressure.

I may have to wait for it to rain again - or maybe I'll see if I can wash my car this weekend...

 

Bingo!

 

Yup. This is how mine acted when the HPFP needed replaced.

 

FYI, MINI extended the warranty on the HPFP to 10 years, but they like to force you to pay for a walnut shell carbon cleaning of the valves before they replace the HPFP.

 

@cerenkov
Would the walnut blasting be covered at ANY time under warranty?
Just curious, I don't need it yet.....but being all carb'ed up wouldn't be a maintence issue if it shows up early?

 

Because it's a defect due to a crappy intake/head/DI design?

And it's not listed in the owners guide as a maint. Item.

 

I've never of it being covered by the dealer but there many independent shops doing it for $300.

 

So guess what - it's raining today, and I finally have an update!

I just went to start the car and had the rough idle issue again. OBDII scan shows 1 pending code: P0012. Checked the ignition timing, and it was definitely very retarded - as low as -15 to -20. Also PSI (using the details in the XGauge thread) was higher than normal, between -2 to 1 PSI at idle.

I would suspect timing chain tensioner, but the only thing is that this seems to only happen when the car is wet and it's raining! So where should I start looking first for the culprit? Could it be the VANOS solenoid valve? How hard is that to replace?

(Also, did not throw CEL during any of this. Ran it for a couple minutes.)

 

post a video of the noise so we better analyze the issue

 

I just went to restart the car and now it refuses to start. It's throwing codes P0300-304 - cylinder misfires. What the heck?

 

this still can be ur fuel pump, but a video would help more

 

Actually, I just remembered I posted a video earlier in the thread.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lf16hdaojgvyvnh/2014-03-12%2011.50.10.mp4

 

It could be the VANOS solenoid. As I recall, the '08 only has one, for the intake valves? I just had mine replaced (exhaust side). When I spoke with the tech, he said after pulling the codes, he pulled out the solenoid and checked by applying voltage to it. He said it didn't 'move' enough and replaced it. I don't know how hard it is to replace, but it didn't take him long.

 

That's what I'm thinking - searching the OBDII code came up with that.

The car has been dropped off at my trusted local indie garage, we'll see what they say. Unfortunately, the nearest dealer's over an hour away.

 

We had codes P0300, P0301, P0303 with occasional stuttering on startup with our 08 clubman S going on 50k miles. So far, fixed it with spark plug replacements and the #3 ignition coil. The ignition coil had plenty of rust on the outside. Fingers crossed I don't need anything else for a while.

 

Update: not good.

Well, the indie shop wasn't able to interface with the MINI computer apparently, so they got basically nowhere. I had the car towed to Sam's Automotive, a BMW/MINI shop in Jacksonville, FL, where it's been for over a week.

When it first got there, it was not showing CEL so they couldn't diagnose it. Later in the week it did show a CEL and they spent some time on it - did a full smoke test and even pulled the head off to check the timing chain, which was within spec. Sam also said that there was not significant carbon buildup in the engine.

However, they discovered that the vacuum line from the intake manifold to the top left of the valve cover (PCV line?) was actually completely broken internally and showed a massive air leak. That wasn't found in the original smoke test because they disconnected it to hook up the smoke machine. That was replaced, and still didn't do it. Then, we found that the engine has off timing - the exhaust valve is spot on, but the intake was apparently very high, which would mean retarded, right? In any case, we're now waiting on new cam bolts and then we'll see if that fixes the issue.

I'm surprised that it's a mechanical issue rather than an electrical one, based on the fact that it was happening when wet, but maybe that's more of a coincidence than anything else. It ran just fine otherwise.

I really am starting to regret buying this car.

 

So sorry for this continuing problem.

Cars are great until they break and then they are a major pita.

I really hope you can get this fixed because i think you will eventually come to love the MINI.

 

Thank you for the encouraging words.

I got a call from Sam last night - he said that after the valve adjustment and some cleaning of various valve-related components, he's got it running well. He was going to take it home last night and then call me this morning if it's still ok. This morning, he was able to successfully replicate my original issue (car starts running fine, but soon starts to idle poorly) and confirm my original thought, that it's likely the VANOS solenoid that's malfunctioning. It's possible that VANOS itself would cause the issue, but he had it off the car to clean it yesterday and inspected it.

He had inspected the solenoid and externally it was okay but he suspects internally it's malfunctioning. When the car gets up to speed it runs fine, but back down to idle it's spontaneously rough.

It seems like that the car simply had not been maintained correctly and while the head looked fine, the valves were very dirty. He says that comparing the underside of the valve cover and the cylinder head is like looking at two different engines - he didn't even try to clean the valve cover; it's so caked up he was concerned that he wouldn't clean it properly and it would just flake off more material. When I get it back, I'll take pics and then replace that as soon as my wallet recovers.