Howdy folks,

Is there anyone here who has a MINI Cooper S built between April 2003 and July of 2003 that runs perfectly without any hesitation, flat spots, stumbles or hiccups?

If so, please respond. I'm trying to determine if the stumble issue is strictly software-related. I don't think it is, and I think some cars produced during this time stumble and some don't.

Thanks for your help!

Also, I would like to quickly add that I have been fairly vocal and negative in my recent postings on MCO in the Beneath the Bonnet section, and I hate having to be this way. Those of you with well-running MINI's received what you bargained for. Those of us with problems didn't, and we're not receiving much information on an on-going problem. So, please forgive the negativity, and I hope it is all cleared up soon.


See ya,
JS

 

Hey friend, don't have my MCS yet, but my '02 Cooper CVT (Which was originally delivered with horrible stumbling, rough running, lurching software version 30) has been running perfectly fine with release 32.2 of the code. While 32.x introduced the stumbling in the MCS, it actually did resolve most issues for the CVT version.


Best of luck with your Lemon Law proceedings. I really hope you either get a brand spankin' new replacement (That runs the way it should be) or a full $$$ refund.

_________________
'02 Cooper CVT (Absolute Keeper!)
On order: '04 Cooper S (Status 160 as of 9/6/03, Yippeeeeee!!!!!!)

 

JS-- Really wish you luck. If Mini will resolve this for all owners will this problem, they could turn a negative into a great positive. Seems like the choice is theirs and the right choice is obvious!

 

'02 Cooper with no hiccups, stumbles, etc - drove her 18,000 miles

'03 Cooper S (early April build) - again no stumbles, hiccups, hesitations, etc. As of last week she is a JCW and no stumbles or hiccups

 

If this is any help, I have a 10/02 build '03 MCS that has been mostly trouble free. No rattles, no windshield cracking, a stumble that exists only in the few minutes of warmup time. Dealer took care of a NAV system problem with an upgrade to 3/61, the rear lower shock bolts were fixed via recall. Problems I had and fixed myself were the rear hatch not locking, a loose glovebox air tube and two bolts missing from the front lower subframe.

Not entirely without issues, but nothing major (yet!).

 

I have a July 2003 build MCS - over 900 miles to date. The car is not a daily driver - more of a weekend car for long drives.

I got the Madness/Rogue Exhaust at 70 miles. Did not notice a stumble or a yo-yo up to that point. I also did not notice anything untoward for the first 700 miles.

At 700 miles, out of curiosity, I reinstalled the stock intake. Wam! Immediate noticeably stumble and yo-yo. Screw the ECU learning curve - it happened coming out of the garage! I drove the car nightly for one week - predictable stumble upon clutch release and again a yo-yo in second gear.

After 80 miles of this I reinstalled the Madness Instake - stumble is gone - yo-yo is gone. Drove the car over 120 miles this weekend on curvy backroads - all's well.

I'm not implying in any way that the Madness Instake is a cure for the stumble - I'm also not pretending to be a mechanic. However, when I mentioned the stumble on Saturday to one of the Techs at our local BMW dealer - he suggested installing a modified intake. He stated that he didn't think it was a soley a software issue because he had cars with the same build dates and same ECU versions differ in having the stumble. Unfortunately, we were only able to talk to him for about 10 minutes before he got called away.

Between my old man, my brother and I, we have bought over 8 cars at this particular BMW dealer. We know the owner of the dealership. Tomorrow night my brother is buying yet another Beemer from them. I am going along with him to discuss this issue with the owner and try to get a straight answer on the problem.

Regardless of whether or not I or any other owner currently has the issue is unimportant. BMW will not listen to just one person. If you want to affect a change with this current issue, EVERYBODY better band together and start making some noise.

 

I have a June03 build Cooper 5-speed, and this has been my experience during two months and 6500 miles of ownership:

1) Very infrequent (4-5 times in two months) stumble in first gear. But it's so slight and so quick that I barely detected it. Definitely didn't create a dangerous situation such as pulling out in traffic and dying. If I hadn't been aware of the problem through these forums, I probably wouldn't have noticed it at all.

2) Very infrequent (3 times in two months) lapse at idle. Meaning I'm sitting at idle and the RPMS will dip from 900 to 500 for 1-2 seconds causing the car to shake a bit, then it will return to normal. Hasn't stalled though.

Incidentally, I've had the Auto A/C going non-stop since I got the car, so it was running everytime both of the above occured.

Hope this info helps.

 

>>
>>Is there anyone here who has a MINI Cooper S built between April 2003 and July of 2003 that runs perfectly without any hesitation, flat spots, stumbles or hiccups?
>>
>>

I have a March 2003 build MCS. No stumble, hesitation or hard start. There is a flat spot at extremely low rpm, but that I think is more a function of a small displacement engine with a supercharger as it quickly disappears once the rpm gets in a more useable range. I have been using Chevron 91 octane since new. There was a thread on gasoline usage a few months back and it appeared that those who were burning Chevron didn’t seem to have the common run ability problems. I have been plagued with electrical problems totally unrelated to engine management and all I need is a good dealer to facilitate repairs closer to me that can get the job done right the first time. Good luck!

 

Alice was built outside of your date range (August 02) but thus far, the only problem I've had was the sensor in the driver's seatbelt had to be replaced. Done under warrantee. That, and my fuel economy is sitting around 21mpg which seems a little low to me.

 

April '03 Cooper 5-speed, 3500 miles on the clock.

I am starting to wonder if I genuinely have an occasional stumble problem or if I'm just not tromping on the gas forcefully enough off the line. In city driving the car definitely lags/hesitates when the light turns green unless I rev it before letting out the clutch.

Also the car has almost stalled once or twice while I'm reversing or getting in/out of parking spaces, at dead slow speed -- the revs will dip weirdly for a sec while I'm nursing the engine, then recover.

 

june 03 build no problems thus far.....

 

June 03 build here as well. 4600 miles.

No outstanding issues. Noticed the MINI is a little sluggish with the A/C kickin, but, that's to be expected. Learned how to drive stick on this car, some stumble issues, but I think that's because I had no idea what I was doin. In the last few weeks it has died down (less of a noticeable stumble), though, that could be the pilo intake, not sure. I did notice however, slow start (long crank, he he) in the morn., along with a quite noticeable stumble on first take off, whenever I start the car, not just in the morning. (anyone else with a long crank?? sorry, definite 7th grade moment there) Very very interesting, I can be sitting at a light, shut the MINI down, and count on a pronounced stumble out of the gate. If I leave the car running though (which is what I usually do), the stumble is practically gone. Has nothing to do with the MINI cooling down.

Ah well, I was fully expecting anything English to be quite tempermental. Its not annoying enough for me to go to the dealer though.

No other problems though, just a loose bettery terminal, handled by myself.

 

Well, for the most part...
Not to shabby.

I would consider it a good mini overall... but am starting to change my opinion.

Yesterday afternoon, My Mini was flatbedded. Clutch went out again... 4th time.
Stick still engages gear slots, but no gear engagement under the hood. It's very curious that this happened. I recently had the flywheel replaced under warranty, and under protest to MINI. You see they were about to call it driver error. It was not. It was faulty service and a lack of a full inspection of service on a MINI Service Location, after multiple shift link disconnections and reconnections prior to the recall. And once recall was publicized for the shift linkage, they replaced the linkage with a longer part and the required CLIP, without inspecting the system for wear and tear damages caused by the shift linkage problems. We lost linkage in the middle of the desert once, with no cell phone reception, and thankfully I figured out the trick of how to knock the linkage back into place... but that was 20 some miles later at a gas station in the middle of nowhere, in 5th gear. We were stuck in 5th. It's REALLY hard to start in 5th by the way. That's just once incident, but incidents like this compounded the tear on the flywheel that had to be replaced.
Then, the windows would not work... easy fix, one day.
Now Fourth CLUTCH/SHIFT Related problem happens again. I was speaking to MINIUSA about a Strange Shudder I was experiencing as I launched in 1st gear. It would shudder as I hit 2kRPMs in 1st... WHOA! I had to launch like a snail to avoid this. Then it became more frequent, it would hide until we were nearing 3kRPM even if we launched like a snail! Theni it advanced itself to 2nd and 3rd gears, but this time with a scraping/grinding sound. Mind you, the shift techniques had to adapt to the shudder, but not to the point of a moronic driving style. I was not Racing or even in a hurry. Casual daily driving. So I filed a report to MINI USA and they were semi helpful. I asked them Specifically what to expect and they said it sounded like the "Stumble" . Even when I included the scraping and grinding, although they have had no cases of this. I mentioed that I was a bit concerned about any problems that could come from this and be misconstrued as driver error, like the last time. I told them about the appointment I had Scheduled for today and to let them know. They left me assured that it should be fine, and that I should not worry, let the service techs look at it. Cool.

But it ain't cool! within 5 minutes of hanging up with the MINIUSA dude, CLUTCH FAILS, or something like it....hmmm

Needless to say It's got me upset and disappointed. This is the fourth time I've had THIS problem and now I'm thirsty for Lemonade....

We Filed A complaint with MINI, and told them the deal.

I called the Service Station it's headed to today with a heads up. Then they had the nerve, they = a phone jockey, had the nerve to say "it's caused by not knowing how to drive manual". WHAT????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, I let MINIUSA know about this insulting assumption.
The MINI Flywheel is not very strong, so be carefull .... Have them looked at TODAY, before they shred to bits.

Sorry to rain on the parade.

I might have to LEMON this MINI. :???:

It's nothing I want to do, but if I have nothing to look forward to but Flatbeds and Rentals, I think I'd want an adequate replacement or my $ and then some back.

We're looking for a lemon lawyer now.

Other than That... I REALLY Enjoy the MINI, and hope all can be resolved swiftly.

I hope no one goes through the hassles I have and am going through.

And let me say once again, I still think it's a good car, just some problems that need serious addressing.

 

Sorry to hear about your clutch Doug. This isn't going to impact your national road-trip, is it?
And...isn't this kinda the opposite what this thread is asking for?

 

I can't believe only two people with MINI Cooper S's built between April 2003 and July 2003 have responded that their car runs properly. Surely there are more than two.

Any others? I'm really only looking for MCS's built in the date range above that run perfectly.


Thanks, folks,
JS

 

Skim through my survey thread in Beneath the Bonnet. It might contain a few more fully functional MCSs in that date range. And folks, not to be a grouch, but if you could try to just limit the discussion to what the original post asked: 1) built after March '03 2) MCS 3) No problems. That might keep this thread from turning into a multi-page monster like some of the others. Thanks!

I can also vouch for Dot-Scott as having a damn near perfect MCS which was a late April '03 build.

 

not sure exactly when it was built but I received my MCS in Oct '02 and have had 13,000 trouble free motoring

 

>>not sure exactly when it was built but I received my MCS in Oct '02 and have had 13,000 trouble free motoring


SORRY - can I delete my posting?!!! ops:

 

Eastbaybrit, your posts gave me a good laugh. And I needed a good laugh!

Have a good one,
JS

 

July 2003 built with stumble.

 

I have an April 03 build. I may not have noticed this if it weren't for the posts on the stumble: It seems that in 2nd and 3rd gear through low rpm's, 2-3,000, there is a hesitation, a lack of smoothness in acceleration. If that counts, then I'm affected, if not, I have no stumble.

BTW, no mods.

 

Just a note...

I love my cooper, just having a problem now. Lemoning it.

It might effect my trip somewhat...

I had a Feb 02 Build.

purchased in April 02

nearly 18 months old.

I still think it's a good car.

which is what this thread is about :smile:

Thanks!

 

OK, I don't mean to make any waves here, but I have a question. Manual driving techniques tend to differ from driver to driver. Has anyone with a stumbling MINI S driven one of ours that doesn't seem to stumble as much. We could be driving it wrong, causing the stumble not to be so apparent.

Just a suggestion.

 

Jstines I was in the May club with you. My MCS was built the week of April 11th and so far I only have had problems with the coolant tank and starting problems, hot and cold. I haven't noticed any problems like you mention. I have over 7300 miles on it right now.

I hope that can help you a little.

 

>>OK, I don't mean to make any waves here, but I have a question. Manual driving techniques tend to differ from driver to driver. Has anyone with a stumbling MINI S driven one of ours that doesn't seem to stumble as much. We could be driving it wrong, causing the stumble not to be so apparent.
>>
>>Just a suggestion.

Kumquat78,

Funny handle, BTW. :smile: I wish it were as simple as correcting some driver technique, but it is well documented that people who had excellent running MINI's received the latest software update and then began experiencing the stumble issue. Also, there are those with great running MINI's that have test-driven MINIs that stumble, so they do know there is a difference in the cars. It's not an issue with technique.

As for some people's MINI's stumbling worse than others, I'm not sure. My MINI's stumbling severity varies with weather conditions. Cool/Dry = Less Stumble. Hot/Humid = Severe stumble.

Thanks for your input,
JS