Post tips on how to keep your MCS running smoothly and trouble free.

Yes, high-performance machines are eventually going to break regardless of how careful you are with it. But what steps can we take to minimize that?

I will start. I was told that filling up (with high quality gas of course) when the tank is at half, and not waiting until it goes down to a quarter will minimize the chance of air bubbles getting into the fuel lines.

(You may dispute any claims posted here, but let's keep the debates to a minimum. )

 

The fillup thing is sort of weird, as in I don't believe it. I can see if you let the gas go down a lot. Your fuel pump uses gas to sort of "cool" it so you can wear it out easier over time. I always fillup at about 1/4 tank in every car.

Just do regular maintenance and watchout for signs of wear / tear. That's about all you need.

 

Are you guys from planet earth, I know not what you say. Wear a foil hat on your head for better MPGs.......

And who the heck knows where a quarter tank is on a funky MINI gas gage anyways........

 

An oil catch can will prevent carbon build up in the intakes of our cars with direct injection engines.

Dave

 

I'm sure you're well-intentioned, but who the hell fed you that line? Air bubbles into the fuel lines?? Oh brother.

 

Regular oil change every 5k to 10k, check oil every other gas fill up, make sure the tires are aired up, its clean and waxed, make sure the fluids are at proper levels, and last but not least don't drive like a jack ***.

 

I drive it everyday. I look at it like my mom's sewing machines. The machines that she uses the most are still working fine.

 

I don't know about air bubbles, but the gist of the original statement does have some merit. An old roommate of mine with a RX-7 was getting low on fuel, took a sharp turn, car died. Engine. Toast. Rebuild cost him several thousand. Apparently it was a not too uncommon problem with the RX-7 (can't remember the exact cause) and I would venture a guess that it could happen to other cars as well.

 

Well that's a RX7, wankel engine. Different type of engine has different problems.

In most normal piston engine cars, it just dies. How many people have run out of gas and all it takes is....more gas to get the car started. You don't see people running out of gas and having to rebuild an engine. That's insane.

 

Doesn't work. All it does is make you go on forums and make lame attempts at sarcasm.

 

About the only thing that may happen to a MINI by running it low on fuel - is you may run out. No more moisture will condense inside or any other urban legend. Bubbles in the fuel lines, oh my!

 

And the fuel tank is plastic, so there's no rust to worry about in the tank either.

Like Porthos wrote...

"Regular oil change every 5k to 10k, check oil every other gas fill up, make sure the tires are aired up, its clean and waxed, make sure the fluids are at proper levels, and last but not least don't drive like a jack ***."

And I'm sorry, but the RX-7 engine did not have to be rebuilt just because it ran out of gas. There was something else going on there. The events may have happened that way, ran out of gas, turned a corner, engine died - but the damage did not come because of air in the gas line.

I don't let my tank run down into the red zone, but that's because I don't like running out of gas, not from worrying about air bubbles in the lines. It's especially important (to me) this time of year, you just never know when you could wind up in a ditch, and a full tank of gas could keep you alive till help came.

 

I can always tell when the guy in front of me drives like a jack ***, but I always have a much more difficult time figuring out when I cross that line!!

 

I'm not sure if this applies to the Gen 2 Mini's or not.
The 1st Gen cars were prone to having water leaks in the door weather stripping.
Would have to pull up stripping on the bottom and clean, dry seal ledge.
Might be worth checking.