Hi all,
Got my new CMs ALL4 on 10/26 and boy am I loving it. Couple of questions:

So in the manual in the section on "Coasting" it says if you coast too long in neutral (manual trans), the fuel supply will be cut off. HUH? Why is this? and has this happened to anyone.....I mean how much time to you have? I tend to coast in neutral to a stop light or stop sign every now and then....nothing more than about a couple hundred feet or so...but I'm a bit leary now after reading this.

Also, if I'm at an incline and at a stop, when releasing the brake to give gas and go, there seems to be a 2-3 second delay where the brakes seem to still hold the vehicle. Is this normal?

Thanks

 

I've read that the brake holding is normal. It's so that you can take off on an incline and the car not roll. As for the fuel not sure. I've never heard of that on anycar. Someone else can chim in on that.

 

The brake holding it on the hills is the hill holding feature. So normal.

Not sure on the fuel cutoff when coasting in neutral. I would guess it is being done as a way to save gas. Maybe MINI is trying to do something similar to the deceleration fuel cut-off where the fuel is stopped when coasting in gear. Add some programming to detect the fact that the vehicle is in motion but out of gear, so no gas needed.

 

The manual refers to coasting in gear, where the engine is driven by the momentum of the car and does not need more fuel.

You have also discovered the "Hill Assist" which you can read about in the manual.

 

Your car doesn't shut off, nothing unsafe or wrong here. The car is just conserving fuel.

While reading the manual you will also see the section about the Hill Assist feature that is completely normal.

 

ok good...for a moment there I though I'd loose power braking and steering if the engine suddenly decides to cut out.

THanks all.

 

If you were in the ROTW (rest of the world) the new MINIs now have and auto start/stop function; come to a red light and the car will shut off... begin to accelerate by releasing the brake or pressing the gas and the car springs to life again and off you go.

 

The only thing we've got in the auto tranny is that it disengages "drive" when stopped for a minimum time and re-engages the gear when you release your foot off the brake. Very subtle and you probably wouldn't notice it if you didn't know the car did this. All in the name of economy!

 

Steering is Electric, as far as brakes go I'm sure there is a vacuum canister so you still will have power brakes.

 

Vacuum is created by a pump on the engine, these engines do not draw as much vacuum as those you have dealt with in the past. But either way, no worries, the car is not going to die while coasting.