Hi - Was driving my Manual Transmission All4 in a gated community, 10 MPH speed limit with speed bumps! After slowing to a crawl for a speed bump, with transmission in 3rd I accelerated from a 2 MPH crawl (bogged down but did not stall) -- Moments later, warning "Nanny" message - "Engine Malfunction - Engine Running at Reduced Power - Take to nearest Mini Service Immediately" -- Just wondering if I caused this Warning Message due to this launch from near stop in 3rd gear? The message cleared upon stopping then restarting engine and has not reappeared.

 

There's and old fashion term rarely heard any more called 'lugging'. When you 'lug' the engine you are asking it to provide torque at very low rpm as in asking it to accelerate from a near stop in 3rd gear. It causes the engine dire stress, pre-ignition, pinging and other nasty stuff. Get the error cleared and (Doctor, doctor, every time I go like this, it hurts!) don't do it any more. At 2 mph you should be in 1st gear. This holds true even more if you are climbing a hill at low speed. RPM is your friend below say 20 mph. I doubt if you've caused any permanent harm but repeated lugging certainly can. Another thing to help understand is to take a look at the torque curves. At low engine speed, you have it at the far left of the curve where it is at it's lowest.

 

"RPM is your friend below say 20 mph."

Being new to a MINI (but not a manual transmission), I've found that statement from your post to be spot-on! Keeping the RPM's up seems to "cure" a lot of funny sounds/performance that I have experienced. Might burn a bit more gas, but...

Motor On = Rev On

 

Better to have a "nanny" than a new motor....
Pre nanny...it might have gone boom!!
Lugging causes huge stress on everything in the drivetrain....anything can fail...or may have cracks from the stress started that will shorten its life...

 

I had another thought about the thread title. The nanny reference may indicate a misunderstanding about manual xmissions. Someone who has not been driving long and automatics at that may not understand that even automatics start out in 1st gear and shift up as speed increases and shift back down as speed decreases. Years ago you could actually feel and hear them shift. Not so much any more as technology has advanced. I'm just spitballing here. I hope the posted comments are educational and further the op's motoring experience.

 

[QUOTE=Llanrhaeadr_Cymru;3482890 Motor On = Rev On [/QUOTE]

Cymru am byth.

 

Thanks everyone - Honestly, I am a longtime manual transmission owner and driver - I am well aware of matching gear/speed/rpm....

My question was/is -- Is this warning I received an intentional message from my Mini's ("RPM Nanny") software? This is the first manual transmission car I have ever driven which flashed an "Engine Malfunction" warning due to "lugging" or bogging the engine due to a higher gear launch!

 

Why don't you try to read the code? It should still be in memory if you haven't done much starting/stopping since then. Without the code, we'd just be guessing.

 

Stored in memory ? Where do I look for this ?

 

You will need to use a code reader. Most auto parts stores (the chains at least) will do this free for you, but not sure whether they can read back through the history or just an active code. Dealership can do it but will charge $$$. You could buy your own reader as well.

 

Bet the code was a misfire due to low rpm...
Not sure about your car...but obviously it did not like driving the way you drove it!
as said above, if tye light stayed on a bit, it likely had a code....autozone/ etc will read them, but for $30 you can get a cheap one, or $75 a good one...very useful items to have or loan to froends/family.