Hi there,

A couple of times now while making a left hand turn from stop, my Mini has lost power and gone into the limp mode. Before I shut her off, I recorded the noise coming from underneath, it was a loud rough noise almost as if it was coming through the exhaust but could be heard throughout the entire undercarriage. The EML, DSC and Service Engine lights also came on.

After turning the car off and then back on the EML and DSC lights were off but the Service Engine light was still on BUT there was no noise from underneath and the car was no longer in limp mode.

After the first time of this happening the Service light went off within a few miles.

She is a 2006 (picked her up in Oct. 2005) Cooper S with about 140k miles. I haven't read the code yet but will try to get that done in the next day or so.

Any thoughts?

I was able to get her back home so I'm not going to drive her again until I know what is wrong. I love my Mini and my hubby keeps telling me to get rid of her because several expensive things have gone wrong in the last two years. Unfortunately, I really don't want any other car, except maybe a newer Miata but those are only two seaters so I'd have to choose which dog comes with me, the hubby is not on the possible passenger list since he wants me to sell my Mini :(

 

check crank damper, when they go they still kinda function but you wont make boost and they slip and make all kinds of noise. they will look ok from the outside but you will be able to move the belt ring a bit from the bottom, it may be rubbing on engine case too

they also get HOT and will eventually stop completely or break the belt

 

Thank you!!! Hopefully it isn't too expensive of a fix. I can do basic maintenance stuff but that is about it.

 

I'm with Mega. This happened on Scarlett, my wife's MCS. I found a replacement pully / damper for under $200 which has been working fine for a couple years now. It's not hard to change.

Husband not on the list...haha!

 

Thanks GearheadS, to replace this did it require buying any special Mini tools? I much prefer to work on Shirley myself, I'll take a look at my awesome Bentley Mini repair book to see how it looks.

Great name for your wife's MCS.

 

There is a crank pulley removal tool as well as a crank pulley install tool that are required to do the job properly. You will also need the belt tensioner tool if you want to make the job easy, but you can also use a pry bar if you don't want to buy or rent the tools.

We have all the tools on hand for rent as well as crank pulleys, crank bolt, crank seal, belt , and anything else that may need done at that time.

 

Thanks, her MCS Convertible is red...Scarlett...imagine that!

Special tools - yes and no. Belt tool is highly advised. I welded up my own after seeing what they look like. It would be good to have anyway and I've seen them for $20-something. Frankly, I spent way more than $20-something worth of time... I used a standard crank pulley puller that I have, not a MINI special one, for removal. And I think the Bentley manual said what kind of bolt to get at the hardware store to pull the new pulley on with.

Jeremy

 

My MCS is red with white stripes, my parents used to race a red original mini back in the 60s so I had to follow in their foot steps of course

 

Oh, cool legacy! We've talked about adding racing stripes, but none so far, just red 😉