Ok. It's about time for another brain phart. The 2013 Mini Cooper Clubman has been using oil. My M54 in the e39 has also used oil and I've been able to keep it under control by using Lucas Fuel System Cleaner and their Upper Cylinder Lubricant. I was going to dump a bottle of fuel system cleaner into the mini to see if it would help. For some (very good) reason these Lucas bottles don't drain very well into the e39 or the Mini so I typically use a funnel. Being the lazy type I didn't want to clean my funnel so I just stuck the bottle into the Mini hoping it would drain. It was doing so slowly. Glug glug. Gave it a couple of squeezed and rotated the bottle. AAAAAAAAAAAH, it's power steering fluid. I estimate about 4-8 ounces, no more than half the bottle, made it into the gas tank. I probably have about half a tank of gas in the Mini.

Am I in trouble? I just thought about driving it to the gas station and filling it up but don't want to foul anything up. With such a small amount I don't think it will do any damage but I just want to be sure.

You can see from the pictures how an idiot could make this mistake. I always keep a bottle of the fuel system cleaner in the trunk of the e39 and just grabbed it without looking. I have one of these brain phart episodes about every 5 years!!!

 

Why don't you just get one of those cheap siphoned pumps and remove the gas then add some fresh gas back in the tank.

 

Hard to tell. There are chances if you ask this question on Bitog and make helping easier by providing links to both the product information and safty data sheet (google them). Safest bet is to drain the tank and dumb that fuel or maybe burn it in the lawn mower.
However after this mistake your Cooper Clubman's fuel system will desire that 'fuel system cleaner' more than ever, that's for sure.

 

So here's where I'm at: Took it out for a drive yesterday evening. Stopped and filled up with 93 Octane. Driving with no issues. After about 4 miles I get on the interstate and it's running fine. After a couple of miles on the interstate I go into Italian tune-up mode. After about the third hard acceleration I get a check engine light and am down on power. Still able to maintain 70 mph but won't respond to additional throttle inputs. After about another 4 miles I exit. Getting some shuddering on acceleration. I stop into an Autozone and their scan says misfire on cylinder 4. Make it home and I decide to pull the plug to see if it is fouled. Can't do it because I don't have the special 12 point thin walled 14mm or 16mm socket. (Need clarification if it's 14mm or 16mm as I've seen both mentioned). I'm really wondering if this misfire is related to the PS fluid in the tank or if it's totally unrelated and just a coil/plug issue caused by the hard acceleration. I removed cylinder 1 and 4 coil and replace. Start back up and it's running a lot rougher. The coils on this car are not anchored in place with bolts. They are just pushed down until they stop. I would like to hear an audible "click" or have them bolt into place but no. Going to be doing some more tinkering this evening to figure this out. My frustration level was high yesterday evening and the engine was hot so I had to walk away.

Definitely need to get a good scan tool though.

 

If it were me, if the car runs fine while puttering around town, I'd run easy on the car until the tank is as empty as you feel comfortable, then fill it up with 93 again.

 

Any thoughts on the misfire and if it's related to the PS fluid or not?

 

The PS fluid probably lowered the octane level of the fuel that was in the tank. When you beat on the car, you need all the octane resistance you can get. Beating on it would have been the last thing I would have done.

Get the plugs out, check them over, clean them up if needed, and put them back in. Put everything back where they were. Then, maybe get a cheap boroscope on Amazon and poke around inside the cylinders. See if anything looks amuck.

 

That socket is a 14mm-----12 point thin wall socket

 

Still getting the misfires yesterday evening. Mini is at 57K miles so I'll plan to replace plugs and coils. Probably should be done anyway. Records from the PO don't indicate plug or coil replacement anywhere in the history. I'm going to rent a scanner until I can purchase one just to be sure I don't have anything else going on.

 

If you plan on keeping the car for a while, I would just get your own scanner. Use it a couple times, and it will pay for itself. Especially if you plan on doing your own repairs.

 

Well we have a positive outcome. 4 new plugs and coils and running like it should. I kept three of the coils as spares just in case something happens down the road.

Although I knew I had a cylinder 4 misfire, I rented a scanner from Autzone to verify I didn't have any other issues. Just three codes for the cylinder 4 misfire were all that were shown. I was only able to clear two. The third cleared after driving the car and reconnecting the scanner. I'm fairly confident that the PS fluid is a non-issue.

 

Good to hear!