I think it's time I cleaned my MAF sensor, as there is some hesitation when accelerating and a bit of a rough idle. Only problem is I don't know where it's located. Does anyone have a photo showing where the sensor is? Or could give an indication as to where it is? Thanks

 

I wasn't aware that we had a MAF - thought our little "BMW's" used speed density as our flow measurement. Of course I could be very wrong. I'm thinking of my '06 R53.

What year and model is yours?

 

I'm pretty sure its a MAF. I've got a 2002 Cooper

 

We have a MAP sensor not a MAF. Nothing to clean on the Gen 1 cars.

 

 

huh?

 

There are parts to clean it just isn't the hot wire or hot film MAF like in a 3-5-7 series. Mini's use MAP sensors much like Hondas do.

The MAP sensor is located immediately after the throttle body. I believe it is a 4 pin connector. You can use MAF sensor cleaner on it or brake parts cleaner. It can be cleaned and it does help, did it on mine and saw a slight uptick in MPG as a result.

Back to your real problem though, hesitation and rough idle. There is a fairly well known problem I believe with these cars and some crapass plating on the ignition coil posts. Pull the spar plug wires off the coil one at a time and see if the post is rusted, I'm betting one or more of them will be. As a temporary fix you can clean the post and lube it with some dielectric grease to prevent further oxidation, but in the long run you'll be best off replacing the coil.

 

Haha, jokes on me. I was like "Speed Density?". You can't pull one over on me!

 

Thanks for the help guys, still relatively new to these cars! TT, thanks for the advice! I'll give that a bit of a clean. As for the coil, I changed my plugs a few weeks ago, and took the coil out to give it a clean, there were 2 posts quite badly rusted. I managed to use a wire brush to get most off, but some still remained so will give the grease a go. Its probably a well covered topic, but while we're on it in this thread are there any other major things that can cause a rough idle? I've done 73k miles, so was gonna use some BGK(?) to give the engine a bit of a clean out as there is probably a bit of build up floating around. Thanks again guys :-D

 

Major things that cause a rough idle (provided the RPMS are high as they are supposed to be....if they are low it will chug regardless)

Dirty injectors leading to poor atomization and poor burn in one cylinder
Bad spark either from bad plug, bad/damaged wire, or bad coil.
Low compression either from poor seating valves, bad rings, or bad head gasket.

 

Thanks again for the help. I'll give the coil a bit more of a clean and add some grease, it feels to me like its electrical rather than mechanical, so its that or the leads I'm thinking.

 

Here’s a puzzle to solve, so I just did a supercharger oiling on my 2006 mini cooper s and along with that I did a smaller pulley, new water pump, better injectors, and ngk plugs and wires, I put dialectic grease on all the connections aswell. Could it be the coil pack? None of the connectors were rusty either. I have many codes leading me to believe it is an air vacuum leak or air flow sensor. See codes below.

 

P1498 is an air leak downstream from the SC. Could be charge pipe, green gasket, intake manifold gasket, or a vacuum line. Mine was the vacuum line from the fuel pressure regulator to the nipple on the intake, but there have been a lot of other causes. The last 2 codes make me, think your issue might be different, or multiple. The first two I'm no help with - but I'd try to clear the air leak issues first and see if that can clean up the misfires.

 

thanks! I’m taking it Wednesday to a friend of mine who is a mini expert and we’ll probably smoke test it