See my post of 6/16. Tried the same start procedure as described there and, it didn't work this time . Temp. in garage 70 degrees same as before. Guess when it started up on the first try the other day.... just a fluke. Still have cold start problem.

 

I was anticipating for a positive result. Unfortunately,.....
Any other tricks? Anyone?

The MINI is by far the most problematic out of the 4 cars I currently own. Since January delivery, I already have several warranty issues: cracked windshield, water pump, and cold start.

 

I didn't work for me either, Apexer. I need to fill up with gas tomorrow and I do believe there is a station in town that offers 91.

 

so mini's right... at least in my case. got 94 octane a few weeks ago, which is when i started having big start problems... would always take two tries. now this week i got 91, and it's slow to start but always does on the first try.
strange.

anyone know if v 39 is out yet?

christina.

 

I've been using 92 for a while because that's all we have in the Pacific NW. Regardless, the cold start persists ever since the v37 flash. Very annoying!

 

I never had the cold start issue until I filled with Mobil 93 octane. Normally I fill at Amoco with 93 because it is convient between work and home. One time I filled at Mobil and I had to col start issue for the entire tank. The next fill I put Amoco in and I haven't had the problem again.

This doesn't conclude that Amoco is better/worse than Mobil, just what my experience was. It could be that after running Mobil for a couple of tanks the ECU would adapt to it. Until there's a software fix, though, I'm sticking to Amoco.

 

Different states or regions will have different gasoline mixture in accordance to the local laws. According to my MA, Mobile has one of the best gasoline in the Pacific NW. So far, I've used 1/2 tank, but the cold start persisted.

 

Here in South Florida we are having a tremendous problem with contaminated fuel. Just a few short weeks ago, Shell accidentally sold hundres of gallons of gasoline with high sulfur content. As you can imagine the sulfur content killed the gas gauges of many motorists (The neddle is stuck in FULL) so the whole entire part has to be replaced. Now there is a class action lawsuit goin on against Shell for owner's of cars out of warranty that had to pay for a new gas gauge out of pocket. Many others got lucky and was a warranty covered repair, but some automakers are also going after Shell to recoup costs due to the bad gas on thier customer's vehicles.


Fortunately I don't use Shell, so never had the problem but the gas here in South Florida seems of lower quality than the rest of the state. Last week we went on a roadtrip to Orlando (Universal Studios) and I had to fill my MCS with Citgo 93 octane and the car worked fantastic. never use Citgo thinking is junk, but the car ran much smoother in comparison to the Mobil 93 tankfulls I usually put in it while in Miami.

Gas quality in the USA varies widely and you'll never know what kind of junk you are putting in your tank. Buyer be ware!

 

Gasoline is transported via mostly "common carrier" pipeline from refineries to distribution terminals or "racks". What that means is that unless the fuel your gas station (regardless of brand) comes via a dedicated pipeline or is near an actual refinery, the fuel you put in your car is an "olio" with perhaps the proprietary additive of the brand in question injected at the terminal.

For those of you who might think CITGO is a wonderful company to deal with, keep in mind it is owned by the Venezuelan government, currently being run by one Mr. Chavez, Fidel's current best pal in this hemisphere and the person ensuring free speech, democracy and free markets die in that country.......

Not to be dense here, is the "cold start" issue everyone is referring to is the one caused by not waiting 10 seconds while the pump primes the system? My car does not start once in a while at the first try but it is because invariably I try to start it as I stick the key in. If I wait, voila, fine start....with any kind of gas.....including 100 octane.

 

Around mid June my MCS 04 (9/03 build) started stalling right after it started.
We run up to 10% ehtanol year round so I did not suspect that, but I did think there might be something to the fuel.

In June I went to the East Meets West Mini Meet in Rockford Illinois, which is OUTSIDE of the air pollution control zone around Chicago. While commuting to the meet daily, ( and attending drivers school) I had occasion to buy 3 tanks of Gasoline.

I noticed that the starting problem went away with the first tank and did not reoccur.

After I used up the last tank of "rural" gas and refilled the car with "clean burning reformulated" gas from the Chicago area, the stall after start returned.

I read on one of these posts that the MINI fuel does NOT recirculate to the fuel tank. In a car that does recirculate the fuel letting the pump run for a few seconds before starting the car will flush the line of "bubbles" that may have formed due to fuel in a warm line when the car was parked. We had gotten used to doing that in our other car.

My stall problem is more noticable if the car was warm when it was parked. If I had later moved the car and it did not have time to warm up under the hood, the car would not stall when started after sitting overnight.

My opinion is that some easy to evaporate component of the reformulated gas "boils" in the fuel line under a warm hood, and leaves bubbles in the line. Then when you start the car the engine stalls when it gets bubbles instead of liquid gasoline.

Just my opinion.
John

 

The oil industry has quite a rogues gallery. Shell used to have some issues in South Africa back before Nelson Mandella got in.

My favorite lately has been Marathon, but there's a Shell right across the street, and they're claiming to have a super high-detergent formula.

It does seem to help to let the car initialize for a few seconds. If nothing else, this lets the fuel system get the pressure up on the rail. I've never believed it's an octane issue, although Sunoco gas has been the worst for me so far. The 1 octane between them (94), and Shell, Citgo, GetGo, etc. (93) shouldn't make much of a difference.

If it does start funny, I can generally get it running right with a quick blip of the throttle.