Hey everyone -- Sorry for the lack of info but hoping you experts may at least be able to point me in the right direction. My girlfriend has a 2006 Cooper S with 90,000 miles on the clock. Has been stone cold reliable. While I was out of town last week she told me that she was driving and all the dash lights came on and it went into some kind of limp mode. She pulled over and reported that everything smelled hot. She parked it and I had it towed. I checked it out and the coolant was a bit low as was the oil -- I added coolant and oil, took it for a test drive and didn't have any issues. I also ran it in the driveway for over an hour with the A/C on and it didn't have any issues. My initial suspicion of a broken serpentine belt was wrong -- belt is worn (and original) but is still there.

Today was the first day she tried to drive it and on a 3 mile round trip she said the same thing happened. She waited for it to cool down and was able to get home. This time she said it smelled like burning rubber?

I've scanned the engine and there are no codes appearing. Where would you start??

 

Sounds like it could be a broken crank pulley which is common on these cars, and in line with your suspicion of a broken or slipping belt. The rubber breaks and the pulley slips on the inner part attached to the crank. Causes all of your symptoms and more. It can get really bad if it fails completely and the pulley actually falls off with the engine running.

There’s a bunch of info on this problem here on NAM. An aftermarket pulley like the ATI or PRW is often recommended over stock or other pulleys without a damper.

 

Yep and it will also throw the P1688 code on OBDII. Mine went at 50K. Do yourself a favor and get the Mini puller kit, one time investment makes the job easy and straightforward.

Change the belt while you're at it. The DIY step by step is here:

 

Thank you both. Does appear to be our issue. Did some reading and ordered parts. Won't have this car for more than another year so the $98 crank pulley via Pelican Parts was the answer.