You can toggle off the ASC

 

I picked up my car on 9/19/2002. Currently has 38,000 miles. 2004 mods include MiniMania Stage II kit, lowered 1/2 inch, rear anti sway bar, brake pads, stainless steel brake lines and high performance fluid, ECU chip programmed, cold air intake, pulley reduction, Borla exhaust, all the work done at Grossman Tuning in Louisville, KY.
Bridgestone SO3 tires. Hated the run flats.

Broke the seat back but it was fixed by a phone call to my Service Manager at Cincinnati MINI. Had to have a sill plate replaced under the passenger door and they fixed the rattle in the hatch and replaced the coolant bottle.

I have tracked the car at Phil Wicks at Putnam two weeks ago and had a great time. I drive the car every day but now with the Bridgestones keep it in the garage in the winter.

It is a great car, love to drive it, lots of fun and so far totally reliable on long trips and locally.

If you get one I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

Al Dark silver metallic MCS

 

Thanks, lot!

And thanks alw, I hope to get as many trouble-free miles from my car as you have. :smile:

 

I just wanted to add that I think so many people with little issues here and there have reponded to this thread because they do not see things such as a window squeak as a problem. I certainly don't.

I've had my car for 13 months now and haven't put a single penny into it other that gas and mods. I had a Civic before this that had to be in the shop no less than 15 times.... now those were problems. Getting a new transmission at 45,000 miles was a problem, a little loose bit on my dash that the dealer will fix for free in 20 minutes is not a problem. It causes me no headaches and has not left my stranded and stressed.

 

I agree with you. I was more worried about issues that would cause the car to be in the shop for repair. Not minor things like that.

 

I wanted to bring this back up since reading a lot about the cold-start sputtering and the yo-yo throttle problems. Are these very common issues? I wouldn't be so put off by them except for the fact that from what I've determined, there haven't been any permanent solutions to them found yet.

I really like a lot of things about the MINI, but I don't want to have problems like this sour the experience of owning one. What to do?

 

but I'm conviced that the VGS cures it. There may be one or two that say it doesn't but I think this is due to the fact that the yo-yo is a coupling of bad routing of the vacuum line to control the bypass valve, and programming of the throttle body response that Mini has deployed to surpress the effect. I'm very curious if anyone who still has yo-yo with the VGS has tried to change the TB.

Cold start isn't an issue for me. But until you add some more power down low, watch starting with the AC on! ***** to do without some chirp or some bog. MTH makes the ASC/DSC much nicer, so that if there is a bit of chirp, you don't loose all power for like, a decade!

Matt

 

I see. Could you clarify for me what VGS is? I searched for it but didn't find a clear answer.

 

Vacuum Gain System. It's a fairly simple (and very cheap) re-route of some stuff under the hood.

See the long thread here

 

The VGS takes the vacuum from the high pressure side of the SC, instead of the low pressure side.....

The ByPass valve is controlled by vacuum before the SC. When it's closed (low vacuum), the SC is doing it's thing and the pressure on the valve increases. The pressure can overwhelm the diaphram, and it will open. To be fair, I don't know the boost level this occurs at. But it's probably above what's generated with a 15% pully. But I don't know for sure. The VGS takes the vacuum from the high pressure side of the SC. So when you're just noodling around, the throttle body is closed enough that you have vacuum on the high pressure side as well, and it opens as ususal. When it closes, the force on the diaphram INCREASES with increasing boost, just like the increaseing boost tries to open the butterfly. This increased boost on the diaphram should prevent the valve from being opened by the boost created by the SC.

Also, if you take the vacuum from the stock location, as the vacuum increases, the bypass valve starts to open, letting higher pressure air from the SC to go back before the SC. But this also decreases the vacuum that controls the valve, and it starts to close, and the vacuum increases, and it starts to open etc. You get yo-yo. I think Mini tries to stop this with some programming in the electric throttle body control, but as the yo-yo chronicals show, it doesn't work very well.

Hope this helps, should save about a dozen pages of reading!

Matt

 

Thanks for the explanations guys.

 

it didn't put you to sleep. Sometimes I have that effect....

Matt

 

lol, no. It was a very technical and helpful description. :smile:

 

I love Lucy aka 2005 MC/5 spd.saa . I picked up my MC on 6/4/05 and that week I took her on an 800 mile road trip with no problems. The best part was getting 39 mpg. I've had no problems so far other then a flat tire @ 89 miles but thats not the cars fault.......***** Happens.
MOTOR ON

 

My '03 Cooper not only has had no problems, it's actually solved a few problems! Nothing's better than motoring when you're feeling blue.:smile:

 

My 05 convertible has 3k on it and no problems so far.

FRED

 

'Yo-yoing' and 'the stumble' used to be big problems for some people (though, I never had any of those issues with my '03 MCS). :smile:

However, I think the last version of MINI software (V38?) fixed all that... A buddy of mine also has a '03 MCS (built 2 months before mine) and he had a bad time with it... but he got the last version of software put in at the dealer, and now he's as happy as a pig in sh*t

Even if you do get a car that suffers from this, there are many things you can do. VGS is one, but you can also get GIAC or MTH software put in, whish is much better than OEM IMHO (I have GIAC's ECU Flash installed, and love it. Car even idles much better - no more 900 - 1000 rpm flutter).

Don't let people's pasts influence your future too much. .. The joy one derives from owning and driving one of these fantastic cars far outweights any of the potential drawbacks.

Good luck!!

- - michael

 

no problems? are you serious? are there any cars out there that have no problems? it's not like were talking about a pinto that blows up when you tap the rear end. if you want a car that has absolutely no problems, buy a bicycle. sheeeesh.

 

Well... I haven't had ONE problem with my MCS. Not ONE!!

...And that's more than I can say for the Hondas, VWs and my last ride - Acura Integra - I've owned.

- - m

 

2004 31k miles on it only problem was my windshield getting a crack back when I lived in NJ, it was so cold outside(like 5 degrees and I turned the heat on full blast and the windshield got a stress crack which was replaced for free ) other then that I communte 25 each way to work daily and wouldn't trade this car for the world. :smile:

Liz

 

Thanks for your helpful post.

Moving on...a geniune thank you to everyone who has actually contributed something. I am still planning to buy a Mini because of all the good things about them. Now I only have to decide between the Cooper and the S.

 

Cooper, Cooper, Cooper, Copper........
But get what YOU want, don't listen to me

 

I had the same delima a month ago .

If you're on a tight budget, here's what you do: Schedule a test drive in Cooper first, and the S second. If after driving the Cooper you feel it's fast enough for you, cancel your test-drive in the S. If you drive the S, you won't be able to settle for the cooper . Unless, of course, you're the type of driver who doesn't realy care that much about speed or acceleration.

Don't get me wrong though... The regular Cooper has plenty of pep on it's own!

If your budget can be streatched a little, I'd say go with the S, hands down !

 

Thanks BBoy and lot.

BBoy: I know what you mean. I've actually driven both models. Unfortunately I drove a modified S right after I drove a Cooper at a local dealership. Naturally, I never thought I'd consider the Cooper again because the S was like nothing I'd ever driven before.

But I've been thinking a lot lately about how much trouble all that power could get me in. Not to mention, I'd have to give up a lot of the features I want in order to be able to afford an S.

I've also been reading about some of the issues people have had and it just seems to me like the S is more prone to experience certain problems (yo-yo, stalling and sputtering, etc.). I actually noticed the yo-yo in a stock S that I drove at a different dealer, but didn't recognize what it was until I read the yo-yo chronicles thread here on NAM. I was hoping it was just a weird break-in thing that would go away after the car got some miles on it.

So I'm still torn. I can say I'm leaning towards a well-optioned Cooper because it's cheaper, I can get more stuff, and it's less likely to land me in trouble with 'the law.'

Thanks again for all the helpful posts everyone.

 

I'd caution you not to make your decision based on possible issues that can be fixed under waranty. Also, it's good to consider what you might regret not-ordering about a year down the line. This goes for both the S, and the features you'd have to sacrifice if you decided to get one.

It does, however, sound like the Cooper has enough pep for you and I definatly hear the reluctancy to drop features in order to get the S. I had origionally ordered a Cooper because I'd have to go completly barebones with an S. The week after I placed my order, I got a nice raise at work, so I changed over to an S.

One other good thing about getting the regular Cooper is that you'll get it sooner. I'm waiting twice as long for my S as I would have had to for a regular Cooper! Still, to me, it's worth it .