Our 07 MCa gave us a bit of a fright this evening on the way home from work. In short, while running at freeway speeds, the engine simply shut off. We kept going, obviously, cruising down a slight decline at about 40mph in heavy, flowing traffic, but the engine was completely off. We have no idea what caused it to shut off.

I'm posting this issue in hopes that anyone with insights and/or similar experiences might be able to help us identify a likely cause. I searched on a number of related topics, but found no matches in the R56 forums.

Here's the story:

We were following our normal commute route with no abnormal driving behavior. Gas was filled about a hundred miles ago and we were showing two ticks down on the gauge.

We were cruising for about five minutes at eighty with constant input at the pedals and no shifting. We slowed briefly to rejoin traffic from the HOV lanes and headed up a very slight incline. At most, we slowed to about fifty mph. The car may have shifted somewhere in there (it's an automatic, don't forget, and not in DS mode at the time), but we're not completely sure. As we crested the hill to head down across the long bridge, we noticed that the accelorator was no longer responsive.

Nothing else was immediately abnormal, though the shock of the situation had us both wondering what the heck was happening and delayed our noticing that the tach read Zero rpms. Stereo was on, A/C looked fine, gas lights we normal, speedometer didn't show anything out of the ordinary (we were going downhill). We tried shifting around from Neutral back into Drive, into Sport, and back with no luck of response.

It wasn't until now that we realized the engine had completely shut down, due to no input of our own. Scary!

Considering that we were just getting onto a one and a half mile long bridge with no shoulders and at rush hour, we were desparate to try anything. So what did we do? We hit the Start/Stop button in hopes that the engine might kick on and we'd be able to get to the other side. With our flashers going, we crossed our fingers and gave it a go.

You know what? It worked like a charm! The engine turned on and we popped it from Neutral back into Drive and kept going as though nothing had really happened.

Now, frankly, I'm scared as all heck about what happened. With my wife and daughter in the car, it really could've been a nightmarish situation. I'm ever thankful that it wasn't as bad as it might have been.

That said, I'm a bit anxious to be traversing the bridge in rush hour tomorrow and every day after. What if it happens again? What if it happens in worse circumstances? Ugh. I'd rather not spend my life worrying. I'm not a big worrier to begin with.

So, MINI experts, what's the deal? Any clues as to what might've gone wrong? Anyone experience anything similar and have it successfully resolved by MINI?

My dealer is a fair distance away and it's less than convenient to drop off the car. Before I call-in the problem, can you help me to decipher the clues?

Your insights are greatly appreciated.

 

This exact thing happened to me the other day but not in a mini cooper. It happened in my 98 honda civic. It is also an automatic. I was driving on the highway and ever so slightly hit my key with my leg and it did the same thing. Everything else was on but the accel. did nothing. I luckily was able to pull over and restart the car. So perhaps somehow your key was either moved or lost signal. I have driven my car for a week since and it hasn't happened again, so I know it was from tapping the key. I would say that it is a better safe than sorry issue and would take it to the dealer if they are close, or atleast give a call. I hope this helps at all!

 

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, I can say with 100% assuredness that the key was in no way touched by a knee or anything else prior to the engine shutting down. In fact, the relaxed driving position meant that there was very little body movement prior to the shut down, so I can't even imagine that anything in the cabin was bumped and may've caused the stoppage.

Appreciate your suggestion, but I don't think we've ID'ed the cause just yet.

Keep 'em coming!

 

Unless someone comes up with a definitive answer, however inconvenient a trip to the dealer may be, you need to be there tomorrow. Frankly, I'd be interested in the dealer picking up my car. Potentionally catastrophic failure does that to me. Worse case is it's not repeatable.

Just my .02. Best of luck

 

If that were my MINI, she'd be loaded on a flat bed to the dealer first thing tomorrow morning.

I don't know how I'd have any trust in a vehicle that did that....but, I am an **** sort at best

Please keep us posted. This is horrifying for sure.

 

Best guess would be that the engine lost it's code somehow...that maybe the key wasn't in all the way or jiggled loose...that's highly unlikely. The most likely cause would be electrical malfunction. I would get it sent in to the dealer....get a replacement....

 

Thanks for the insights and guesses, all. I'm planning to call into the dealer in the morning to see what might be up. I'll happily post any progress or professional insights as things move along. Cheers.

 

Definitely interested to hear what they say! Hope everything turns out alright.

 

I had my MC manual have an odd problem, but only twice in 2000 miles. It forgot were to idle it seemed like. It was able to drive as long as I kept it reved greater than 1000 rpm, but if I let it idle it wouldn't know where to idle and would waver widly about at 400 rpm. I drove in that condition as it drove fine, just didn't idle correctly. When I approached a light and put the car in nuetral to coast to a stop it cut off. This only happened twice. For a fuller description, look in the problems forum.

I had v.26 of the SW installed per the dealers recommendation and it hasn't happened again, but it only happened twice about a month apart so I'm not sure if that was really the problem. If you haven't had the new sw version that was put in place because of engine sputter (mostly low rpm and in MCa) this may be the culprit. My theory would be as you are cresting the hill, if you had cruise on, the gas backed off and you had a low rpm sputter which resulted in the engine shut down. Read my thread in the problems forum and the engine sputtering problems in this forum. That would be my first guess as it drives fine otherwise. Check with your dealer on the version of SW you have, he should have a record if it had been upgraded to v.26. I'm guessing probably not unless you just took delivery within a month.

 

It does sound like it could be a software issue, but it has to be a scary feeling to have such a new car doing this. Did you check the obvious things, like battery cable connections and such?

Definitely involve the dealer on this with at least an email and or phone call, if for no other reason that to get it on record in case something more happens.

Good luck, we'd like to hear what happens..............

 

Definetely take it to the dealer. Although this has never happened to me personally, I have heard of this scenario on other vehicles.

Please keep us posted....

 

Thanks very much for your post. I found my way over to the Problems forum and read up on some of the "sputtering" issues with the MC. It does seem like the symptoms described by others may've applied to our experience yesterday, so we appreciate the potential lead.

I don't yet know which version of the software we have, but the car was purchased new back in April (not sure of the build date), so my guess is that it's not the latest software available. I'll be sure to ask when I call the dealer.

 

You definetly don't have the new SW as it just came out late june early july.
Check with your dealer. It was pretty simple upload, about 45 minutes, might be longer on an automatic. They will also be able to see if the computer has experienced and recorded any error codes which could give some insight to your problem. Mine had a couple of superfolous errror codes attributed to the early sw version, but no real problems. The SW fix is supposed to do some parameter updates.

 

I've had this happen to me in a different car (not a MINI) while on a highway when I stepped on the brakes lightly all electronics flickered and the engine stopped. Turned out the alternator died. I was able to pull over near an exit on the highway after about 15 minutes the car started up again and I was able to get off the highway and pull over to the side before the car died again. Then I just called a tow truck.

 

I had this happen in my '06 MINI, but it wouldn't restart right away... it restarted by the time it made it back to the dealer on the flatbed.

The main engine relay had popped loose... maybe the expansion from engine heat or a good bump threw it out enough to lose contact and the engine shut down. The dealership got the car, pulled the code that said something about intermitant electrical connection, so they checked the relays and found it loose. They snapped the relay back into place and the car has been fine since.

On my car, it is the first relay (most forward in the car) in the relay box that is next to the air intake ('06 MCS)... I don't know where it has moved to on the '07 hardtops.

 

Please keep us updated on what is found. Not a good story to read...I hope it's a simple fix...

Donna

 

Thanks to all who've responded thus far. She's headed into the shop this weekend, but won't be looked at until next Tuesday. Such is life for a busy MINI dealer, apparently. I'll post updates as soon as I have them to share.

 

Just out of curiousity, do you have the convenience key option?

(Welcome to the board. Too bad you were introduced this way!)

 

Nope, we don't have the convenience key option. FWIW

 

The dealer probably won't be able to reproduce the problem....

 

Yeah, we're pretty much counting on that.

The only hope is that the car logged the malfunction when it occurred, giving us only slightly better odds in being able to track down the origin of the problem.

If we didn't have another item that also needs to be fixed (a broken seat release), I'm not sure that we'd bother to take it in.

 

My car didn't cut out, but the engine light came on. Car was fine. Talked to dealer who said I needed the new software upgrade. Apparantly there is a fault (in some cars) in the air/fuel sensor. It is telling the computer there is not enough gas or the wrong mixture when there is actually no problem.

 

Here's an update for anyone who's interested:

We got the car back from NW MINI this morning and all is well. We've put nearly 200mi on her without any noticeable issues since the original incident. As predicted, the dealer was unable to locate any faults or other evidence of the engine shutting down unexpectedly. They performed as thorough a check as might be hoped, but came up empty handed. We're not too surprised, frankly.

Fingers X'ed that we never experience the same thing again.

NW MINI was great, BTW, providing a largely pleasant service experience. We hauled around in a loaner R53 MCSa for the week and, while that was fun, we found ourselves even more fond of the R56 when all was said an done.

Motor on.

 

That's probably your only hope. I had an 88 BMW 325, and the engine would just quit usually under accereration, but would turn on again without needing to start. A big jolt. Sometimes the check engine light would come on, sometimes not. I live 100 miles from the dealer. They said that the log would disappear after you started the car like 10 times. I got it there once with the light on, they couldn't find the problem. The warranty went out 3 months later and the car quit in the middle of the street about 2 months after that. I had it towed in. Verdict: dead computer (they had no trouble finding the problem that time). $700. I'm sure it was the problem all along.

 

Well, I've had this problem again, even after the SW update. I get in the car after coming out of a store and the car idle is all messed up. It wants to cut off. I give it gas and take off, it drives fine, but I have to keep the gas on to prevent it from cutting out. I cut the ac on hoping the extra load would keep the idle high and took off. When I got to my next stop I was going to pull off and the tach was at 0, the car had cut out. Took a couple of attempts to start it and pull into my next stop. I was in that store about 5 minutes, came out and was thinking I'd limp home and call mini, the car started fine, idled fine and acted like nothing had happened??? This has happened now three times in four months, about a month apart. Same thing everytime happens when I start the car (warmed up after several start/stops (always on my saturday errands), idles low and wavers about, and then cuts off when driving and letting off the gas (like when putting in nuetral coming to a stop), then on next start drives fine and acted like nothing happened. It is obviously not the sw and when it happens it doesn't put in any fault codes (there were none in when I had the mini in for the sw fix and this problem had occured twice then.)

Does anybody have any ideas??