Three times in the past 2 weeks my MINI has had some issues when starting up. When I press the start button the engine knocks and rattles and sputters for a few seconds, sounding like it's going to stall. So far it hasn't - I've given it a bit of throttle. Once it's started it seems to run fine. Revs are fine when idling.
I've read about the HPFP problem, and the cold start problem, but I don't know how I could further diagnose this. The car has not thrown any error codes and no warning lights have come on. Should I just take it to the dealership and see what gives?
This car is not driven daily so in the year and a half that we've had it, we've only put about 13,000km on it. It only ever gets Shell V-Power, and the oil was serviced at the dealership at 10,000km.

 

My 2011 has a little rpm fluctuation in the morning as well, cold start in houston is 90f. Once I get going its fine. The best way to describe it is when I pull out of the drivein the morning with sport mode active it feels like sport mode is not on.

Sean

 

go to youtube and search cold start.

see if it sounds similar to all the mini cold start video out there.

hope that helps.

 

The closest one I could find is this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4_DVeQMRrI
I have not had it stall completely on me yet, but it next time it does this I'll avoid giving it some throttle and see what happens.
It definitely does not sound like the "cold start rattle" I have seen videos of. Like I said, once it gets past the initial start-up sputtering it seems to run fine.

 

could be the infamous carbon issue.

 

Mine did the same thing and then blew the motor 300 miles later cruising down the highway at 75MPH with the cruise control on. Mini wants to blame me but is yet to even look at what actually failed. Lemon Law case in less than a month. MINI says I over reved the motor 5 times. They refuse to say what RPM even after being subpeaned. My Tune used at MINI Thunder II raised the rev limiter 300 RPM's to on my JCW to 7000.
Anything over 7100 is used to void your warranty. I know I pushed the redline on the front straight and Thunder Hill but that was not the issue.
Another MINI about the same build as mine blew up right after that event. He had run it out fuel on the track and it started running odd with the hunting idle etc. I heard it blew up on the way back to PDX- Mini ended up fixing. They refuse to even discuss my car or even check the HPFP becaue they know what they will find. I know I sure do not want another 114 motor thats for sure. At the time of the blow upno tune was onthe car for over 6 weeks. All stock. Pushed the dip stick out of the car so even though it chunked a piston there was more to the story MINI does not want to find or discuss.