I've had some major problems with my MINI, mainly a faulty water pump/ thermostat that lead to overheating but thankfully the only problems I have now are a pin hole leak in the top of my coolant lines (only leaks when the system is under pressure) and a little fuel burning (about a quart every 800 miles, but that's pretty standard). Today I started driving to school and my engine turned off completely. There was no stalling or shuddering, the RPMs just simply went to 0. This not only happens when I'm stopped, but now it happens when I'm moving (I was doing 30 but was coasting). I'm not really sure what the problem could be, the on-board computer says "check OK" and my OBD2 scanner doesn't see anything wrong, but clearly something is. Could it just be trash in my fuel tank? Or something more serious?

 

Boy that's a touch one, there's so many reason why an engine would suddenly shut off, do you have functioning headlights and sufficient battery power? When an engine just stops running without a hint of stumbling, I'm going to guess here because usual you get some kind of stumble, misfiring before the engine goes kaput.

Here it goes, if there's no spark at all in any of the cylinders to ignite the gas, there's no ignition and the engine dies without a fight or stumble. There's only one other scenario where an engine would just go kaput, low compression in all cylinders.

That's why my first question was in regards to the battery or even the alternatornot putting out any electricity, the batteries function is to only start your car, the alternator picks up from there. So check the compression and if your getting any spark.

A quart of oil every 800 miles isn't bad as I've seen 2 quarts of oil every 1000 miles and the engine was still running, average is 1 quart every 1000 miles. Also how has you engine been running before it started shutting off all the sudden?

 

Yeah it doesn't stumble or anything. The codes said it had too much air and the cam wasn't positioned correctly. Battery and cylinders work. I don't even notice when the car shuts off at first because nothing changes with my music or AC, steering is normal, braking is normal, my engine is just off

 

Check your timing chain as a precaution, this is a NAM first for me. Had the R56's had a power steering pump you would have notice right away. When your engine shuts off you loose the vacuum from your vacuum pump that supplies vacuum to your master cylinder. Does it start back up right away or some time after it shuts off?

One thing about these Mini is the ECU takes a while to register something is wrong or say a cam position sensor is bad or out of spec. Sometimes when it's mechanical problem the ECU just don't see what's going on like a timing chain that has jumped a few cam teeth out of spec, car just runs like crap and makes loud noises.

 

It starts back up immediately after I push the button but unless I'm giving it gas it revs to 1500 RPMS and then straight back down to zero. I do have a sort of tick, it's noticeable when parked but not while driving. It's weird I thought that maybe it was because I was stopped at a stop sign on a decent hill, however trying to recreate the conditioned lead to nothing. The codes were p0015 and p115d, but I'm not sure how the car would just randomly suck in too much air at one point in time and then be completely normal a few hours later.

 

I know what you problem is, your code P0015 ralates to "B" camshaft position timing is over retarded. Sometimes one event can trigger multiple codes because the ECU can only estimate the issue as it's seeing to much air and knows the MAF measure how much air is being drawn into the engine, to much air doesn't mean your MAF sensor is bad. In fact I don't even think a MAF sensor can measure to much air unless the IC is whacked out, even if it were there shouldn't be a over-retard code.

Now to figure out why you cam is over retarded, it could be as simple as the camshaft position sensor, VANOS solenoid which controls retarding and advancing of the camshaft. Thing is if it were your VANOS you would expect a VANOS related code, perhaps someone with more knowledge can chime in here. These ECU's aren't always specific and in my opinion I think there not smart enough, I blame the engineer's and programmers.


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One of my codes is VANOS related, it said the vanos exhaust solenoid detected too much air. I'm thinking about just replacing the cam sensor and both the in and out solenoids just to be safe

 

For P115D I found this thread on NAM here. We have some info in regards to the VANOS here if needed. If you want to test the cam sensor we have a process you can follow here. Otherwise, we have a DIY that can help with the replacement, if needed, here. All include some pretty good info about them so maybe they will be helpful to you with your diagnosis as well.