A friend has a 2013 with a 4cylinder turbo engine 54k, misfire and stalling issues. Dealer 1st said bad injector and coil, 3k for repairs. I did all 4 injectors, coils and plugs at a fraction of that cost. No change, still misfiring. 2nd trip to same dealer they claimed now its the timing chain and valve guides, 4k for repairs. I checked timing chain, compression and did a leak down test...all good. but I believe the DME is faulty. 3rd trip to dealer they said yes now DME is bad but it wasn't when they had it we must have done something to damage it. WTF! Fortunately they said it was under warranty, two weeks later car is ready for pick up, still misfiring. Turn around and bring right back and they claim it now needs valve stem seals and maybe guides because oil is filling up two cylinders and causing plugs to foul. 8K for valve job was the quote 6k labor and 2k parts/rebuild head. I smell a rat! Thoughts?

 

Yes, the dealer service techs are... not the best.

With a misfire and stalling, I would have guessed plugs and coils first. Then, I would have scanned the ECU for codes... But, if the dealer is coming up blank, that would tell me there are no codes. Perhaps carbon build up in the intake ports? Italian tune-up?

 

Before the car came to me my friend had a family member install new plugs thinking that was the problem, that was the limit of their skill level. While replacing the injectors, coils and spark plugs I removed the plugs and noticed # 1 plug was like new with no sign of fuel or spark. # 4 was fuel soaked and carbon fouled. I check for spark on # 1 and nothing, this is why I suspected the DME. Even running like crap there was no oil smoke from tail pipe or residual oil in tail pipe tips. Compression test was 195-200 on all 4 cylinders. I did a head rebuild on my 2005 S for less than 1k and about 10 hours labor so when this dealer quoted 8k and since they have been wrong 3 times I question this estimate. I need to see if they indeed replaced the DME controller after I adamantly insisted they check.

 

FFS. MINI dealership techs are useless beyond changing oil and tires.

 

Does the misfire take place right after the car is started, after warm up, or after a moderate drive?

is the car tuned?

how healthy is the battery and alternator?

any mods to the car, or audio system?

 

Completely stock, no mods or aftermarket audio, right at start up does not matter warm or cold. Newer battery and no reason to suspect alternator.

 

The techs at my dealer have generally been good. For the last
six or seven years, fantastic. No bring-backs on any jobs big
or small. Minis are weird. The tech at the dealer works on Minis
all day every day.

-Mike

 

yes that dealer is a scammer and unfortunately most mini dealers at least in md are rip off pigs. my resent ex girlfriend's daughter has a 2015 cooper S and the dealer in towson md told her 1399.00 to replace her passenger side motormount. The mount is under 3 hundred dollars and it takes about an hr to do. remove the headlight and make sure you have 8 clips on hand in case a couple break. called helix 13 motorsport in philly and they said 9 hundred and they replace top and bottom mytormount for that.