Hi everyone,

I have a 2008 Mini Diesel. It's been having issues since about February when I loaded up the car with some dirty petrol. I took it to the Mini dealer at the time and they fixed it. Not sure if this has anything to do with my car problems now but just thought I'd include this info..

So fast forward about 6 months. Driving on the highway and the yellow engine light comes on.. 30 seconds later the engine completely dies and the car rolls to a stop in rush-hour traffic. Take it in -- the dealership tells me its a problem with the high pressure fuel pump and that it's defective (says this problem is more common than not), so they replace it for free, in addition to some kind of "belt" that also has issues. So I have it for a month, all runs fine until 3 days ago.

Three days ago, the car jerks pretty bad when it's steadily going at a high speed on the highway. Next few days, no problems. Last night, it started jerking repeatedly when accelerating or revving the engine.

Any ideas what this could be? Is it an unfixed problem with the high pressure fuel pump, or maybe something completely unrelated?

Thanks for any thoughts!
L

 

Ok,You stated when you first noticed the problem that it was probably bad "petrol"....first scenerio....then you stated it occured again of which they again replaced the HPFP.Could it be #1 that they never replaced fuel filter and the "dirty petrol" is again finding it's way to the pump or #2 you are purchasing fuel that is not reccommeded for MINI i.e. cheap no name fuel.I noticed your from the U.K. and have the "D"(diesel )model.Are you sure your putting in diesel fuel?

 

Hi minimize, thanks for responding.

Just to clarify, the symptoms between the first instance of my car receiving bad petrol and the following stall-out 6-months later were a bit different.

About 3 minutes after filling up with petrol back in Feb, the car started jerking and jumping pretty bad..and this time BMW confirmed it was dirty petrol. Six months later when the engine lost power, the yellow engine light came on and it died about 30 seconds later; no jumping/shaking like before. This time they replaced the HPFP (and the fuel filter as well..it was a slew of things they replaced). Can see how all these instances can blur together!

Now there's scenario number 3 happening, and the jerking is back. Do agree that it's possible they never quite fixed the problem in the first place whether that was with the petrol or the HPFP. Also a logical question to ask if Diesel was put in. Am v. hyper-vigilant about this and am sure this hasn't happened, so we can cross this out!

 

Yeah, could be any number of those things. The HPFP on these 2007 and up engines are known to have problems. Could very well be the new one just crapped out too. Take it back in, get it diagnosed and then go from there. Curious as to how you knew you put in some bad gas? Just ask this because here in the states Mini Service Departments are notorious for blaming many issues on bad gas, which in probably 99% of the time is pure BS. There are many threads in the NAM on engine problems related to the "Bad Gas myth", mostly dealing with fuel system problems and carbon build up.

 

Hi magpullin

That's a possibility as well. It didn't really dawn on me until you raised it that the dealership might have told me the reason was bad petrol to cover up for something else. I guess it was easily believable because of how it all happened.. as soon as I put gas in, my car was jumping like crazy within 3 minutes so I had already had this idea in my head.. and then the dealership reaffirmed that, saying the gas had large pieces of dirt in it, etc. Whether it was/wasn't bad petrol, the dealership did end up paying for a new HTFP, fuel filter and some kind of belt b/c they were defective. The came and picked it up the Monday afternoon, so I'm now waiting for the diagnosis. Fingers crossed!