New Mini Countryman S 2013 700 miles - I have had the car two weeks --

Tonight as I was driving home, made a left turn after downshifting -- oil pressure light came on with sound for second and then went off.

Has not happened before - was on momentarily. The remainder of the drive home -- no problem. I shut the car off at home started it - no problem. I turned it on and off a couple of times. This did not recreate the problem. Drove it around for about 10 minutes around the neighborhood. No problem

Note - as stated the light only came on one time briefly half-second to second and went off. It did not blink --

Note - When I restarted the engine the MINI AVATAR SIDE VIEW OF a MINI came on momentarily --- indicating no problem ---

Note -- collateral information. I am have and insulin pump I wear on my person along with a Glucose monitor --- I.E. small transmitter that sends messages to the pump. It had also been going off this evening -- could there have been some RFI?

I'm about 100 miles from my mini cooper dealer.

I know little about cars - any suggestions?
Should I call Mini tomorrow?
Thanks
Zinduli

 

You lost me on the third note

Oil pressure isn't something to mess around with, I'd call mini if it was 300 miles away.

 

Thanks for the reply --

I didn't know if it were possible for something in the transmitter I wear that might interfere with the on board electronics and trigger a false alarm. As I said it lasted only 1/2 second and then was fine.

I'm trying to think of any possibility other than something being wrong with the car...

I will call them tomorrow.

thanks again

 

did you check the oil level?

 

That was instantly my first thought...

 

No. I will check it first thing. Thanks

I have not started the car since last night - I will check it both before I start the engine and then after it runs a couple of minutes (assuming the light stays off).

Thanks for your help.

 

Greetings and thanks for the help!

OK - I checked the oil before I took a drive - drove about 25 miles. The oil pressure light did not come on one time -

Checked the oil afterwards - let the car sit about 5 minutes - the portion of the dip stick that you are suppose to read appears fully covered with oil. I must say it is a little hard to read.

I also checked my owners servicemanual -- and a tech at Mini of St. Louis certified that the oil was checked at the proper level just two weeks ago. There appears to be no liquids on the ground where I park the car.

I called Mini of St. Louis. There are no mechanics on duty on Saturdays. Spoke to my MA and he said he would talk to the mechanic on Monday.

As I said - when the light came on last night -- it was only on for 1/2 sec to a second. It was on and off before you could react. Still -- I don't want to overlook anything.

Also - and I thank you in advance for you patience. I notice what sounds like a motor running or humming after I turn the motor off. Is this a normal sound.

Thanks again,
Alex aka Zinduli

 

Yes it is, it's the aux pump cooling the turbo, like a built in turbo timer.

 

To OP: I had the *exact* same thing happen to me a few days ago. I was driving down a steep mountain road in Sport mode. I was getting high RPMs without my foot on the accelerator, so I thought that might have something to do with it. The light only flashed for about 1 second. Immediately stopped and checked oil, finding the level to be normal. I started and stopped the engine a few times, no additional illumination of the oil symbol. I drove on home cautiously and the engine performed well as expected. Very curious. I am watching closely for any re occurrence, but I suppose I should stop by the dealer for checkout.

PS, forgot to mention I have a 2011 CMS with about 35K miles.

 

There seems to be a growing crowd who wish to remain 'reactive' relying on the idiot lights by trusting system sensors which may or may not function correctly rather than being proactive and checking all the fluid levels and other self destructive parts, including tire pressure, on a frequent basis.

 

You should have this checked. Call the 1-800 number and have the car towed to the dealer and get a loaner car.



I am not sure what your cause is but it is possible that your pump is failing. The pump could be blocked by a small loose part in the crankcase or the pump is just bad. You may have too much oil. If the crankcase is overfilled with oil the oil gets wiped up into a foam from the crank and the pump is not able to pump foam. The result is your motor will not get oil and the pump could fail. Too much oil is just as bad as not enough and in some cases too much oil is worse. Again I don't know why you are having this problem but it needs attention. The Mini dash can be confusing. It is possible that you saw a different light like the cold ice warning too?

With a new car (especially a Mini that has a high failure rate of 1 failure out of 40 cars) you need to check the oil every 100 miles for the first 500 miles. Then check the oil every time you get fuel.



Oil checking details--->
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...00-post13.html

 

How did you determine the failure rate you quoted? Are you saying that 1 out of every 40 cars has an engine lubrication problem? I have been active on the countryman section of the forum since before the first one was delivered in the U.S., and while there were other issues with the early model years, there have been very few reports of engine lubrication issues, thanks.

 

Thx for sharing

 

I had the same problem, mine would came out while coasting at highway speed... They changed the whole oil pump and filter housing and now it's gone....

 

Engine lubrication issues can be more difficult to detect on a Mini than normal due to the difficult to use dip stick, the lack of temp gauges and marketing that leads some customers to think that 15,000 mile maintenance intervals translates to not needing to check for oil use.

Although MINI ranks Highest in Sales Satisfaction among Mass Market Brands from JDP, MINI ranks very low in other categories.

Take a look at JDP reports for Initial Quality and you will find some interesting ranking. Mini has improved from even lower rankings (I think by decreasing number of warranty claims or perhaps Fiat was added to the list) in the last few years but the ranking is still very low relative to most other brands (Fiat and Smart are the only brands ranked lower).



BMW / MINI does not make all the parts in a MINI. A car is made up of many parts that are manufactured by other companies like Bosh. Initial Quality includes many parts like water pumps and temp sensors. In one year of driving our Mini has had both parts (water pumps and temp sensors) replaced twice so that adds up to four warranty claims. The seal on the wire harness (oil seal) recall makes five. Mini replaced the parts under warranty on our Mini because it is still new. The reliability rating still falls even if the brand steeps up and pays for the part failures. OEM part manufactures are cutting cost and in some cases using plastic with molding stress flaws that fail more often (just an example). I have seen reduced cost coolant hose couples/ nipples fail because of this on other German cars but not on our MINI. Newer cars have more parts that can fail than older cars however many newer parts have been cost reduced increasing failure odds. The brand (MINI) suffers when OEM parts fail prematurely. Initial Quality includes all the parts like headlights and radios so you can say that that is not a great indicator to a specific point of failure.

Warranty Direct’s study of 50,000 live consumer policies:
More to the question, other studies look at more specific categories of failure like engine failures. This study most likely includes all Minis that were made under BMW. It points out that engine failures are higher warranty claims on the Mini brand that most other brands. The wide spread timing chain failure is most likely helping Mini secure its ranking. Many believe that more often oil change frequency and proper lubrication improve the chances of prolonging timing chain life. You can review the post on NAM about that.

MINI ranks third from the bottom in this study too.
http://www.carscoops.com/2013/01/war...uks-least.html


This is another point of reference:

The 10 Worst Automobile Brands in 2010
by James Bleeker
(Mini is number 2.... from the bottom)
http://www.autooninfo.net/2010s10WorstAutoBrands.aspx


This is another point of reference (number 3 from the bottom):
CR’s Annual 2010 Car Reliability Survey Results



In this case I am not saying that oil pump failure happens on 1 in 40 Minis. What I am saying is, pay close attention to warnings. Some Minis have issues that result in engine failure at some point and Minis are more likely to have engine failure than most other brands (according to independent studies). Failure may include issues like carbon build up that Mini DI engines suffer from. The newer N18 motor may not fail as much as the older N14 motor but that is not proven yet. The N18 and N14 motors are very similar. Still any time your Mini attempts to tell you it is having a problem you need to take that warning seriously. Mini does not have as good of a track record as most (seriously nearly all) other brands. Mini provides a 1-800 number to call and ask for help. The people at Mini are very friendly and may help you.

 

Thanks, really good data. I misinterpreted what you said. I thought what you were saying was that 1 in 40 mini engines had to be replaced because of a lubrication problem, and of course that would be horrific. I read the Carscoop article that you attached, and it sounds like any sort of engine issue, even a relatively minor one, is considered a "failure". I was incorrectly assuming a "failure" meant an engine replacement. Thanks for the detailed explanation.

 

I had this happen as well, last year. Just as you say, the light came on. As in your followup oil levels read fine (so did temperature which you can read while driving in the Connected app if you have connected).

To me it happened a few times off and on over the course of several months, mostly I think while downshifting. When I took it to the dealer they could find nothing wrong, and also no codes recorded by the computer. It has not happened pretty much since the start of winter.

I would take it to the dealer but I would not worry much about it either. I think it's way more likely to be some kind of intermittent sensor or even computer issue than anything, your oil pressure should be fine as long as you check levels if you get the alert again. If it comes on for more than a second or two and stays on, then stop the car for sure...

 

I am definitely not an expert, but the fact that you experience this when you are downshifting makes me wonder if the engine vacuum created is what is triggering the oil pressure sensor to turn on the warning light.

It might be a bad pressure sensor. Of course the problem is that the dealer is going to continue to say that they cannot duplicate the problem. If it happens repetitively, and that's all the dealer will tell you, I would suggest your next phone call is to mini. Wow it is understandable that the dealer cannot duplicate the problem, the fact that they cannot is their problem, not yours.

I strongly disagree with "not worrying about this". While I would say it's more likely a sensor problem, you cannot rule out that it is an early sign of the oil pump failing or some other problem with the engine lubrication system.

 

My wifes 2013 Hardtop S was getting a oil light at idle. She has 11,800 miles on the car. The dealer says it is a bad oil pump. The same dealer had just done an oil change about 100 miles before the oil light issue. My question is did the oil change prompt the issue or does MINI have issues with the oil pumps.

 

Oil pump issues with this engine don't seem to be common (few people on this forum have reported them), especially at such a low mileage. It does seem suspicious that it happened so soon after an oil change. Hard to imagine, but they might have not put in enough oil or the wrong oil...I have seen both happen. But if they won't admit to that, I don't see how you will ever know. And of course it's possible that the oil pump legitimately is failing by coincidence.

 

I have read that we may should have done the first oil change before 11,???miles. But when we bought the car the dealer told us that 12000 miles would be OK. Now they are also telling us that the oil pump failure is a common issue. I, like you have not been able to find much on oil pump issues with the 2013 cars. Im just concerned that the dealer may have caused this problem some how. I did check the oil before we took it in for the light issue and it did look like they had the correct amount. Of course i'm not sure what kind the put in. They have had the car for four days and it is supposed to be ready today.

 

Not difficult to understand why you would be concerned, but what can you do? Thankfully your car is under warranty. Hopefully no long term engine damage has happened. If it has, I don't know how you could prove that, nor prove that they caused it.

 

Yes MINI's oil change interval is long - longer than many folks are comfortable with. But it's long for all their current models not just the Countryman and I haven't seen complaints about oil pumps failing...

If it's being replaced under warranty then I wouldn't worry about it. It' a mechanical thing - and things do break, that's why we have the warranty in the first place.

Now, if the replacement fails - then I'd start getting concerned...