I was driving my 2012 Mini Countryman s at around 70 when it lurched and lost a lot of power. I babied it home and parked it. Nothing is leaking below the car and it’s acting like it doesn’t want to go anywhere. It drives just doesn’t seem like it wants to. There is a significant lack of induction noise compared to normal. It’s raining so I couldn’t check my connections. Any help is appreciated.
it has 78,000miles and an RPM stage 2 tune.

 

Are you sure its not related to your early Sept post on 'R60 Smoke on Acceleration' or your earlier July post about a 'random power loss' or your June post about a 'loud engine' or your March post about 'Check Engine / Oil Pressure' ? Time to get a code reader or take it somewhere to have the codes read like you have previously been told to do.

 

I had it read and it had no codes for any of those times. With the oil pressure my mechanic said it’s common for them to get low on oil and when you emergency brake that it has the oil shift forward to where it doesn’t get sucked in which causes the oil pressure light. The engine loss with power cutting out never gave me codes and hasn’t been happening here lately. This was a new problem seemingly unrelated to previous problems. The loud engine I was told by my mechanic is just how loud they usually are. I had an additional issue where there was a rattling coming from the front of the car which ended up being the fact my heat shield is being held and on by two bolts because the place I took it to that was supposed to install it didn’t bother putting in the rest of the bolts. “Not my current mechanic.”
I’ll go back through all my old post and post updates apparently.
Just wasn’t sure if anyone had any tips as far as it was concerned. Don’t own a code reader. Have had the car read however.
The current problem just happened tonight at 9:40pm for me so I can’t take it to a mechanic at the moment.

 

The smoke I was told was most likely bad valve stem seals and to have it serviced whenever I got the timing chain replaced. I was told the timing chains usually go bad around 80,000 miles and to just wait until I got that replaced and do the valve stem seals at the same time.

 

(Update)
I found a disconnected hose from the Intercooler and reconnected it but the car is still driving weird. It’s as if the car doesn’t want to or can’t give boost.

 

ah no !


Before you run out of $$$ being fleeced by the " mechanic " , get your MINI to a dealer.

 

See my mechanic hasn’t charged me very much for anything. He doesn’t seem like he’s just trying to scam me or anything. Checking the loud engine he charged me nothing and discovering that the heat shields weren’t properly in place he charged me nothing as well.

 

i was going to say check boost tubes, after that i would check pressures for vacuum pump and turbo/intake tract, maybe even cylinder compression. Get a code reader on it, maybe even a boost gauge to better watch what it is doing. I have a simple $20 obd reader that i connect to my phone for live data whenever i need to monitor something.

 

Could you put a link for the one that you use? I’m starting a new job in a week and was having to save money before I can get a good code reader but $20 isn’t bad as a temporary option.

 

Here is a link to the one i use:


I also have an iphone and use the dash command app, but there are many apps out there and some free ones

 

Ok thank you very much

 

By the time you get an oil warning light on these cars, your oil is so low that you've probably already done damage. In my case, I got an oil light only one time, but had run it low enough that I wrecked my timing chain and skipped a couple teeth (with only 49k miles). You didn't mention going into limp mode though, so that probably isn't causing this specific problem. That being said, you should probably assume that your timing chain is in bad shape.

I'm very skeptical of an oil change suddenly revealing valve guide wear severe enough to cause an acute case of smoky tailpipe. It sure seems like your smoke issue and this power loss issue are more likely to be a bricked turbo--especially in conjunction with the low oil pressure history.

 

What’s a bricked turbo? The car has just had consistent little problems here and there that I’ve not had anything major arise from until this. This is the first time I’m genuinely scared of driving the car because of it resulting in damage. There is a sound coming from the top left of the engine bay right around where all the hoses and connections are to the left of the air filter.
I’m more then likely going to get this fixed and buy a different car for my daily and just have this as a fun car for the weekend.

 

By bricked turbo, I mean that the turbo stops being a turbo and is, effectively, a brick. More to the point, that the turbo is broken. Dead broken.

The turbo requires plenty of oil flow to lubricate its bearings and when it doesn't get that oil, the bearings fail, the waste gate can stop operating properly, etc. which prevents the car from being able to make any boost. If that happens to your turbo, the only real solution is to replace it (or perhaps have it rebuilt). Your power loss, the description of the noise that you're hearing, the location of the noise, and the history of oil warnings all seem to me to point to the turbo as your problem. As others have pointed out, you really need to get a qualified person (whether that's you with the right tools and procedures in hand, or a mechanic) to check your boost pressure and any specific codes that the car is throwing.

 

Ok thank you very much for the reply I appreciate it. It is definitely not me with the right tools. I’m having it towed to my mechanic on Monday and I was gonna see what he said about it.

 

(Update)
So it ended up being oil building up causing the hose to blow off. He said that the smoke I had previously asked about was an excessive amount of oil going through the turbo and that it was blown. Got a new oem turbo, the lines done, and everything reinstalled for $1,700. Everything involving the turbo got replaced. Going to go pick it up today.