Last night I was coming home and made a u-turn at the end of my street (going downhill and then back up hill), wasn't going very fast and after I completed the turn, the engine died. When I tried to restart, nothing, starter didn't turn. The lights were on and all electric interior power seemed OK. Turned everything off and tried again - nothing. Tried two or three more times, pressing down on the clutch each time. Sat a few minutes and tried again - started right up. I tried to make the car do it again but couldn't. I know if I take it to the dealer they won't know what it is unless it does it there. Any ideas? What type of safety systems do these cars have? Could it me an inertial shut off? Those usually work on the fuel pump and this seemed to be the engine electrical, including the starter.

 

Cooper or S?

Was it raining, or had you recently driven through any deep puddles?

Did any of the engine warning lights (EML, etc.) come on and stay on?

 

I was reading a site where they raced an MCS and they mentioned that the car indeed has some inertial shut off if it thinks it's rolled (something to that effect). in any case, I believe you may have been at an angle that would have triggerred that mechanism.... just a guess though.... will post the url for that site if I find it......

 

found it....

http://www.markodellracing.com/thunderhill.html

it states it at the bottom of the page... an inertial switch that shuts off the fuel pump.......

hope this helps....

 

For further information, the MINI is a Cooper and there was no rain or puddles at the time. Now, I know these are engineered by BMW but they are made in England. Being an MGB driver, I figure it is probably the ghost of Sir Lucas, Price of Darkness. I appreciate the responses and wonder if anyone knows where the inertia switch is located. I don't remember seeing anything about it in the manual. I doubt that it would be a fuel cut off switch, however, because the starter wouldn't turn.

 

This is from aforementioned site:
Note that they say "push-start". that wouls mean that the started wouldn't turn and they had to push it in second gear to turn the engine.

 

>>For further information, the MINI is a Cooper and there was no rain or puddles at the time. Now, I know these are engineered by BMW but they are made in England. Being an MGB driver, I figure it is probably the ghost of Sir Lucas, Price of Darkness. I appreciate the responses and wonder if anyone knows where the inertia switch is located. I don't remember seeing anything about it in the manual. I doubt that it would be a fuel cut off switch, however, because the starter wouldn't turn.

tmack, if possible, you should get to your dealer and have them check to see if the car stored any faults in its computer. Also, describe your problem to them and see if this raises any eyebrows (if they're a half-way decent dealer, they'll give you a serious answer and not the "oh, well they all do that" one) and inspires further investigation.

I think you're sort of right about the Lucas ghost thing, but you really don't want this to happen again when you're far from service. I believe that similar problems have been reported here on MCO and the culprit was a bad part in the wiring harness (so to speak, MINIs don't have a traditional harness). This can take several days to fix if the parts aren't in...so it would be good to know if you have this problem or not.

BTW, if it WAS the inertia switch cutting out the pump, then I'd think that that event would be stored in the computer and the dealer could verify that that is indeed what happened. Again, it would just be good to know exactly what happened if at all possible.

 

Had identical problem with my MC.

After three trips to dealer involving having the computer chips re-flashed and getting new software installed they finally diagnosed the problem: DEFECTIVE ENGINE WIRING HARNESS.

Good luck.

 

>>
>>Had identical problem with my MC.
>>
>>After three trips to dealer involving having the computer chips re-flashed and getting new software installed they finally diagnosed the problem: DEFECTIVE ENGINE WIRING HARNESS.
>>
>>Good luck.
>>

Ditto to what bigbud said. Sounds like a faulty wiring harness. There are many of us that this happened to and is a well known issue. Sometimes, fault codes are generated, sometimes not. It took 4 trips to the dealer and threatening to lemon the car before MINIUSA got involved and told my dealer to replace the wiring harness. Those A$$es tried to duplicate the problem, but it happens so randomly that of course they couldn't get it to stall. After the new wiring harness was in, I've had zero stalls with over 3000 more miles.

Cheers,
Kim

 

Bigbud,

what was the new software for, low end take off studder??? Mine is starting to do that and I wondered what to tell the dealer. I see everyone talking about it!

Czz

 

>>Bigbud,
>>
>>what was the new software for, low end take off studder??? Mine is starting to do that and I wondered what to tell the dealer. I see everyone talking about it!
>>
>>Czz



The CVT was a lemon from day one.

On way home from dealer had low-end stutter, lurch and a dashboard light show:
EML, FLAT TIRE (false alarm), SVC ENGINE SOON, all on and off intermittently.
On day two: car would stall and refuse to re-start for about five minutes each time.
After two trips to dealer, in which they concentrated on computer software and hardware, the car was OK – for 48 hours.
Then the transmission started slipping like crazy (had to rev about 3500 RPM just to go 20 MPH).
Then the dealer took and kept the car for OVER A MONTH before finding and replacing the engine wiring harness.

Meanwhile, I get a letter from MINI division saying that the factory put the wrong (low-viscosity) transmission oil in the car. The symptoms they warned about were very similar to the problems I was having.

Enough was enough.

I filed a NY State Lemon Law case against the dealer. Two days before the hearing MINI & dealer agreed to replace the car.

Had the new one a trouble-free 3 months/3500 miles until the SVC ENGINE LIGHT came on. Turned out engine was not getting hot enough. A defective thermostat was found and replaced yesterday.

So far so good but -- kind of wishing I had bought another Celica. Had one 13-years/a quarter million miles and not a single problem.

Oh well. Live and learn.