Well, today I got to watch my MINI going away on a flat bed. Left work, started the car and driove about 10 feet and the car stalled. Could not get it to start for more than a second or two. Called Roadside Assistance and they had a tow truck there in about 25 minutes. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to get any diagnosis from the dealer.

Anyone else experience anything like this?

 

Yes. Once, but with my R53. I had done a header install, and the post-cat 02 sensor rubbbed against the heat shield and shorted out the circuit my fuel pump, amongst other things, was on, and thusly, would no longer start.

Sorry to hear of your misfortune though. Hope your mini recovers quickly!

 

Possible related to the cold? Mine keeps stalling even with the ECU update that was supposed to fix it.

 

Could be the cold, but it ran OK in colder weather when we went to PA last month. We'll see what the dealer says in the AM.

 

Mine was a catalytic converter.

 

Catalyst!? How many miles? I've only got 5500 miles on the car.

 

My wife's 2004 MC did that. Had it towed to the dealer, they found nothing wrong with it, and it's never happened again. (knocking wood)

 

Got a call from the dealer this afternoon. Supposedly a software issue. They reflashed the ECU and everything is working. Unfortunately, I'm going on travel and can't pick my MINI up until Monday

 

HA!
Thats nothing! Here's my story:
On xmas holiday I decided it would be a really great idea to drive our R53 to Toronto from Manhattan. I went all out and got new wheels and winter tires just to be safe in case of being caught in some snow. (Mind you we barrely use this car since we live in NYC).
Well the day arrives that we decide to drive up to good ol Canada and after 300 miles the car just goes out of electrical power, tach starts going up and down like crazy, abs lights, airbag lights but the engine is still on.
I pulled onto the side of the road and the car stops and never turns on again.
To put more pain in my story, this hapens at around 4pm in the middle of nowhere and the closest MINI dealership is located in Buffalo about 2 hours flat bed ride from were we stopped.
Temperature is dropping, no heating and we called roadside and got picked up about 2 hours later and this was on xmas eve!!!

Resulting diagnosis 2 weeks later of course because of parts not available and the holidays...a damaged alternator.
They covered 700 dollars in expenses and I had to rent a car, drive up and pick up the car!!! Lost a full day of work.
Lucky for me I don't have economical hardships but if I were a person on a tight budget this would have been a disaster!
So, no loaner, and no drop off. Had to pick up the car in Buffalo and drive back.
Hope that makes you feel better, but I am getting tired of my car actually.
Very nice, fun but too delicate for a car that barely has 16k in almost 3 years and sleeps on a nice garage.

 

I just experienced the same thing, only I didn't get to drive anywhere... it died too quickly. I tried restarting about four times with the same result... bouncing revs, then really low <500rpm vibration before it shuts right down. I either get the 50% power check engine icon or the regular check engine light and icon. Temperature is -6 Celsuis, which is pretty cold, but it has been this cold once or twice before before. I'm currently awaiting the flat-bed. :(

 

Sounds EXACTLY like what happened to me. Here's the diagnosis from the dealer:

Code 2F07 stored in DME. Reprogrammed complete vehicle per Bulletin 12 03 07, reset adaptations.

The car seems fine so far. Only annoying thing is all the preferences I set were reset. I now have to reprogram the locks, blinkers, etc. It's great having my MINI back, though.

Rob

 

Yeah thats the cold weather stuff. The newer ECU code still didn't solve the problem completely. Still stalls in the 25 F or below range, just not as weird as before and doesn't throw the ECU code. You can always get around the problem manually by just getting your foot on the throttle at 2k rpms for a while. Its a pain, but you don't need to have the car towed. It should start up if you wait a bit and maybe take the key in and out. Good to known because I'm sure its happening to just about everyone in the extreme cold. Its worrying that they obviously never tested out the ECU we got in the states in the cold weather conditions.

 

When the flatbed showed up, the driver managed to start my Mini using the method above... by keeping the revs around 2000 for a bit, and then it seemed fine. I drove carefully to the dealer, though, and the engine light remained on; I'm currently awaiting their call.

 

Great, now I see this...after I just ordered one. I was hoping to get away from a temperamental car (I currently own an RX-8 that has cold weather issues as well). Is this problem really common?

 

I live in Canada and it's commonly (regularly) below freezing from October to May. When it's -20C or more the car is a little twitchy on occasion. I have never had an issue that caused me to not drive it. Remember you are looking in the issues/problems thread are you surprised to find issues/problems?

 

Possibly the same issue? https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=124867

 

I'm not surprised to find issues but if this is a common problem, I'd sure like to know.

 

I just heard from the dealer. They have ordered a new throttle valve because mine 'seems to be sticking'. The car should be ready tomorrow.

 

Tjtull-I've had mine since late Sept and I've noticed a slight hesitation on colder mornings, (similar to every other car I've had) but no other problems. But it hardly ever gets that cold here (St Louis) anyway.

 

Well, it was -32C (or -26F) this morning, and I got in the car and it started very easily. Had a decent drive into work. Yesterday was just as cold, no problem.

 

Thanks T-POD. I'm sure it's not a wide-spread issue. True about it hardly ever getting cold here...though last week was pretty darn cold...60 degrees today