I had hoped I'd be one of the lucky few who have no problems with my MINI, ever. Alas, that was not to be. I got Harriet, an R56 MCS, back in May and haven't had any problems with her, up until Saturday that is.

The day started out normally. We sped right onto the freeway, quick as you please. No hint of trouble. Dropped off the girlfriend at the gym to dash in and take care of some paperwork whilst I continued to circle. Still no trouble. Went to get back on the freeway, and that's when things started going south.

I notice as I'm accelerating, at not quite WOT, a strange hissing sound. It takes a moment before I realize I'm hearing the turbo spool.

The hell?

Harriet has no powertrain modifications. I shouldn't be able to hear the turbo at all. I certainly never have before. I also notice that I've now got the acceleration of a natrually aspirated Cooper; she's getting no boost at all. I pulled off the freeway, parked and popped the hood to see if a hose has come loose, but I don't see anything out of place. I hop back in, fire up the engine. Drat, I get a CEL for "Increased Emissions". There goes my Saturday. I call up the closest dealer to make a service appointment, MINI of Mountain View.

"Sorry. The service department is closed on the weekend."

*sigh* Experience teaches me this dealership is a useless shower of bastards, so I'm not sure why I bothered. I phone up MINI of Concord, the dealer I bought Harriet from, and immediately get an appointment. With the girlfriend following in her car, we head toward Concord. She needs to gas up so we stop along the way, and I encounter more strangeness. We need to make a U-turn into the gas station, and ye-gods how the engine is hesitating when I give it gas. It takes me a good ten seconds to finish the turn cause I'm bunny hopping all the way through it. The engine doesn't die, but it sure as hell doesn't want to go.

I make it into the station and pull up behind the gf's car. At this point I'm getting a really strange idle. The RPMs dip below 1K and the engine starts to run rough for a moment before the revs bounce up to 1.8K. It keeps repeating this. Low revs, rough idle, then revs up a little before coming back down again. Almost like there's a vacuum line blocked. I shutoff the engine and fire it back up again, and it idles normally. We get back on the freeway and I notice that the turbo is now completely gone. No noise, and no boost. Not only that but she's continuing to hesitate every now and then, like the ECU is cutting spark to the engine for a split second. We make it up to Concord and as I turn off the freeway onto Market Street, I can hear the turbo again, but still no boost.

Harriet is now in the care of MoC's service department, and I'm awaiting a call telling me what's wrong. Long story short (no chance of that at this point), I has no MINI.

 

Hope they find what's wrong, last thing you want to hear is "can't duplicate"...

 

Sorry about your problem. Great narrative. Call Car and Driver--they are always looking for folks who can write with informative style. Let us know what happens. In the future--if it acts like that call and have them put it on a truck--driving some miles in that condition can make a "minor" problem a major one. Nick

 

The CEL is 100% consistent so they'll see that at least.

I can't think of any reason they wouldn't be able to re-create the problem, unless it doesn't show when the engine is cold.

Same goes for denying me a warranty repair as the only thing I've got installed in the car that isn't stock is my V1 detector.

The service department at Concord hasn't done me wrong yet. About the only thing I can come up with is that the last time I had Harriet with them to get the JCW strut bar installed, they failed to find the screw that been rattling around somewhere around the driver side footwell.

They also hooked me up with a GMC Envoy as a loaner vehicle. I suppose you have to appreciate the irony of giving a MINI owner a huge honkin' domestic SUV.

 

Definitely sounds strange but hopefully they will find the problem so you can be back in your MINI again.

Keep us posted when you find out.

 

that happened to my SRT 6 crossfire it was the intercooler, I think would not go above 80MPH, I can cruise at 130 in it

 

weak. sucks to hear about your mini, yzo. especially since youre a bay area cat. i hope concord helps you out, because they sure as hell didn't want to help me out. g'luck....

 

hey i think i have this same problem, Today i was driving and i thought my clutch was slipping because i had to gas much more than i usually had to (even with the sport button pressed).

My exhaust sounds like i got an aftermarket and is much deeper, and when i rev my car, the exhaust sounds like its gargling water, and after that my engine's ticking noise got louder....

i was driving down the 405fwy, and I saw a check engine light, but it quickly went away, I got home but i feel like i lost alot of power... I gotta get this checked soon but i have school :|

 

Have you checked your oil level? I know it could probably be something way different than that, and extremely low oil shouldn't change the exhaust note, but it would probably most definitely make the engine hard to turn over (more gas) and the ticking noise would increase because the head isn't lubed enough and would definitely through a code (not sure if it would go away quick tho). I asked a tech once about that ticking and he said its what these engines do, but if it ever gets louder then something is wrong. I'd check your oil asap just to rule one thing out and schedule an appointment. I know how rough it is to find time with school, but driving on a hurting engine could bring some bad news.

Goodluck

 

Phoned up the service dept at MoC. The SA tells me it's a programming issue related to the MAF sensor. If so, seems as though I've the same gremlins visited upon me as those in a few other threads.

Odd to think a programming issue would have physical manifestations such a added noise from the turbo. *shrug*

Apparently, they're updated Harriet's firmware now to fix the issue. They'll tag me back when they run a check after the update is completed.

More to come later.

 

1.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmEWaAi1dyU
2.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuzuS86Z3qY
didn't want to start a new thread, but this is what my exhaust sounded.

2nd video you can hear the engine sound and it sounds like an old washig machine.

I took it in this morning at crevier mini off the 55. and they said they'll check it out around 2pm tomorrow -.- ..... hahaha but yeah what can you do. having no car seriously sucks!

 

Been meaning to update this thread, but life interruptus. Anyway, I put on my robe and narrative hat.

So to follow up on my last post, I got a call from Dave at MINI of Concord. Apparently, there was a SB that they felt fit my situation that involved updating the DME firmware. This failed to resolve the problem, however, as the CEL came back when they went to road test. Since they'd end up needing to keep the car longer, Dave was calling to make sure I was taken care of transportation wise. It just so happened that I would be getting on a plane to go to San Diego Comic-Con in a few days, giving them a full eleven days to track down the problem. Fast forward six days, wherein I receive a call in the AM from Dave. They've fixed the problem.

I picked Harriet up yesterday, and she's back to her old self again. Apparently the service department went about checking the lambda probes, swapping them out for new ones and then putting the old ones back when they got the same values out of them. They also went about checking all the electrical wiring shorts or other gremlins. Eventually, they exhausted the list of SBs to follow and proceeded to smoke test the intake. There they found that one of the plastic welds had broken. Part swapped, codes cleared, road tested, and all is right with the MINI.

My problem sounds similar to the problem Bob Stephens had in his thread: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=149123

Unfortunately, I left the paperwork that listed the exact diagnostic codes that were thrown and exactly which piece was replaced on the counter at home, so you'll have to wait for me to bore you with the details.

 

I could have guessed that it sounded like a blown pressure hose, with the hissing and reduced power, but I guess you don't expect to see a broken plastic weld. The hissing noise should have alerted them from the very beginning.

 

According to Dave, they have to follow any applicable SBs before they're allowed to get creative apparently.

 

Good thing you weren't paying for it then.

 

In checking my service paperwork, it looks like the car threw a "2B5B - Air Mass Sensor Plausibility" DME fault code.

The problem was "a failed plastic weld at the intake pressure tube that is mounted to the throttle body".