2003MCS 28,000 miles.Most times when the car is first started warm or cold outside temp. it will sputter for a few seconds then die out.On the second attempt it will start and run fine.Yesterday while my wife was driving home from work the "Service Engine Soon" light came on.I do not have a scanner but was thinking about taking it to Autozone or one of those places that do the free engine light scans.Any speculation on what the problem could be? Also where is the port for the scan tool to plug into?

Thanks

 

The OBDII port is up under the dash on the driver's side, but the Autozone guys should know where to find it.

So has the car always done this? Are the spark plugs good? Battery? Clean injectors? - use some Sea Foam.

Come back with the code and someone, or myself, can check the code in our big service manuals - a 'bentley manual' called so because of the publisher.

 

It has been doing this for about the last month or so.We have had the car for about a year I believe it has the original spark plugs I only use Shell 93 octane gas so I assume the injectors should be in good shape.

 

I have the same issue on my 2003 MCS with 25,000 miles on it. I dont have a service engine light though, and I cant figure what it is. I am assuming from what I read elsewhere that its the crappy 10% ethanol gas we get up North. But if anyone has an answer I am willing to listen, my car is very well taken care of and has never had anything but 93+ for fuel put in it.

 

I think the problem with these cars, 2003 r53's with only 25000 and 28000 miles is that they are suffering from lack of use!

 

The cold start stutter has a few threads here already...and it has been dubbed as, "The MINI Flu". Dealers cannot figure it out either.

I have done everything to eleviate this problem which began at about 68,000 miles....Some add high octane fuel additive with positive results. And since my MINI always gets this every April, and goes away every November, I believe it has something to do with the new ethenol fuel mix used in summer time, and the winter conditioned fuel used Nov-March is somehow rectifying the problem....

The Service Engine Soon Amber light usually has to do with emissions system, and could be unrelated issue.

 

Makes sense.It did start around the time they switched to the summer blend in the Chicago area.

 

Perhaps another piece of information. My car only started doing this after my dealer replaced my leaky (to the atmosphere when it was open) bypass valve and reset the ECU, before that it ran like a Swiss watch.

 

Just came back from Auto Zone.Their scan tool came up with P0456 about all they could tell me was its an emission code.

 

P0456: Evaporative emission system leak detected (very small leak).

I'm not sure where this could be on the car. Something with the fuel vapor venting maybe.

 

Sounds like a vacuum leak... Have fun finding that, those are a pain to track down.

 

cleared the code with a friends scan tool took it for about a 30 minute ride stayed off so far

 

It should be fine. There were two other levels of leak it could have told you about, small leak and large leak. Also, there are about 8 other codes that relate to the evaporative emission system.

 

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...for-p0456.html