so lataly my 06 mcs has been acting up.. the cel and traction lights randomly come on and off. when they are on the car feels like its laggy and dosent drive like it usually does. i took it to the dealer and there saying that it needs a new engine! it is 4 years old and only has 50k miles. has anyone had a similar issue with their mini. i dont understand how this happened.. unbelievable

 

Sounds like there must be more to this story.....

 

ok, i have had the car for a year now. it wasnt until a month ago that the cel,traction control, and airbag lights randomly come on and off. i have no clue what the problem is, so i take it to the nearest mini dealership and they said that the engine needed to be cleaned, thus they wiped all the carbon out of it.. which ended up costing $400. the lights didnt come on for a day or two and then what do you know, there back on.. so i take it back. this time they say there is a serious issue and there going to have to keep it over night, so they give me another mini in the meanwhile. i get a call saying that the engine is going to need to be replaced because the 4th cylinder is misfiring and some other issues.. how is that a 4 year old car is already in need of an engine? it just dosent add up now does it.....

 

That sounds really fishy? Is your car still under warranty? If not, I would find a reputable local mechanic and find out what is going on. Let's just say maybe there is something wrong with the #4 cylinder, anything can be repaired. Were are you located?

 

Sure sounds suspicious to me. A sick engine should not cause random lights. Sounds like an electrical or computer problem. 50k miles is ridiculous engine life.

 

thats what i thought, the previous owner took it in for the same issues and now since its doing the same thing, their saying that it needs a new engine. i have no clue about cars so i dont know what the problem is and can only go by what he tells me. Im located in tampa btw..

 

Those light might be from a bad wireing harness....to say it needs a new motor.....is there antifreeze in the oil, is the block cracked....a good shop can almost always rehab an engine if it is running as long as it has no cracks in the block...uncommon in the mini, or bearings that have gone bad and are making metal, often from coolant contaminating the oil. Most other problems, even poor compression, or "carbon build-up" can usualy be fixed without replacing the entire motor. Just does not smell right....useually there is a definafitve reason for a new motor that is given....unless it is being done for free under warrenty or being good-willed by the manfacture, then they might be a bit more secretive about it. Tell them...if you want my money, show me why the entire thing needs to be replaced. And remeber, when the motor is replaced, it does not normaly include the accesorys or the harness, or the computer, so if any of these items are at fault, you will be stuck with the same problem. I woulg get a second opinion if, even if you needed a tow unless the work being done is free, or nearly so.

 

MINIs have a 4-year, 50,000 mile warranty (bumper to bumper), so hopefully you'll be covered. Do not overlook that possibility even if you're slightly over - MINIUSA should step up especially if the engine is the problem due to no obvious fault of yours.
Greg

 

Pardon me if I sound like a moron, but does anyone know what "cleaning the engine by wiping all the carbon out of it" actually means?

 

That means the entire team of MINI mechanics ate boat loads of burritos and fart into the air intake to force out the carbon deposit in the combustion chambers.

They probably just removed the intake and cleaned it plus dumping a bottle of fuel injector cleaner into the gas tank.


To the original poster:

Did they tell you what causes the 4th cyl to misfire? Most of the time it's electrical (bad ignition wire, ignition coil or fuel injector).

 

Shouldn't be any carbon in the intake, my understanding is that direct injection shoots the gas straight into the combustion center. I guess they could be pulling the head and cleaning it, but $400 at the dealer sounds like a bargain. I'm going with the bottle o' cleaner theory...not such a bargain if that's the case.

 

What code is throwing with the CEL light?

I had a similar problem described. Laggy engine, and my auto's first gear didn't seem to work. CEL, DSC, TPMS, and airbag lights would come on and off. It happened that mine was the wheel speed sensor (left front) going bad. Had it replaced under warranty, and the codes and lights were cleared.

 

I actually just cleaned mine out myself using seafoam. My R53 essentially turned into a mosquito fogger for the 15 minutes i ran it after sucking 1/3 of the bottle through the PCV hose. But the car runs awesome after doing so. Now I just need to replace the fuel filter this weekend...

Also a bottle of seafoam is around $20

As far as I understand, unless they rip your entire engine apart, this is how most mechanics clean the carbon out from your engine. Correct me if I'm wrong though.

 

airbag light and DSC light have zero to do with engine mechanics..I'd try another dealer? airbag light is probably a seatbelt issue and dsc probably wheel speed sensor as said before.

 

First gens are not direct injected. And the carbon in gen2+gen1 comes by way of the EGR/PCV system....gen2 have major carbon problems in the intakes system... Just check out the gen2 forums.
On a gen2 a bottle of injector cleaner will do nothing to clean the intake...it must be injected into the intakes air, or physically removed to be cleaned, but this is not an issue on the gen1 car '06 in this discussion!
Just trying to keep the thread on track, and keeping it on the gen1 car!!

 

Where are you located? $20 for a bottle of Seafoam is a bit steep!

Here in VA, a 16oz bottle is only $8.50-ish at Walmart.

 

it is my understanding that they did indeed take the engine apart and remove the carbon. the 4th cylinder is misfiring and i just recently(2 weeks ago) replaced the spark plugs. the code is saying that its the cylinder thats giving the problem but i think its a computer issue causing all the lights to go on and off randomly. that is the only mini dealership around my area and its still over an hour away.. i dont think anything is wrong with the seatbelts its probably the computer thats sending signals randomly causing them to come on.. but then again i dont know anything about cars haha.

 

Good points, I'd been reading about DI and carbon issues, didn't notice this is indeed a Gen 1 mini. My bad!

 

deleted...

 

You might want to find out what part of the engine they 'took apart'. Doesn't sound quite right. As others have said, I can see the CEL being caused by a misfire, but traction control says it's a different issue.

 

If one cylinder is misfiring, there are only certain things that can cause it to happen.

No fuel (bad injector, no injector signal, bad electrical wiring to the injector, clogged injector, etc)

No spark, (bad wire, bad plug, bad coil pak, bad computer signal to coil pak)

Valve not closing or sealing ( stuck valve, burned valve, meaning a part of the valve head has been burned away leaving a hole, very bad valve adjustment not allowing the valve to close, a worn cam lobe not allowing the valve to open)

More drastic stuff like a hole in the cylinder, a hole in the piston.

A good old school mechanic should be able to figure this out quickly without tearing too much apart. Not sure how the new crowd does this other than reading scan tools and oscilloscopes.

the proper use of an ohm meter, injector noid meter, compression gauge, vac gauge, leak down tester, etc can tell you a lot with out much tear down. Just my opinion.

I suggest you ask them very specific questions about what they took apart and what they found. If you go to the dealer, take your digital camera and take pics of anything you can the post them here, we'll help you.

YD

 

alright guys. looks like there going to replace it with a brand new engine with no charge.. i will keep you posted.

 

 

Free is good.....and it is new to you!! Mini almost always installs rebuilt for warrenty work.....still good though!! Good to see they are taking care of you!!

 

Just got my car back and wanted to let you all know that its running perfectly. They took care of it free of charge, now lets just hope we never see those lights again.