I've had an unusual problem over the past week with two separate tanks of 93 octane shell gas from two separate distributors.

The background:

The car is a bone stock (except for PIAA lights) 09 Justa Automatic with almost 13K on the clock.

Conditions:

Several miles of low to medium speed traffic (start/stop, etc, speeds never over 45 mph) Hot temperature (about 90 degrees with humidity in the low 80s). The car was not running hot (ScanGauge said 211 degrees). The tank was nearly full, first carrot had not yet disappeared -- about 70 miles nto the tank. Airconditioning was on and the auto control was set to 72 degrees, the fan was running at a medium speed, and the car was cool inside. Tire pressure is at 39 front and 37 rear on Bridgestone run-flats.

What happened:

The car first began a bit of really hard downshift to first gear upon decelleration (the down shifts occurred at the appropriate time and into the appropriate gear, but the downshifts were hard). Then, in a low speed corner in a residential neighbor hood, the car simply stopped running. I moved the gear selector to "N" and restarted the motor and we motored on with no drama. The feeling was much like one would expect when you miss a shift to second, and select 4th instead. It felt for a brief moment like it was in the awrong gear, then stalled. Drove the car another 200 miles that day with no issues (including periods of being parked, restarting, etc).

Drove the car five more days, about 400 more miles with no issues. The car averaged 31.8 mpg for that tank -- about 2 mpg under normal. Yesterday, the same thing happened under almost identical conditions. Today it happened again under slightely different but very similar conditions. The car averaged 33.2 mpg for that tank -- almost right on the average.

I checked the oil level -- its fine, and it had new Mobil 1 about 2000 miles ago at 10K. Its gotten new oil twice at 5K and 10K along with a new filter each time. I checked the air filter -- its ugly but it flows air properly. I checked the engine ground cables -- they are tight.

The check engine light did not come on till the motor stopped, and there were no outward indications of any issue, except the shifting anomaly mentioned above. The Scan shows no fault codes, and each time, the motor restarted with no issues and continued on as if nothing had happened. I made it an appointment with the Mini Store (have to wait till the 14th to get in, but...). The service guys had no idea what to recommend.

The only other anomaly, if indeed there is one, is that the car seems to me to be a bit down on power, and for some reason, the motor seems much quieter than normal.

OK, Mini Gurus --- What the heck is happening???

 

Gee -- no one?????

 

I would take a guess and say High Pressure Fuel Pump.

 

Unfortunately, the Justa doesn't have a HPP, only the turbos seem to have this piece, but that was my first thought, too.

 

Well -- it happened three times today, in each case, it was exactly the same, except once it almost got me into trouble. I stopped at a stop sign, waited my turn and took off slowly. The Mustang on my left was in a hurry and took off immediately after I did, I guess intending to cross immediately behind.

Mini died in the middle of the intersection, Mustang had to hit the brakes and skid to a stop a few feet from my door. The chrome horse looked awfully big.

Like always, it restarted immediately and motored on.

I'm convinced its a torque converter stall in the automatic trans. I can always tell when the stall is imminent, the trans shifts down to 1st gear harshly, and sometimes doesn't shift down at all till I am stopped -- then I hear a clunk. I'm convinced that sometimes its still in a higher gear, perhaps 3rd or 4th and stays there. When I hit the gas, it bogs just like a manual would do if you tried to pull away from a stop in 3rd or fourth, except there's no clutch to slip.

It has an appointment with the doctor on Monday morning. They tell me that they have never seen a problem with the Aisin gearbox. We'll see.

 

What's the diagnosis? Now I'm curious!

 

Honestly, we still don't know. The car is still with the dealer. I'm fortunate, because, unlike many of the problems that occur with cars, this one could actually be duplicated. It shut down for them, too. So I didn't have to deal with the "could not replicate" response tat aI've gotten with problems in other cars.

Our dealership service department has acted very honorably in this matter and are still trying to run down its issues. They believe that the problem may lie within the actuator which adjusts the cam timing. But there have been no previous failures which would provide them with guidance so the are progressing slowly and methodically. I'm actually fascinated with the process. They feel that there may actually be two issues and they are trying to fix one completely to see if it might accidentally alleviate the other problem. They seem confident that it will not and that we will have two things to trace.

But I hope to get the car back soon and I'll share with you guys anything that I learn.