Can anyone advise me? I'm a wanna-be Mini owner, but I'm scared by reliability issues that I read about in your message forum: yo-yos, stumbles, brown murkiness in coolant fuel, clicks in steering columns etc. My two teenage sons and myself test drove a 2004 Mini Cooper yesterday, and we fell in love with it. I think that a Mini would transform driving for me from being a chore into a fun experience. I was pleasantly surprised at how comfortable the Mini driving seat/position was, depsite my long legs, and at how well a Mini would transport dogs and/or kids around town. I'm hesitating because I do need a reliable car!! Do you think that the 2004 version has solved the Mini's reliability problems? I would be grateful for any advise..........thanking you, Ruth (Vancouver, BC)

 

Ruth: I feel most of the problems you have seen here (except yoyo) have been solved in the 2004 MCS. Reliability... Thats a crap-shoot on most any car. If you live close to a Mini dealer, I'd ask the service advisor about their policy on providing loner vehicles when warranty service is required. If they do provide loners, I'd make the big jump into the "mini-world" Its a fun place to live. Remember, you get a 4 Year, 50K mile warranty with the Mini. Now... if the dealer is far away or, they don't provide loners... well, thats going to be a harder call.

 

Well i am still not sold on software v.36. I asked if it gives you better overall acceleration which to me is the whole point of getting rid of the stumble. It prevents you from getting good starts! I will probably end of getting it anyways, but i figured i would ask one last time.

 

GET V36, YOUR STUMBLE WILL BE GONE! I have a May 2003 MCS that has had the stumble ever since I got it. Mine was very bad and it annoyed me to the point of not wanting to drive it anymore. Most of my tips are very short and it's really annoying in traffic. I got V36 installed and the Stumble is completely gone. Amazing, how much better this car is to drive. On the way home I still kept trying to finess the clutch to limit the stumble as much as possible until I remembered... It's gone I can just let off of the clutch like a normal car. You can now accelerate from a Stop light smoothly without the hickup. Love it now... I would recommend anyone who has the stumble to upgrade to it ASAP, you won't believe the difference. As far as YO-Yo, I never actually noticed that I had this problem until I got my Alta intake. It's not that I feel it but I can hear the Yo-yo surges of the engine sometimes when accelerating, not a big deal and from what I have heard most if not all of the Aftermarked ECU upgrades take care of that.

Oh, I'm also happy now that my glove box doesn't open over every bump, I had them replace that too. No more outstanding problems with my MINI now.

 

Ruth,

Go for it! I just got an 04 MCS in November, and it doesn't have any of the problems you mentioned, except for a very slight yo-yo. Since you have 3 dealers in your area, you should be covered in the unlikely event that anything goes awry.

 

>>>>It will not cure the yo-yo...MINI still needs to fix this........I hope.
>>
>>Just wanted to point out that the Yo-Yo was considerably improved, in my case. Maybe not 100% fixed, but better enough that I said to myself: "I didn't think my yo-yo was that bad, but this is *way* smoother." I don't think I'm the only one who noticed a yo-yo improvement.
>>

Please check Ryephile's "The Yo-Yo Chronicles" thread for a mechanical fix to the yo-yo. It is a stiffer diaphragm spring in the supercharger's bypass valve assembly. He explains all his research and presents Ryephix #1 (zip-tying the bypass butterfly valve closed) and replacing that fix with a more sophisticated Ryephix #2 (making and installing a stiffer diaphragm spring).

 

I have an '04 Mini of September vintage (I think). Odd, I'd seen numerous posts on the "stumble" and "yo-yo", but hadn't really read any of them. The yo-yo in my car is EXCEPTIONALLY obvious. I'm not too terribly upset about it however. It's only really noticeable under heavier acceleration that I typically don't do.

The "stumble" oddly enough, I've noticed also since I've had the car but didn't realize it was what the message board was talking about until I read some of the posts. One of the above posts about "finessing" the clutch to avoid a stall-out was nail on the head for me. At least I know I'm not imaging the problem.

Anyway, I'm getting my rear fogs turned on Tuesday and am going to have my software flashed with the latest v36. I don't care about the pros/cons of the new software, I'll definitely try it if it will possibly get rid of the stumble. Some of the posts on here regarding the new software and stumble issue look promising.

jerij

 

I had my stumble issue fixed at my service in Dec. 2003... and now in Feb 2004 I'm still stumble free. The guy at the service center said not to mention that they had a definite fix, but I'm convinced that it really is definite now. My stumble is completely gone... infact on a very cold day (40 deg in Miami is downright frosty) I was able to shift into reverse and back out of the driveway without ever touching the gas. My idle is up a little higher than it used to be and the car never stumbles even if I try to cause it.

Good luck to all and happy motoring!

 

Stumble fixed, traction control better.

 

Please explain.

 

Howdy folks,

I hope everyone is getting their stumble corrected. I just wanted to drop in and report that I had V36 loaded and it did cure my stumble...at least so far. I've driven a couple hundred miles and I get smooth launches, so that's very nice.

A couple of observations. Maybe others have noticed the same. The car now idles lower. Also, the correlation between the engine RPMs and speed has changed. Before V36, at 3000 RPM's on the highway in 6th gear, my MCS would be travelling approx. 65 MPH. Now, it's slightly more than 70 MPH. Also, if I blip the throttle in neutral, the engine decreases RPM's more slowly.

I do still have the yo-yo or oscillation in the acceleration usually in 2nd gear under moderate throttle. I didn't expect ver 36 to fix that, and it didn't.

See ya,
JS

 

>>Howdy folks,
>>
>>I hope everyone is getting their stumble corrected. I just wanted to drop in and report that I had V36 loaded and it did cure my stumble...at least so far. I've driven a couple hundred miles and I get smooth launches, so that's very nice.
>>
>>A couple of observations. Maybe others have noticed the same. The car now idles lower. Also, the correlation between the engine RPMs and speed has changed. Before V36, at 3000 RPM's on the highway in 6th gear, my MCS would be travelling approx. 65 MPH. Now, it's slightly more than 70 MPH. Also, if I blip the throttle in neutral, the engine decreases RPM's more slowly.
>>
>>I do still have the yo-yo or oscillation in the acceleration usually in 2nd gear under moderate throttle. I didn't expect ver 36 to fix that, and it didn't.
>>
>>See ya,
>>JS

hey buddy, good to hear from ya!

 

Before and after v36 at 3000 rpm in 6th gear same speed, just over 70 mph. V36 was very good to your car jstines.

 

I know this topic has been discussed many times before here, but this is not possible unless you changed the size of your wheels/tires. No matter what ECU or pulley or other power mods you have, each gear will always spin at the same speed for a given MPH. Unless your speedo or tach was wrong and it was fixed by your dealer in addition to the new software. Either that or you're imagining things. The gear RPM vs speed CANNOT change. It is a constant.

 

Yeh at 3000rpms i am right on 70mph. im yet to get version 36 for my stumble. Very soon though.

 

Oops, that is very obvious now that you point it out. I wonder if it was engine noise that led me to believe that. That is, that the engine/exhaust noise was louder before V36, so I assumed that I was going faster with V36 at a lower RPM because the noise was less.

At any rate, no stumble--that's the important thing. And thanks for correcting me.

See ya,
JS