Hi,

I have 2008 clubman S. My car gives off random misfire every month or so.
Many parts have been replaced such as high pressure fuel pump, cleaning fuel injection, timing chain and tensioner. Mine has "check engine light on" warning with misfire error. but nothing specific thing is stored for further troubleshooting.
Anybody has similar problem? If I recall correctly, this car was like that from the beginning. It doesn't run poorly. Only misfire code once in a while, it get self-cleared several days later.

Any thought?

 

Check and make sure coil pack connectors are not corroded. Check plug wires to make sure they are not frayed. Check plugs; make sure they have a grayish-brown appearance (which indicates proper fuel burn).

Get with a tech or friend and check to make sure you have an optimum air/fuel ratio. Use a wideband O2 sensor in the exhaust. Or get a tool like the Scangauge II.

You can find out lots more here: http://www.aa1car.com/library/misfire.htm. And I agree with the article... intermittent misfires are really hard to diagnose.

 

I'm pretty sure '08 have direct ignition, no coil - I had a similar issue with my '07 Cooper S and it was never diagnosed by my local service

 

You still have to have a coil to regulate the voltage, whether it is a single pack or one per cylinder. The coil changes the voltage from 12V to like 32,000V.

 

My clubman is still at dealer for diagnosis. I will update thread once I hear anything from them.

Thanks,

 

Hi supereek, did you get you car back?
Thanks
Alan

 

Yes, they hold my car for about a week and told me that "so much carbon buildup thing" and they disassembled the cover and scrub inside to get carbon gunk out. (Dealer ran fuel injection cleaning solution through it a month ago when I got CEL previously).
After I got mine from them, it ran better but still not perfect. I followed recommendation from fellows here and did seafoam treatment twice back to back in few days apart. ( it was about 40000 miles at that time.)

Currently mine has about 54000 miles with no check engine light since then. When I drive usually, rpm doesn't go beyond 3000. So few weeks ago, I put it in manual mode and drove a car with 3rd or 4 th gear. I brought rpm to 3K ~ 4K. I felt better after that. Clubman seems more responsible to acceleration. Then last week I did seafoam again.

I think clubman S needs to be driven hard (italian tuning) to prevent carbon buildup.

 

Gotta get those RPMs up once in awhile. Helps burn some of the carbon out.

Random missfires are the pain the a$$ to find. My 2002 GTI had the same thing, sitting at a stop light engine warm it would miss very slightly. Stragne thing is that master tech at the VW dealer had the same thing on his 2003 Jetta with the same engine.

The VW 1.8T AWP engine was a hell of a motor even if it did have issues.