My friend is a tech in the service dept. but he works on BMWs, he actually asked his boss after I told him about about what happened and his boss told him about the IRAP/Reprogram. So hopefully they will get to it sooner rather than later.

 

Sorry to hear you're having the same issue as a number of us on here.
Just wondering....where are you located/which dealership did you get the car from?

 

I got mine from a dealership on Long Island, New York.

 

Hi All,

Just thought it prudent to post my continued experience for your knowledge.

We elected to "trade assist" the first vehicle we bought and made sure they correctly programmed the NEW New car before we picked it up. Sadly, after a mere 1 day, the replacement vehicle also started stalling and so back to the dealer we went for a second Re-Program all at the direction of the MINI/BMW Regional Tech. That seemed to work great and and the car seemed to perform better than anything we had driven previously.

Unfortunately, after several weeks and about 800 miles.......stalling problem is back. If it doesnt stall, it drops RPMs like it wants too and then recovers. We are once again back to the dealer for the same issue on Monday. I am so frustrated at this point....as you all are.

Also, I've demanded that MINI/BMW contact me to discuss the problem and they did. I have nothing but good things to say about my Dealer as they have done everything they can. Its a manufacturer issue so I wanted to complain directly to the manufacturer. I received a call from MINIUSA and they are going to make one of my car payments for me since we've gone through so much trouble. I am also going to be demanding that they extend some sort of Warranty extension if they can "FIX" the problem if they are so certain it is fixed. If not, I will be demanding that they "Trade Assist" the second vehicle as well since it is the same issue and same situation as the first. At this point, I know they are into the 2011 model so maybe thats the way to go.

Anyway, I think we all need to be more agressive and demand results, its a manufacturing problem. I'll keep you posted on what I get.

 

That is not good to hear.

Once I get settled back in Ohio next month I intend on getting more aggressive and demanding.

 

After going through the posts in this thread again, is it safe to say that re-programing the car works for most (if not all) cases?

I'm taking it in tomorrow. I'm not sure I'll say anything to them when I drop it off. If they call me & say they can't figure out the problem, I'll mention the re-programing (& try to give them the dealerships that fixed forum member's cars).

 

Well, I had mine reprogrammed and am still having the same problem.

and so is windypointmini.

So, I don't know if it is really a fix or not.

 

the dealer tried to reprogram mine two different times with current updates it helped but was still there until the mini tech from south carolina did the program. they cannot do that type of reprogramming at the dealer. i think the others have had the ecu sent in to be reprogrammed. so if they are doing it in a day it may still not be the same reprogram that is needed i dont know.

 

Deeply sorry to hear about this warm start/stalling problem you guys are dealing with. I went to a dealership recently to look at a 2010 MCSa and after coming back from a test drive, I tried restarting the car a few times and it stalled each time. However, the dealer had the key fob just outside the door. When she was inside the car however, it fired up. Any ideas/comments regarding this?

 

It's possible the vehicle was equipped with the Comfort Access option, which allows you to start the vehicle without inserting the fob into the dashboard receptacle. Not sure what the range is on MINI's system, but it can be more than a few feet with versions offered by other manufacturers -- a lot more...

I remember recently watching an episode of Top Gear where the three hosts were in the US, driving three different American cars to the Bonneville Salt Flats. They had stopped in a small town somewhere for a bite to eat, and as a bit of a prank, Jeremy Clarkson actually moved the Dodge Challenger (equipped with Dodge's version of Comfort Access) that Richard Hammond had been driving -- under its own power -- from the parking lot and into the middle of the street, where he abandoned it to disrupt what little traffic was passing by the restaurant. This was all while Hammond sat inside the restaurant (~50-100 feet away) with the key fob in his pocket, completely unaware of what was taking place (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aU09...eature=channel; ~2:50 mark)... So, while someone still couldn't drive your car too terribly far away, after seeing Clarkson's Top Gear prank, I realized that -- in some cases -- someone could easily move your vehicle onto a waiting flatbed truck, then drive that away...

So, if BMW/MINI were smart about Comfort Access, they'd restrict the usable range as tightly as possible -- which might have been what you were observing after your test drive. Otherwise, the vehicle could have been experiencing one of the problems being discussed on the forum...

Personally, though, I'd be very cautious of equipping any vehicle I owned (or was considering to purchase) with these automatic, radio-transmitter-based access/starting systems...

 

I'm not sure if that was the cause of the issue for that particular car. I can tell you I don't have comfort access on my car and with the fob in the dash, it was still stalling or nearly stalling on a warm start.

 

They did send mine out to reprogrammed.

 

Mine wasn't sent out to be reprogrammed but there was a BMW engineer working on it. I don't know if that made any difference.

 

Dropped off my car this morning to have them look at it.
She did tell me that there's another Mini in there for the same problem. They haven't figured out what's causing it/how to fix it yet.

We'll see what they say.....

 

We also dropped off our car this morning and Met with the BMW/MINI Regional Tech guy. They called this afternoon to basically say, no update....cant reproduce the problem. I kindly sent them some videos we recorded of the "problem". If anyone wants to see what ours is doing... feel free to download the video. Sorry its fuzzy, and yes, we purposely let it stall that many times. A little gas and it goes. This is exactly what happened with our FIRST car , and the video is of the second "TRADE ASSIST" car.

http://www.mediafire.com/?9kdk157ampzuf75

Its not that they dont believe us, but it only happens under a very certain set of conditions....and not all the time.

To answer an earlier question.....ours was technically reprogrammed at the dealer but it was done by the Regional BMW guy via direct link to his computer, thus, the equivalent of sending it off.

I give them a day or two, if they still have no ideas, we will be Trade Assisting the second car for a 2011 model.

 

windypointmini...saw the video and that's exactly what the car I test drove did. My wife test drove it first and after we came back, it stalled just like your car did 3 times. On the fourth try, the car started stalling again and the MA told me to give it some gas and it caught on.

After that ordeal I test drove it and when we got back, I wanted to test the car again so I shut it off, waited a minute and fired it back up again and there wasn't any problem. Anyway, I decided not to get the car. I think I'm going to wait to see what the 2011's are like. I just can't get over this stalling issue that seems to be plaguing a lot of people. If anything a car should start consistently no matter what the temperature of the engine is. Especially a brand new car. I'm pretty bummed out since I was so close to buying the car.

I sincerely hope there will be a permanent fix for those of you who are dealing with this issue.

 

Wow that video sure shows the problem very well.
I can't believe there's no codes being thrown or logged into the system that
should be tellng them how to attack this problem.

 

Exactly, I just don't see how it isn't giving any codes.

I wish I could afford the time to take it to the dealer now. I don't want to wait 3 weeks before I am able to take it in. But since I can't take loaners further than 75miles from the dealership. And I HAVE to make a trip to Ohio in two days and then back to Virginia in a little over a week.

 

But really, it is so easy to duplicate it, that's what I don't understand. Why does it take them so long to duplicate it. When I dropped it off they could have went right out to my mini and duplicated it. But they just let it sit.

Eh, I don't mean to get testy, just thinking about that time I took it in makes me mad, and also for the fact that this is happening to brand new cars. This is my first brand new vehicle, and so far it has been a bad experience. (besides the driving, that's fun!)

 

Lets all cross our fingers that it doesn't come down to a 2011 Trade assist...but I wonder what they'll do to sort of compensate(if they will do anything), considering the 2011 are more expensive.

 

That's what I am wondering as well. They should do something since they are the ones inconveniencing us.

 

"Trade assist" for me implied the new car being sold at cost (10% below MSRP) and being refunded 100% of my payment on the previous one (which was 5% below MSRP). The transport fees cancel each other.

Have you considered stepping down to a more reliable MC? While it's a very different beast, it does get sweet and quite fun above 3400 RPMs (which incidentally turns the break-in period into torture). Also, if you drive stick you'll have to shift a lot more often and the 6 speeds will become useful.

Fuel pump on MC electronic delivering 5 bar pressure vs. mechanical 2-piston fuel pump delivering 120 bar pressure on the MCS. Ref http://new.minimania.com/web/SCatago...8/ArticleV.cfm Have they changed the HPFP set-up on the 2011 MCS?

 

Got my car back today.
They called this morning, saying it was fixed & I could come get it.

I asked them what they did exactly....
They sent in some report to Mini USA stating the problem. Mini USA sent them something to re-program my car that was directed to mine (VIN # was given).
They said this re-program was different than a regular re-program (they tried that on another MCS & it didn't work until they got the new re-program from Mini USA).
I hope that does the trick. I'll update how it goes.

 

I hope it works for you. It's a waiting game for all of us now.

 

Dropped off my car this morning, just got the car back. So far so good with the new programing, did 2 warm starts back to back. Well report back with updates. *Fingers crossed*