Those arn't candy corns, they are tears at the price of fuel today.

Can't really trust the tears or the miles left estimate to be accurate. Really should not let it get that low with such a small tank there is very little reserve. We fill at half a tank left by the tears - which is much less than half a tank left actually.

 

Ok guys I need your help and advice now.

Like I said I keep having this cold start problem every morning and its worrying me because I dont think its normal. I also no longer think it is associated with the fuel level.

I took the car back to the dealership and the manager who knows me said that its normal and that I have to wake up earlier to start the car and that the car has not gotten used to my time of waking up or something?? This seems like a ridiculous BS answer to me...I have never heard of this in my life. My stepfather used to race cars back in the day and says that british cars have this tendency and you just have to give it some gas to make sure it doesnt stall. I dont think this should be a problem on a brand new fuel injected car with today's technology but hey what do I know?

Anyway IS this a problem that all Minis have? Is it very wrong since this is a brand new car and I havent even made the first payment? Am I overreacting??

 

I don't think you are over reacting.

 

If you're accurately relating what the service manager told you, that's complete BS. No car cares what time in the morning it gets started.

Very odd, what you're experiencing. Mine sits for days and weeks on end at times, and it fires right up when I hit the "START" button. I'm still thinking you may be experiencing problems with the HPFP. If the dealer hasn't checked out that component, that might be a good place to begin.

 

U are not doing your fuel pump any favors running it dry...

Don't touch the gas peddle when starting it........

 

Thats pretty much exactly what he said, not much lost in translation.

But there is sufficient gas in the tank. I actually took a video of it. Ill post it up so you guys can see whats happening.

 

The time(s) you did run it dry - could of damaged the pump....

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&s...run+out+of+gas

 

I see what you mean but technically I never "ran out" of gas, just waited till the last minute to refuel. But regardless it wont happen again since now I know these cars are not meant to be driven that way.


Here is a video of what was happening. I show that there is gas, the clutch is down all the way, and the third time it would have stalled again but I gave it gas to keep it from doing so.

http://youtu.be/oVsuX6eKQ80

Shes at the dealership today so hopefully I find out what the problem was soon.

 

Yeah, that's odd behavior on a modern vehicle. I don't see that it's anything that you're doing incorrectly; hard for me to pinpoint otherwise, though... On the surface it would seem to be a fuel delivery issue, since giving it some gas gets it running; but it could be any number of related things (e.g., mixture too lean on start-up -- which could be caused by a wide variety of problems).

Hopefully the dealer can isolate it quickly!

 

What brand and octane fuel are you using?

I have owned several British cars back in the 60's and they had terrible electrical systems, but you MINI is a German design that just happens to be built in England and has much better electrics. With a computer controlling everything there are things that can go wrong, but your dealership giving you that BS is inexcusable!

S.

 

I only use premium and we get 93 here in Miami so that should be fine. I dont know why the guy thought I would believe that I have to wake up earlier to solve the problem


Anyway just an update, its been at the dealer for 2 days now and apparently it was the fuel pump. Very strange that it would go bad straight from the factory but what can ya do?

 

A buddy is having problems with their Dealership in getting a fuel pump replaced @ 48K miles because "it isn't bad enough yet"; more BS from MINI. The problems of stalling and stuttering are very similar.

S.

 

So they had the car for a few days and I needed it back because the loaner only allows me 75 miles a day and thats too little for me and I dont want to end up paying extra. They reprogrammed the computer apparently and I havent had the problem after 2 mornings of starting.

They are still going to do the HPFP but it was on backorder and I didnt want to wait. They told me to just bring it in when the part gets in and they'll swap it out just in case.....sound like a good idea?

 

The lowest I'll go in my car is 30 miles. At that point, I need to get get. My average however is around 60 miles when my gas light turns on.