I had been given break in instructions on my Mni Cooper S (the punisher) not to exceed 4500 rpms or 90 miles per hour for the first 1200 miles. Its been 2 weeks and things were going fine, I noticed idling speed was about 1200 rpms and that I coulld cruise in 4th gear at 40mph at about 3500rpms. On the highway I could do 65-70 on flat highway in 6th gear at about 4000rpm.
However, when I hit about 620 miles on the odometer. I noticed that I was shifting like a madman to keep the rpm needle below 4000! The idle speed jumped to 2300 and I needed to be in 5th sometimes 6th to cruise at 40mph and to keep the rpms below 4000. In sixth gear I am only able to get 55mph before I'm pushing the rpms past 4000rpm.

Any ideas whats going on?
any suggestions?
I'm going to call the service guys at Mini Manhattan tomorrow.

By the way I'm going to post my picture of my custum Whalen shift **** as soon as I figure out how to do this picture thing.

 

Sounds like your clutch is slipping - that would explain your gearing seeming to change. However, I have NO idea why your idle speed would be so high - call MINI Roadside and have it flatbeded to the dealership ASAP.

P.S. remove your Whalen and put your stock **** back on prior to the car going back to the dealership.

Best of luck!

 

Why remove the Whalen?

The Tranny might be toast, but the **** didn't cause it.

 

I think the tach needle just got stuck. this am all was normal. by the way the whalen was not installed yet. i just did it tonight. very cool.

 

The normal idle should be way lower like under 1000 rpm and quiet. If it is high reving and loud in idle then report it to your MINI service advisor.

If the idle is back to normal and does OK then you are fine.

2300 is way too high. If the engine idle noise is low but the needle is stuck at 2300 then it will not sound like a highly reved engine.

 

@#*%$!!!

Like an idiot I finally looked at my tach with the engine off and what d'ya know, the tach needle is stuck at 800, another time it's stuck at 1300. What's up with that?? I guess I'm going to the dealer. Anyone have the same problem?

I wonder as the needle moves do I need to subtract the above rpm's to get my true rpm or will it display true rpm's once past the stuck position. I think about things like this. :evil:

 

 

is the tachometer in the Mini mecanical or purely electronic?

 

Mine does this as well. Car was delivered Tuesday, I noticed the problem on Wednesday. Argh. Gotta make the 1hr drive to the dealer on Friday to get it fixed.

Also, Wednesday night, with the car parked and off in the garage, I opened the door to get something and heard a strange clicking sound. The speedo needle was fluttering around 0.

This morning, Thursday, everything is fine. I'm concerned that this could be more than just the instrument cluster acting up. Computer problems?

Anyone else having this difficulty??

 

Just call your dealship and bring your car in for a checkup to make sure the mini is ok. Doesn't hurt because you are under warrenty

C-MINI-GO

tony

 

Both of you seems to be having problems with the instruments. My '04 MCS has been perfect since day 1 (6 months old).

 

Could be the instruments, could be the computer, but it's definitely weird.

FYI, my car idled at 1200 rpm during "break-in" mode. When the computer decided it was broken in, at about 1000 miles, the idle dropped to 800 rpm.

It was pretty cool, actually. I'd read on NAM that the ECU had an algorithm that would alter engine management after a calculated break-in point. Then, when I was sitting at a light about a month after I got the car, the engine kind of hiccupped and the idle dropped from 1200 to 800. Ta da, broken in!

 

>>Could be the instruments, could be the computer, but it's definitely weird.
>>
>>FYI, my car idled at 1200 rpm during "break-in" mode. When the computer decided it was broken in, at about 1000 miles, the idle dropped to 800 rpm.
>>
>>It was pretty cool, actually. I'd read on NAM that the ECU had an algorithm that would alter engine management after a calculated break-in point. Then, when I was sitting at a light about a month after I got the car, the engine kind of hiccupped and the idle dropped from 1200 to 800. Ta da, broken in!

Hey! That's cool! I hope the hiccupped is only happen once!

 

Took my MCS in Friday morning. Dealer was able to see that the Tach was reading higher than 0 with the engine turned off. They weren't sure whether this was related to the fluttering speedo problem or not. They called the technical assistance line and are waiting for a response. My SA verified that the tach and speedo are computer driven. They let me pick up my car until they figure out exactly what to do. (They probably just wanted their 3 series loaner back!!)

I am pleased that they are willing to admit that they aren't sure of the precise nature of the problem and are willing to ask for help. This problem is apparently not too common. Anyone else have experience with their SA calling the "technical assistance" line?

 

Basically all you can do now is sit and wait. I am sure they will have an answer for you today.

 

Here's what I would do: Disconnect the battery positive (+) lead and reconnect it while someone is sitting in the car watching the tachometer needle.

When I put my tacho back in the car after playing with it, it "zeroed" itself immediately when I plugges the connector back in.

It basically tried to read -10,000 RPM, and the needle bangs against a stop at 0 RPM a few times, and then stops.

I don't know if you have to wait after disconnecting the battery cable.

Try waiting 5 seconds and if the tacho and speedo go "Buzzzzz" when you plug the cable back on, that's good.
If they don't, try waiting a minute 2 minutes, 20 minutes, a week-and-a-half etc.

 

>>Here's what I would do: Disconnect the battery positive (+) lead and reconnect it while someone is sitting in the car watching the tachometer needle.
>>
>>When I put my tacho back in the car after playing with it, it "zeroed" itself immediately when I plugges the connector back in.
>>
>>It basically tried to read -10,000 RPM, and the needle bangs against a stop at 0 RPM a few times, and then stops.
>>
>>I don't know if you have to wait after disconnecting the battery cable.
>>
>>Try waiting 5 seconds and if the tacho and speedo go "Buzzzzz" when you plug the cable back on, that's good.
>>If they don't, try waiting a minute 2 minutes, 20 minutes, a week-and-a-half etc.

That would seem to support the theory that the fluttering speedo was simply trying to reset itself or something. That seems plausible to me, but I asked my SA about that specifically, and she said that it's definitely not supposed to do that. Perhaps it is supposed to do that, but only on installation. In other words, a fully functioning tach or speedo should have no reason to zero itself after being installed and checked out, etc. So maybe the bigger concern is why the speedo felt it needed to reset itself in the first place.

Thanks for the tip, Tippy, and I'll be sure to try that if the dealer says they don't know what to do. For now I'll just wait and see what they say. In the meantime, everything seems to be operating normally at the moment, but the tach still gets stuck sometimes, and I can live with that while they try to figure it out.

 

I had a similar problem with the temperature gauge (non-NAV) on my MCS.
The temp gauge when turning engine off would not go to zero, instead would settle at various spots, lets say at 1/4 FS. Then, when starting, it would use that as the 'zero' value and thus settle at around 3/4 FS instead of 1/2 FS after warmup. Sounds to me like what your tach is doing. My fix was a new center speedo instrument cluster, of course under warranty. If that happens to you after warranty expires that would set you back almost $600 for the speedo cluster, plus labor... yikes!

 

>... it's definitely not supposed to do that. Perhaps it is supposed to do that, but only on installation.

Ah HA. So my battery-disconnect idea might not cause it to zero itself out. That was just an idea I hadn't tried.

What I actually did is to disconnect the tachometer while the battery was still in the car, and then reconnect it later.

So, the engine computer or the body computer whichever one talks to the tachometer and speedometer clusters was still powered up, and may have detected that I disconnected and reconnected each cluster and it zeroed them when reconnected.

Thanks for the additional information. I'll file it in the "Things to know" drawer.

 

There is a way (utilizing the key & the odometer reset button) to check all the gauges and idiot lights. I've done it before, but I can't find the thread with the instructions. I think it was on MINI2. Anyways, it lights all the indicators, and spans all the needles from one end of their travel to the other, and then back. I don't know if it is a reset of sorts or just a test. If you can find the instructions, it's at least interesting to watch.
Or perhaps I'm just easily amused.
Best - Bodinski