The last few weeks, I've noticed that twice in tight corners my engine has lugged pretty bad. I hope it's just a matter of me not having enough rpms going into the corners but wanted to see if anyone else had experienced similar issues. I've had a bunch of warranty and post-warranty work done on the car including the timing chain tensioner and mass air sensor for the turbocharger. Really hoping it's nothing but I'm a bit nervous as I've already dumped some cash into the car for repairs over the last couple of months.

 

Need more information. What speed and what rpm entering turns.

 

Manual or auto?

If it's manual, you may just be in the wrong gear for that particular corner.

 

Assuming by "tight corner" you mean you are carrying decent speed through a tight bend...

Do any dash lights flash on during the corner? Like DSC/DTC, Oil level, etc?

 

This is not nearly enough information to say if there is a problem. Spill the beans!

 

Sorry folks, I posted this last night but I don't have a ton of information. No lights or anything like that. It's just a lugging sound that does not sound good. I've noticed it in 3rd gear so it's very possible that my rpms are way too low for the corner itself. No other symptoms. On the drive into work this morning I made a concerted effort to keep rpms high in what corners are are on my commute and did not notice any issues.

 

Manual transmission.

 

On the N14 peak torque is around 3000-4000rpm. The car will absolutely obliterate corners if you have the engine around that speed. If you're too low on the engine speed, even if it's around 2000rpm, are cutting into a very sharp turn, and put the pedal to the floor, it will be no surprise the engine is fighting since you're loading the front tires and thus the engine very hard. Even before I got an ECU tune, with proper rev-matching and shifting I could pull through corners in the city very quickly.

If you're absolutely sure it's not your driving technique, it might be time to check if there are any pending failure codes with a scan tool. These are codes that signify that something is out of the norm but not yet to a point to trigger a check engine light. And how could I forget, check and make sure you don't have massive boogers of carbon in your intake ports and on the back of the intake valves. That'll suck the life out of your engine!

 

This is really great information. My friend has been helping me with some things on the car (swaybar install, Hella light install) and has an OBD2 reader. The carbon buildup point could be very feasible. A little bit of background. I have been daily driving the car for a 4 years and this summer have been doing a fair amount of autocrossing.

The reason I said I was a bit nervous is due to the fact that I plan to sink some money into the car over the winter on suspension modificiations (JCW) and a new exhaust as well as some new tires for next season. I absolutely love driving the car fast and I want to keep this car to be my dedicated track/autox car for the next several years. I'm just hoping it doesn't turn out to be a checkbook drainer from a maintenance perspective.

 

I agree with everybody on here so far. Next time when you go into the turn downshift into second if your that low(before the turn)... then accel out of the turn and then shift back into third. Really,(like Shane said) if you are below 3 grand its going to struggle a little bit.

Properly downshifting before turns will help the engine stay at a healthier RPM around the turn. while just braking before a turn helps, it also will cause you to loose a lot of momentum going through the turn, slowing you down. Not to mention that it kills your brakes.

if you just downshift before and let it roar through the turn you will have a lot more fun through it. not to mention a faster speed coming out of the turn.

--cheers

 

I will make sure to do that. I have probably been driving the car a bit easy on the streets this summer due to autocrossing on the weekends so it could very well be my driving style.

 

I wouldn't be afraid to push the R56 hard since this engine thrives on it. It's the drivers who grandma the car and make short stop-and-go trips that get bad carbon build-up issues and headaches. Keep it topped off with oil and it will treat you well.

Removing the intake manifold to take a look at the intake ports/valves isn't that difficult of a task considering you've been getting help from a gearhead buddy. You don't need to take the whole manifold out to get a peek. If you remove the intake manifold nuts, and loosen the M6 bolt that the manifold pivots on, you can push it back towards the engine bay's firewall about 3 inches and use a vanity mirror and a flashlight to take a peek. RealOEM is a good place to get a picture of how the manifold pivots and is removed from the engine.

This carbon issue is probably the single most annoying thing about the N14 engine, hence so many discussions about it all over the web. The car will give you no electronic ques via the check engine light till the problem is extremely bad and causing misfires. However, if you tackle the problem with preventative checks, you are the engine's master!

 

Awesome, this is totally the sort of information that I'm looking for. Odds are I was way too low in rpms but I will monitor and report back. I'll set up an appointment with my friend to check out the potential carbon buildup issue. I would really like to get into a routine of doing preventative checks on the car. I'm just not entirely sure what to look for. This is a good start.

By the way I took a look at your car...Nice. Do you stick to track days or do autocross as well? If so what class do you run? I'll be doing my 2nd track day up at Road America next month.

 

Preventative tasks for the R56 are not too bad and really do not deviate from that of any other BMW. If you picked up any BMW service manual and looked at the maintenance schedule, the routines should not be that much different for the MINI. You can probably ask for one from your local MINI dealer and I don't see why they'd object since they'll be under the impression you'll take it to them for service.

I just stick to track days. The thing that keeps me away from Auto-X is the lack of seat time compared to track days. Sure, there is the competition aspect of Auto-X but I think the man vs. track aspect is more attractive. It's hard to argue with six 20 minute sessions during a whole day The only special preventative maintenance related stuff I do to my MINI for track is change the oil for every 4 days at the track (not including street time since it's not a daily driver) and also flush the brake fluid with DOT4 fluid the night before track weekend.

 

I will poke around my dealer for that. I've also seen what I thought were some decent books.

You're right you can get a lot more track time doing pdx vs. autocross. If you're inclined, check out Drive for Babies which SCCA Milwaukee puts on each October at Road America. I've heard Gingerman is a nice track as well. Plan to get there next season or perhaps later this year?

 

OK, I did some experimenting on the commute home. First I stopped off at O'Reilly and picked up some injector cleaner. The lugging that I was talking about still appears to be there but it's not as pronounced. The same corner I noticed it on last night I approached at 35 mph, downshifted into 2nd and took the corner. There is a slight 'lug' sound coming from the engine. I should note that I've ONLY experienced the sound when making right turns, not left. Could this be a bad engine mount? I guess it's not as bad..the sound...as I initially thought but it certainly is still there. Other than this one issue the car is running flawlessly.

 

I've been 'round Waterford Hills, Gingerman, and the best of them all in Michigan ... GRATTAN Still need to make it to Mid-Ohio!

I highly doubt your mounts are bad. How many miles are on the car? Heck, if you're under 75K I wouldn't even think about them being bad. Now that you have injector cleaner in your tank, take it out for an Italian tune up and have fun as the cleaner works its magic in the combustion chamber

 

Well come on out to Wisconsin sometime and run Road America! It really is a fun track. I'm guessing it would be about an 8 hour drive for you...or you could take the ferry if it was in summer.

The car has 70,000 miles on it. I put on about 20k per year but it's been a bit less this year. Sunday is the second to last autocross for the season so it will see some exercise then but I will make sure to stretch it's legs before then. Will report back

 

Nobody mentions the stability gained from high rpm on turns. You've got a very heavy gyro pulling you thru, the faster it is turning the better. Lugging the engine can eventually lead to catastrophic piston linkage failure. Also, practice rev matching when you downshift to greatly reduce clutch wear.

 

As much as I could on my morning commute I kept the rpm's high and opened it up where there was open space but unfortunately I still noticed it when pulling into my office parking lot and the rpms were above 3k. I'm thinking I should take it to the local shop tomorrow. I just hate throwing more money into the car for repairs but I don't want to kill it either. Think I'm being too cautious here or should I just continue to monitor it? I should be able to get an obdII scanner this weekend but do have an autocross on Sunday.

 

Do as much as you can without the dealers help. They are going to charge you just to look at it. Chasing a performance complaint can be a lengthy process. Do as much siimple stuff as you can with your buddy before taking it to them.

 

OK, will do. I was just concerned with leaving it 'as is' before the autocross. As I said everything else is running wonderfully. I'm just good at noticing flaws. Maybe too good. You're right the shop will charge me $85 per hour just in labor.

 

With a little bit of embarrassment the lugging issue appears to be gone. A bottle of fuel injector cleaner and a few quarts of oil appeared to have done the trick. I was getting low on oil and didn't realize this or think about it when I originally posted. Planning for a full oil change in a few weeks. Hopefully I have not done damage to the engine by letting the level get too low. I did not have any low oil light come on but examination of the dipstick showed I was in fact low. Thanks for everyones input.

 

Doubtful. seeing as you were only starving the engine of fuel for a few seconds at a time, mostly at low rpm, you should be OK.

 

Just a reminder. The "Low oil" light means you are catastrophically low on oil, i.e. there is no oil pressure in the engine. Calls for an immediate stop before the engine seizes up.