So, I cleaned the air filter this week with uni cleaner and oil and my car still stalls when its not warmed up, my friend said the trottle plate could be dirty, can it be anything else? Another friend suggested I use sea foam which cleans out the carbs. I need help! Tired of revving the motor in the morning until it warms up, once its warmed up it drives normal. Oh, and another small issue is that, it sounds like my intake rattles when its cold, or something near the intake, any ideas?

 

You need to have the car properly diagnosed. Hard starts and stalls are usually a high pressure fuel pump issue, but again... diagnose before you prescribe!

 

Is there another way I can go about diagnosing? I dont feel like paying Mini Cooper 269.00 if my check engine light is not on.

 

Stalling means you're not getting enough air or fuel.
You know you have enough air, revving gives you more fuel and solves the problem.

So check your fuel filter/pumps. it's not a simple 10 minute task, so try a quick fix like running some seafoam through your gas tank to clean stuff up. Might not work, but it's worth a shot.

 

How much sea foam should I use in the gas tank. I recently filled the gas and missing one bar, will I need to add it to an empty tank?

 

1/4 or less than 1/2 a tank is recommended. And only 1/3-1/2 of a can of sea foam.
Follow the directions on the can. Your car will run worse with the seafoam in it, so don't be alarmed when it struggles. Don't put it in your crank case unless you'll be changing the oil within 10 miles.

 

I just ran a can of seafoam, and I researched it more than anything else I've done. I was pretty skeptical of it, still am to some degree, but I feel an improvement.

 

Thanks for all your help guys. I'll try that when my gas is low and any other suggestions?

 

You could use that money to buy Bavarian Motor Technik. It's a customer-based diagnostic tool for your computer. Otherwise you're playing the guessing game for a problem like this. Seafoam is going to do jack squat for the problem you're describing.

 

Just spoke to an advisor at mini at he confirmed that he almost guarantees its the high fuel pressure and that its common and covered under mini. Dropping the car off after work. Hopefully that is the problem.

 

Suggestion....
I know they redesgined the hp fuel pump on the bmw's, and often replaced them pre-emptivly...on the mini they usually just extented the warrenty....and installed the BETTER pump after failure....
If they claim it is out of warrenty, very nicely ask if mini will do anything for you $$ wise, since the part WAS redesigned, and replaced on so many BMW/MINI CARS.... they might give you a % off of cut their labour rate a bit.

 

i can almost without a doubt say its your HPFP. Go into MINI, pay the diagnostic up front, when MINI diags it to be a failed or failing HPFP your 1 hour diagnostic fee will be refunded and honestly I've seen MINI good will HPFP that are over the 100k mile coverage if its the first time for the vehicle having it replaced so this repair shouldn't cost you anything but time without the vehicle (which shouldn't be more then a day or less).

 

I'm taking it in today. The advisor said the diagnosing fee will be waived if it is the hpfp which I hope it is. It would suck if its another problem. Even tho my car is an 07 I have less than 40k on it

 

You should be good to go then.

 

Let's hope so, I don't want to pay 1500+ plus according to the first advisor who stated it was a carbon build up and something needed to be replaced.

 

I got a letter from MINI USA a couple of years ago about the HPFP campaign. They extended it out to 100,000 miles because the problem was so damn bad. I'm not sure if there is a time cut off point though

 

Country. Yea the advisor told me we have up to 100,000 or some high amount of years

 

Got a call from my advisor and he stated it was partly the hpfp which was replaced and I have a small carbon build up. He tolde to use chevron tech system carb cleaner. Anything else you guy recommend trying?

 

I'm pretty sure seafoam, stp, chevron, etc. are all the same thing and do the same job equally well.
I don't know why seafoam is the best known and most talked about and reccomended the most, maybe cus it costs th most.

 

Leaf have u used sea foam before? My friend said it works really good but haven't heard anything else.

 

I used it for the first time this weekend before my oil change, ran some in the crank case and some through the vacuum line, 25% of the can each. Going to put the rest in my gas tank on the drive home tomorrow as I should hit a quarter tank.

When I start my car (hot or cold) it starts up fine, the rpm will drop to about 400 rpm and the electronic throttle will rev the engine to 1,000 and it'll stay running without me doing anything, all in the first 3-5 seconds. Don't know if this is a fuel pump issue, or clogged injectors, if the seafoam doesn't fix it, I guess I'll wait for the fuel pump to start showing more problems before I fix it.

If you let the engine breathe in the seafoam, make sure you go nice and slow, or you'll stall out the car, and sort of flood the engine a little. This will trigger a check engine light when you restart, but it goes away on it own once the ecu figures out all is well.

 

Leaf has a gen1 car...no high pressure fuel pump. Gen1 engine issues are totally different and unrelated to the french desgined gen2 motor....
the motors simply have almost nothing in common.....

 

Seriously? "French engineering" just doesn't have the same ring to it.

So any idea what causes my rpm to drop after starting my Gen 1? Feels like it's going to stall, but it recovers.

 

LOL....true...I figured the french are more well known for fashion..... ..but when I see the "baby seat" listed I have to laugh...mine just got pulled...was upgraded to a PINK booster seat with PEACE signs!
On our gen1 Brazilian motor (tri-tech), the start, then almost or actual stall issue seems to come down to 3 common issues....

1) seems to happen to many folks in spring/fall when the fuel mix changes from winter to summer blends/vis-versa--perhaps the adaptive nature of the gen1 computer has to do with it...wait a few weeks, it will likely be gone till fall...then return for a few weeks again....

2) Many gen1 cars have a corrosion issue on the ignition coil plugs (they are nickel plated iron)...a scotch-brite pad to polish, then some dielectric grease will solve this issue for a bit, longer term solution is a new coil...many have brass plugs, like the MSD ones.

3) some have replaced the micro-filter ON THE FUEL rail, with the fuel pressure regulator...these parts ARE exposed to lots of heat, and are very cheap....for some the issues went away

Just remember...the gen1 and gen2 motor issues are different, as are the solutions....the motors are 100% different in design, technology, place of manufacturer, materials, etc.....

To the OP Sorry about hijacking your thread a bit, but I figured I could help out a fellow motor-er before he got thinking about fixing an issue he might not have...since the issues, repairs, etc are different on the newer/older gen2/gen1 cars!!

 

Sea-Faom is kinda a way to SLOW the build up....but not really clean it up....but for a consumer product, being pretty cheap, and easy to use...it can help a bit.
IMO, on a gen2 motor, get a catch-can!!
BEST thing you can do to SLOW the build up of carbon...
adding fuel cleaners to a DI motor DOES NOT HELP!!
the fuel is SPRAYED DIRECTLY INTO THE CYLINDER....NOT INTO THE INTAKE, WHERE IT CLEANS THE VALVES IN A CONVENTIONAL MOTOR.
Numerous threads on this...a big issues on ALL direct motors from ALL makers. Even MINI has tried a couple of different PCV designs to try to remedy the situation.