On Friday of last week I was leaving my house and my car was running completely normal. Came up to a red light and still running normal. Then about 200 yards down the road I came to another red light except this time when I pushed the clutch in the engine completely stalled even before I came to a stop. I started it back up again and it stalled on the spot. Started it again, gave it some gas and drove off and it seemed to be fine from there.

Then after a couple of hours at work I went to lunch and the mini was driving normal. After lunch I get back into the car and it happens again, except this time it did not recover. I could not keep the car running unless I was on the throttle and even under throttle the idle was EXTREMELY rough and once I let off the throttle it would die. I towed it to a local mini shop here in SoCal. The same shop RMW works out of.

They diagnosed it as a broken crank pulley. Replaced the crank pulley, but still the same. Then they noticed a bad pre-cat 02 sensor so they replaced that as well, still not any better. Once the 02 sensor was put in we got a code for a throttle body malfunction, not sure which code. So now we are in the process of cleaning the throttle body, I am praying this works. Any advice as to what this could be? The mechanics are stumped and I am running out of money!

 

Could be throttle body. When I bought my car in May (108k miles), the car died a couple of times at stoplights after sudden deceleration. Ended up using a whole can of throttle body cleaner getting all the goop out of it. Threw a code from all the cleaner but after clearing the code and a spirited drive to burn it off, car has been perfect since.

 

Thanks for the input, but it ended up not being the throttle body. I got the mini back today and it ended up being the MAP sensor. Just thought I would post the final outcome in case anyone comes across this issue. Although it is little concerning that things like this are starting to happen with only 49,000 miles.

 

Well, I jinxed myself. My car exhibited the same symptoms your car did today on the way home from work (90 degrees, mostly stop and go). I've already replaced the o2 sensors as maintenance items so may try the MAP sensor - only $50 to try.

 

hopefully my experience saves you the headache of what I had to go through. I spent about $1000 before the mechanics realized it was a MAP sensor. Also, my car wouldnt even stay at idle before the engine died. Hope this helps

 

I hope so. I was already going to replace the coil and I will look through the vacuum lines tonight (although I'm not really sure where the problem ones typically are).

 

Replaced the sensor, the old one looks okay but not sure how you could tell. I am wondering if it was just the two o-rings on the sensor that have gone bad. No resistance pulling the sensor out but pretty snug getting new one in.

Car seems to idle smoother and doesn't stumble when braking. Will see if it's real or just the placebo effect.