2003 Mini Cooper s, 66k miles, 6 speed
Only mod: full exhaust

Normal : under full gas car runs great if you hit redline or pass redline car goes into limp mode

Issue: sometime, under full gas and mostly in second gear, sometimes in 3rd gear, the car will pop into limp mode at around 6k or 5700, basically before redline when it should go into limo mode. No odd sound from the motor, no pinging, nothing crazy with the car. I reset it or just turn off and turn back on and the car runs perfect. This only happens under full gas. Any idea??? Any and all help would be great. Thank you.

 

1st thing, take into an auto shop and get the codes read. Without knowing what code it threw there's no way of offering a guess 'cause all you'll get at this point are guesses.

 

I will do that. Just wondering if anyone has had the same issue.

 

as he said, codes are critical for diagnosis, but what you are describing sounds similar to the problem i had. i have an 03s whivh had 65k when i got it. within the first week of owning it, i beat on it to test warranty features before 30 days was up, since i was pretty conservative during the test drive.

within that week, i found a similar issue. at high rpms/high boost, the car would basically just turn off.

it turned out to be the bypass valve getting stuck open or more likely closed, and as a safety feature the car would shut down to avoid damage.

what you are describing could be caused by any number of fuel/air/electrical related things, so definitely pursue the codes you recieve. however, if it is the bpv and youre out of warranty, i would suggest getting a new one from detroit tuned. their model is a little better than stock.

good luck.

 

Awesome. Thank you for the reply. Now to get these codes.

 

Just to show you how uneven the error code playing field is, mine went into limp which turned out to be caused by a broken wire between the throttle and the throttle body.

 

+1. Exact scenario I had when I bought my '03 S. It had 59k at the time. It was probably a couple weeks after I bought it that I was running it really hard. I started to pass someone on the highway and just as I passed the person, BOOM! Limp mode and CEL. This was on a weekend. Come monday I had it checked. Sure enough its the bypass valve sticking. I replaced the part and never had a problem since.