I picked up my brand new MINI on Saturday, and this morning I was sitting at a stoplight with the car out of gear and just my foot on the brake. I was on an uphill embankment, 3/4 tak of gas.

Suddenly, the car was jerking. Almost like if you are trying to pull out in fifth gear. I pushed in the clutch and gave it a tap of gas, and it seemed to stop.

This happen to anyone else? Does this sound bad? I don't want to pester the dealer about it if it's harmless and doesn't happen again...

 

Hi ! Wow I am not alone, and neither are you . I have the same problem and I did go to the dealership for help. I am very happy with the service I have recieved related to this issue. I can only tell you to got to your dealer and report the problem asap.....this is turning into an "04" glitch from what I have been told. There are quite a few people with the same problem as the weather has gotten warmer.

 

Doghouse, my 04 has started this too. what did the dealer do and did it solve the problem ?

 

Doghouse, were they able to correct it? How often did it occur for you? Yes, it's about 75 here in Ohio today, but the inside of the car was hot, so the air conditioning was running. Maybe it's an airconditioning issue?

Edited to add "thank you!" for your response!

 

You are not alone! I was about to make a new post about this issue myself. My MCS is about 3 weeks old, and I started to notice this when I had 200 miles or so. Since then, it has happened on 4-5 different occasions (I have 700 miles currently). The car starts to shake and the RPM's drop, and it acts like it is going to die, but luckily, it hasn't. I'm very curious to know what is going on, as I was going to contact the dealer very soon.

Best Regards,
-Justyn

 

SOOOOOOOCRATES. Good to see you, man. I'm anxious for Doghouse's response. If a couple more people add to this thread, I will just send the thread to the dealer. Yeah, mine only had about 120 miles on it at the time, and did exactly what you described so well...

 

Good to see you, Dude. Hope you are enjoying your MCS. :smile:

 

We may have to name this thing, a la "stumble" or "yo-yo" Let's hope not!

 

im no expert, but from what i recall reading here, this sounds like the stumble. hopefully someone can get some information on this for us here.

P

 

Nope, not the stumble. The stumble would happen when you were trying to get the car rolling, not at idle. This problem apparently affects late 03's as well. I don't recall my car doing it last fall. I had v36 loaded during the winter, so maybe it's related too that in someway.

I too am curious. Any updates would be usefull.

There was another thread that was similar, those folks seemed to have luck by changing out the air filter. Since most of our cars are less than a year old however, that's seems a little too early to have the filter so clogged that it will have a impact idle.

Doghouse,

Is there a reason why you can't be more specific? Are you under some non-diclosure agreement ? No offense, just seems like you know something more than was reflected in your post. Some of us have too travel quite a ways to the dealer. It may be usefull if we understood the problem more.



I've felt this kinda thing in other cars as well. Most of them being POS's from my younger days. However I recently felt similar things in 2 Daimler products as well.

 

I don't drive a Mini (yet!) but this same issue has happened with my E46 BMW 328, but only when the engine is still cold and just idling. Dealership mentioned something that I rememeber reading in the car's manual - to try to warm up the car through regular driving and not just starting it in your driveway and letting it idle for 5 minutes. Does this happen with you guys only when the car is still cold, or just whenever?

Since this is a BMW this could be a different issue than with the '04 Mini, but thought I'd share... maybe it could be helpful.

Kyle

Edit: Once my car has warmed up I've never experienced the problem, only when the engine is still cold.

 

Nope, this has happened when the car has been quite warmed up. In fact, I can only recall it happening after I've been driving for at least 10-15 minutes.

Thankfully, I haven't noticed anything in the past week.

Cheers,
-Justyn

 

I think this may have happened to me as well. I was sitting at a stoplight, and all of the sudden, my car started to bump and vibrate like what normally happens when youre sitting next to some kid with his system up. So I made a comment about it to my girlfriend, and she was like, "umm..thats not someones stereo...thats your car."

Is this whats happening to you guys? My car only has like 600 miles on it!!

 

This is starting to sound like a mass conspiracy....

 

Uh oh...

 

Oh crap, i'm definetly not the only one! A while back, i was at the stop light, after driving quite a while, (no ac or heat) and out of no where, just sitting, it was like i was driving a classic. It felt like it was misfiring but a blip of the throttle evened it out. The RPM's dropped a few hundred when it had happened. I'm hoping to go to the dealer this week if i have time because of work. Anyone got an answer yet??

-scott

 

I would take it to the dealer, but theres no way Id be able to recreate it for them...and I hate being at a dealer and not being able to accurately explain the problem. I hope someone figures out whats happening.

 

Yes, I have this problem too. Maybe version 38 of the software will fix it along with the yo-yo problem I also have, the cold-start issues which afflict my car too now, and the stumble which occurs with the A/C on (I have v. 36 currently)...

 

I have a 11/03 build "04 and it will occationally start to rough idle while aiting for the light to turn green It doesn't seem like a big deal and quick blurp oth the throttle makes it go away. Since it is so minor I haven't worried about taking it in for service, but I will probably mention it the first time it sees the dealer.

 

YEP - EXACTLY what happened with me, and yes, the car was quite warm, and it was warm outside and I had the air conditioner on.

 

Hey all,

I can't let the cat out of the bag if I am not yet holding the bag . I am very eager to have this problem resolved ASAP and look foward to sharing all of my info after I have the bag,the cat, and my MINI back. Sorry to be so "non-specific" but I have to for now. My advice ......make service appointments ASAP tp reporrt this issue. The more they see the more they will do! Also my idle and hard cold-start problems exist without the A/C on.

 

GMACK pm me And I will give you a call ......

 

Yep. 4/04 build date, with 400 miles on the car. It has happened about 3 separate times after pulling into my garage, or at a red light. The last time, I let it go for about ten seconds to see if the computer would correct it on its own, but it did not. Felt like the timing was way off, or like it was running on only 2 or 3 cylinders. Blip of the throttle cleans it up, but it should not happen to start with. Also on a warm engine. I'd say the ECU or some sensors are not working together at times.

 

Early 03 is the same...and I have the Webb Powership ecu, but this still happens...it sounds bad too.

I'm wondering if Ryephile has (or is working on) a fix for this :D

L

 

This lumpy idle has happened to me exactly once in about 600 miles. It was within the first couple hundred miles at a stoplight after the car had been warmed up, but I don't think the AC was on. A blip of the throttle and it cleared up.

I also experienced this on a test drive with an early '04...after reversing back into the parking space at the dealer, the idle went all lumpy as if the thing were running some massively high-lift camshaft. Blipped the throttle and it went away.

If I had to guess I'd say it has something to do with the rich fuel mixture these cars seem to run. I'd guess the plugs are maybe fouling a little bit after sudden changes from load to idle conditions, especially in higher heat/humidity. Combine that with the fact that it's a fairly small low-compression motor (1.6L and what, 8:1?) that's being expected to turn a heavy load--supercharger, alternator, AC pulley, etc.--at idle, when you don't see the induction benefits of the S/C.

I'm probably more sympathetic to this condition that others are (and maybe more than I should be) because my other car is a '76 BMW 2002 with dual 40mm Weber sidedraft carburetors. This car is very sensitive to ambient temperature and humidity, and also to how heavy a load (and therefore, how much fuel has been supplied) the engine has seen immediately prior to returning to idle. It'll idle higher and lower, smoother and rougher depending on the atmosphere and how hard it's been run. I actually do re-tune it in the spring and fall to account for seasonal temperature and humidity changes.

I bring this comparison up because it's important to remember that internal combustion is ultimately an organic thing--lighting a carbon-based substance on fire via an open flame. Even in the precisely controlled environment of a modern fuel delivery system and combustion chamber, it's still makin' explosions with fuel, fire and air. I suppose, though, modern electronics should be able to account and correct for these variables.

We've also got to remember we've got very, very fresh motors still (I think...maybe some of you have more miles). Things are still taking a set, and may be changing enough from mile to mile to require the ECU to reset some parameters. My old 2003 Golf 2.0L had *horrible* idle quality until around 18k miles...when I took it out for a few laps of Summit Point. ;-) It got new rings and bearing shells at 25k miles to correct an oil consumption problem, and the idle promptly got ugly again.

Will I bring this phenomenon up next time I'm in for service? Yep. Will I bring it in solely for this lumpy idle? Not unless it starts happening more often.