Hello all. I have a 2009 clubman base model (non S) that was running good till last november.

My wife was daily driving this car till she passed away early last month so we didn't really have time to drive the 3hrs to the nearest mini dealer (Mini of Dallas) to have it looked at properly and none around here wants to work on these cars. I have slowly been tinkering with it but after her passing away I'd like to sell the car so it needs to be fixed.

Car currently has 137,000 miles on it. We averaged roughly 650 miles per week in the car sometimes more.

car started consuming oil at around 125,000 miles roughly 1qt every 6,000 miles.

at around 130,000 car began to have a rough idle at random times. Car would vary idle 2-300 rpms at times and other times it would idle smooth as silk.

Engine has always had a "tick" to it at idle (read on the internet this is normal???)

around 132,000 miles the check engine light came on, pulled codes that showed cylinder 1 misfire, then cylinder 4 misfire. Cleared codes after replacing 1 ignition coil and all 4 spark plugs with new NGK plugs. Engine ran smooth as silk for about 15 miles then went back to random rough idle. Had to drive it this way for a bit (busy with school, work, family, etc). The car starts fine and idles smooth for the first few minutes but once its warmed up it really starts to idle rough (almost like the rattle of a diesel along with rpm variation sometimes).

While changing the spark plugs I noticed 2 of the holes were filled with oil so at around 136,000 miles I changed the valve cover gasket and discovered that the pcv valve can't be changed (have to purchase an insanely overpriced new valve cover).

When I changed the valve cover gasket I also did a compression test, all cylinders showed 150psi or very close to it, no large discrepancies that would indicate a bad cylinder.

Currently the only code that is showing up is P0301 cylinder 1 misfire

I have been researching till I'm blue in the face over the past several months about this issue. I am about to go out and try to get to the throttle body to clean it.

I have been debating on removing the intake to see if there is carbon buildup but my understand is thats only an issue on the direct injected motors, is that correct?

I've considered the O2 and MAF sensors but they're cost prohibitive to just replace on a whim and not possibly not fix the problem.

The only thing consistent is that cylinder 1 keeps coming back not the codes
so Id think its got to be electrical right? sensor, chaffed wire, short, gremlin chewing on it.... I have also considered a strictly mechanical issue but felt the compression test ruled that out (maybe I need to performa a leak down test) any thoughts on this?

One last thing, at idle when the engine is at full operating temp I can remove the oil fill tube and within 5 seconds the engine will begin to heavily lope/ stumble and act like its about to die. As soon as I reinstall the oil fill cap the engine goes back to idling "normal" (rough but its current normal) I'm sure this is a big hint towards something but I have no idea towards what.

At this point I'm at a loss. I could keep throwing money at it but I'm a college student that has to take care of a family, and now loss of my wife so I don't have the spare cash to keep trying new parts, any help is appreciated in trying to figure this out.

Thank you
Randy

 

Sorry for the long post but should also add I replaced injector 1 with a new replacement.

Also the idle is rough but the car doesn't appear to have lost power (never was much to begin with and my wife drove it mainly so I haven't noticed any loss anyway). Car cruises nicely at 75mph on the highway (speed limit here) no jerking, bucking or general engine issues at any speeds really just idle.

I traced all the wires from the coil packs, injectors and various sensors around the valve cover I could find and none of them looked chaffed or to have any issues.

 

Is the car in time?

150 PSI sounds low for an N/A car, that is about where I would expect to compression numbers on a turbo car, not yours.

I would recommend taking the car to a MINI specialist, or the dealership that can properly diagnose what the issue is instead of throwing money at it. With as electronically controlled as your car is, any sensor, solenoid, and controller should essentially store a code.

Good Luck,
Nick
Detroit Tuned

 

Very sorry about your wife's passing.

I'm with nkfry get your MINI to the dealer, if not for a fix at least for a correct diagnosis.

 

Thank you.

I called the dealer this afternoon to setup a time to have it looked at. I'd still be curious to see if anyone has any suggestions for me to try.

Save $190 diagnostic fee.

 

The idle getting rough when the oil filler is open is a normal thing. Just about any car that actually measures air flow going into the intake, and has the crankcase plumbed to the intake, will do that. You're adding unmetered air into the intake by way of the PCV system, and generally cars idle poorly when they have lean mixtures like that.

I don't know what your problem could be, though.

You have one new coil--have you tried swapping it to a different cylinder? If the new one is on cylinder 1, try swapping it with any other. If it's on some other cylinder, try swapping it with the #1 coil. Also try swapping the new injector with one of the other ones. Not at the same time, mind you, because you want to only check one change at a time.

See if the problem follows the coil or the injector. It sounds unlikely in this case, but it is possible.

You're correct that the carbon buildup is rare on engines that do not have direct injection, so your "Justa" shouldn't have that issue.

You could need a new valve cover. The PCV valve is certainly a suspect, but as you said that's an expensive thing to replace. I don't know how you would test the valve, though.