Hello everyone! MINI has lost power and out of warranty. As I was snooping around, I found a disconnected vacuum hose next to the turbocharger. I plugged it to the turbocharger and upon test driving I can hear the turbo intake sound once again! Bad news is that upon accelerating, the engine starts to misfire and backfire like it was about to stall. Car runs normal as soon as I remove it but no boost. Any idea why? What is that vacuum hose for? Not sure if it was intentionally disconnected or what. The hose is still pretty tight around the fitting. Thanks in advanced.

 

The hose that connects to the vacuum pump is a source for the wastegate actuation solenoid, which comes back around to the wastegate to regulate drive pressure (what creates boost).

It needs to be in place, you need to find a reputable shop that can diagnose the issue. It could be as simple as reattaching the line and resetting the adaptations, or you could be looking at needing a turbo because the wastegate components aren't available separately. (worst case scenario) But there are also a lot of variables between easy and hard, best to take it to a specialist.

 

Thanks for responding. I tried re-attaching it and resetting the ECU but did not work. I noticed also that the aux fan activates more after driving when the hose is detached but not when it's connected.