Hi I have a 2009 MCS with 85,000km on it (I purchased it used at 74k) and it's never been carbon cleaned. Last season I suffered from intermittent hesitation in certain RPM ranges and put a can of seafoam through the vacuum line, oil, and gas before my next oil change.

The seafoam in the vacuum line produced a *lot* of smoke and the car ran smoother after. Recently I tuned using an Alta Accessport and had the occasional ping/puff of smoke from the exhaust and put some more seafoam in. That helped it doesn't ping anymore but does suffer from intermittent hesitation again.

I'm not the most handy person so I don't know how to actually check if I need a walnut blast, but from my symptoms above, searching on here and reading online it sounds like a pretty safe bet at my mileage.

The dealership is asking for $475CAD to do it which seems reasonable. I track my car once a month all spring/summer/fall so performance is important to me.

How often do you walnut blast? Does what I wrote above make sense? Is there any easy way to check with my limited knowledge of how these things work?

Thanks!

 

$475 is a good price for walnut shell blasting. Seafoam won't touch the carbon build up once it is set in place.

Get it blasted.

 

If the carbon build up is bad enough Seafoam doesn't help much at all. We've had cars that it takes us 2-3 passes over the valves to get them clean.

We charge $375 plus intake gaskets for a carbon blast FWIW.

 

Go ahead Walnut blast, then seafoam a lot to clean piston heads. be sure to not get the engine too hot. Seafoam is often not recommended because it can knock loose bits that end up in the cylinders and if it hits a fully hot cat its not great, but if the pistons need cleaning and its been blasted hit away. if you get it clean seafoam or what-ever every 3,000-5,000 and change oil after. set up your seafoam with a spray bottle or something so you dont lock up anything. Do it several times letting the engine cool again. Invest in a snake cam to look inside the engine, If you get a good system going it will go a long way to keep the engine going. at some point about 100,000 I would do the exhausts as well and check the valve seals

 

If you can, get the intake to manifold cleaned out, including inter cooler, best to learn how if you have a garage

 

i've been getting a string of mini's coming into are dealer! which we are VW / audi dealer so we instantly have to turn them down! doesn't bother me because I've been making a lot of extra money on the side!! keep in mind the nearest mini dealer is like 125 plus miles in any direction!!! I've decarb three minis now ! and the last one had 73k original miles nothing done do it! ended up doing waterpump / timing And more! but the way I do it being that it's just at my shop at the house' i use a flashlight shop vac Can's of seafoam compressed air! teeth brushes brass brushes Little mirrors fee extras thing ! it may sound really ghetto' however the brass brush will eat rate through the carbon without wrecking any of the components! very time-consuming but get's the job done! think some times dealers/shops are just crazy costly on carbon clean up jobs! but as far as how many miles is it etc. don't think there is a perfect mileage to tell you!

 

Thanks everyone! I'm on vacation at the moment but when I return I'll book an appointment with my dealer to have it done.

Cheers!

 

I've got a 2008 JCW and bought it used with about 10K mines on it back in 2011. Here it is 2016 and it has 40K now so I thought since I was having some work done on it I might as well have my mechanic go ahead and take a look at it and let me know what he thought. Well, he called me up and told me to come down and take a look. I thought maybe it was pretty bad but to my amazement, it had very little carbon build up. He asked me what my secret was and I had no explanation for him. I don't use an oil cc and I use Mobil 1 syn-oil but extend my changes to 7500+ miles, so I guess I am just lucky. I went ahead and had him walnut blast since it was already taken apart and watched him as he did it. It was literally about 2-3 blasts per cylinder. I do get my MINI regularly up to 120mph+ just about every other time I take my MINI out. Recently have been able to get in even faster speeds since I added my modified front splitter - 140mph+. Maybe that has an affect on the lack of carbon build Up? I have no idea but I don't expect to have to walnut blast for quite a while.

 

From the diagrams I've seen all direct injection engines will eventually succumb to carbon buildup as fuel is no longer being sprayed onto the backside of the intake valves which normally keeps the intake ports clean.

I don't know the previous owner of my vehicle so I can't speak for their driving habits, it was taken care of the car is in immaculate condition. Driving slow seems to be a contributing factor on how quickly it builds. Once it's accumulated walnut blasting is the best way to remove it. I definitely push it on our track so I don't foresee it being a regular problem going forward but it will likely be something we'll all have to do at semi regular intervals for optimal performance!

 

Could you notice a difference with the front splitter? I've been thinking about getting one.

 

Yes, adding the MINI Challenge splitter gave me some high speed stability over having nothing but the JCW aero front end. Still at about 120mph the front end starts getting a little loose so I added a M7 carbon fibre splitter that I had laying around from my R53 that never got installed. It immensely increased the downforce and now it is rock solid at 140mph+. That is about the limit for me in my MINI.

 

Same symptoms along with a rough cold start. I did a walnut blast on our 2009 S . We did it at 65k. Feels a bit better. The HPFP was needed though. Good price. Do it.

 

I found this thread because I was searching the average cost for walnut blasting.

I get emails from Global MINI in North Atlanta (not my store but I looked online there once) and they had service coupons. One was for a Fuel System Cleaning. The description mentions carbon build up and it even has a picture of an air compressor with walnut media. Says $149. There's no way.....

 

Just tried a new product from CRC called GDI TDI valve cleaner. I've done blasting before but this seems a good in between to keep the valves clean.

 

wait how did you use that ? on a turbo car?

 

like where did you spray it from pre-turbo or post

 

Looks like it's this product:

http://crcindustries.com/auto/intake-valve-cleaner.php

It would be sprayed after the MAF and turbo just like spray seafoam.

 

Which dealer in Canada offer 475 for carbon cleaning?

I'm just wondering since my was $600. :(

 

Depending on where you're located in Canadia you could always take a leisurely ride out to see us in Michigan, we only charge $375 for a carbon blast with a side of comic relief during the day.

 

MINI Halifax, 4h labour at $120/h.

Booked an appointment yesterday for the end of the month! I asked about intake gaskets and they said they replace them. What do you charge for that?

 

So are you saying that using this product was equivalent to a walnut shell blast or just a bandage that bought you a few thousand more miles between the still necessary blast treatment? I think you are saying that it helped a bit but wasn't a final solution.

 

The blasting is $375 total, plus $18 for intake gaskets at no additional labor.

 

I have a 2011 mcs n18 engine and have only done the crc cleaner/gun brush cleaning and now have 140 k miles still running smooth.

 

Just had the walnut blast done, $600CAD after tax. It was a lot worse then I expected. I've recently seafoamed twice which leads me to believe it does absolutely nothing for caked on carbon.



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So now that it is all cleaned up, how does it run? A little better? A lot better? Please do tell...