My wife was driving her cooper S today and she was going up a hill and it shut off without warning. No engine light came on, it just shut off. She was able to restart it without any trouble. What could cause this?

 

Check the battery connections for corrosion and tightness. The computer needs a "steady" voltage supply and any interruption will cause the computed to shut down the car. Usually either, or both, the battery connections aren't tight or tight enough.

 

Same thing just happened to my wife LOL

 

Was it in limp mode?

 

I don't know, I pulled the codes and nothing came up. I think it's just a piece of crap car. I'd never buy another Mini, that's for sure.

 

Going to move this to the Stock Problems/Issues area.

What year car, how many miles, first owner?

Limp mode is when the EML come on and the car will not exceed 2500 RPMs (or there about)

 

08 Cooper S convertible. 82k miles. No we just bought it about a month ago. The EML light doesn't come on. It revs up ok, just runs like crap at low RPM's.

 

At those miles; Plugs, wires, and coils have all seen better days if original equipment. Have you checked the air filter, is it clean? Injectors could be dirty. The crank pulley could be going that is not spinning the SC and alternator correctly. Long distance diagnosing is not finite.

Buy the car from a storefront lot or a full service car dealer? Did you have a PPI preformed if purchased from an individual?

The MINI is a complex car with multiple sensors. If the car was not maintained well then the result are issues.

 

I put new plugs in, didn't make a difference. It has an aftermarket filter and I bought the cleaner for it but haven't done it yet. Plan to put some fuel system cleaner in it this week. And going to take the supercharger out next week to change the oil so I will look over the crank pulley.

I bought it from a guy in Wilmington, he was filthy rich so I thought he would have maintained it, but by the looks of the oil color and how black the tranny fluid was I think I might have been wrong. I didn't have an inspection done before buying because the guy had multiple people coming to look at the car and we literally got there an hour before the next person was to show up so trying to schedule something at a garage on such short notice would have been difficult. I knew the car ran rough, but I was thinking that it was something easy like plugs. I also replaced the chain tensioner and that helped a lot with the noise but didn't do much to make it run smoother. And when it shut off on my wife for no reason I really got concerned because it doesn't even seem like it's safe to drive.

 

Unfortunately for you, your poorly maintained MINI is not a reflection of the car in general, as you seem to have alluded to. There are plenty of us with high mileage MINIs, some in the hundreds of thousands of miles, that have been properly maintained and operate trouble free. Like any other car, it will require maintenance and servicing when the need arises. Lucky for you, this forum has well documented volumes of information on how to deal with most any issue you'll encounter with your MINI. YouTube is also a valuable resource with tons of DIY videos available.

My recommendation for you is to scour through these forums and learn about the car and how to fix things yourself, which will save thousands of dollars. Based on how it seems to have been neglected, there could be any one of dozens of reasons that your MINI is running rough. You're going to have to systematically rule things out step by step.

In your case, replacing your fuel filter might be a good place to start.

 

Well it seems as if the people with high miles and few problems are the exception. I have read through this and other forums extensively and it seems like the same problems plague most of them. I agree that the one I bought might not have been maintained well, but to be honest most people don't maintain their cars but they still run ok. I've seen people with Hondas and Toyotas neglect their cars to the point where I'm surprised they run at all, but they do and they run well! I'm not saying Japanese is better, but just saying that at 80k miles even if it was neglected it should be easy to get it back into shape. But that's hard to do when it won't even show an engine code to tell me what's wrong.

 

As far as I know, no manufacturer has OBDII sensors on plugs, plug wires, filters, pulleys, chain tensioners, gaskets, pipe clamps, etc.

You bought a used car. You stated that the car was not running well before you purchased and from past posts it appears the car was not maintained well with comments on color of oil. The question in my mind is whether the car is a POS or the person that neglected that car?? Not to say there are not MINI lemons.

You have not mentioned how much you paid for the car. I have purchased my share of used cars. I try to research the make and model so I know what to look for before I even see the car. If there are questions, I either walk or expect to purchase the car at a discount. If you pay top money for a car and you later find out it was not maintained well you have a reason to complain, albeit even though you did not have a PPI. If you paid top dollar for a poor running car, well . . . . . . . .

 

Generally, if a problem doesn't exist, one doesn't post, so for every person that posts on an issue, there are a hundred-times more who are quiet because they are not having issues. Then there are those who, even though they are not having issues, offer advice to others, such as my advice to you to change your fuel filter.

If there's not a code, I wouldn't complain, as there's probably NOT something seriously wrong with your car. Any engine needs to have air, fuel, oil and a properly functioning electric system to run properly. Start with the basics, such as changing your oil and replacing your air and fuel filters, then re-evaluate from there. Sometimes, something as simple as that will make a huge difference. Have you had your battery tested? How did the plugs look that you took out of the engine? The condition of used plugs is a great way to tell what's going on in the combustion chamber.

 

I got it for a good price. He was asking below private party value but I offered $1,000 less due to it not running properly and he accepted. And yes, I understand that OBDII systems can't tell you "spark plug one is bad" but any car I've ever owned, and idled as bad as this one does, the engine light is on and some kind of code would lead me to figure out that spark plug one is bad. That's what's frustrating. I mean the car literally shut off while my wife was in motion, and not a single code came up!

And I'm not going to say that all Mini's are junk, but reading through the forums there seems to be a hell of a lot of very common and expensive problems with these vehicles. Problems with the cvt's, with the flywheels, the power steering pump and "fan", high pressure fuel pumps, timing chain tensioners and guide rails, supercharger gears, strut towers, fan resistors, crank pulleys, turbo systems, airbag sensors, etc... And these problems went on for years and years without BMW doing much about it. I thought I was ok because I bought the last year that was supercharged, with a 6 speed auto, which seems to be the best combination for having the least amount of problems.

 

It had these high performance plugs in it, I can't remember the brand but it's something I'd never heard of before. But they looked ok. I put in NGK Iridium plugs. Didn't make one bit of difference. I will clean the air filter tonight, and will change out the fuel filter as well. Hopefully that will help.

 

There are ways to test systems but this entails electrical and mechanical testing devices along the knowledge of what to do with the results. There are things I will do on my car and then there a things I will not touch on my car. For those items I would go to a shop. I will send you a PM with some info.

 

Don't give up on your Mini !!!

Like above have said..probably not something serious. And these cars can be VERY " finicky"

IMO.....I would bring it to the Mini dealer. I know its very expensive, but they can diagnose pretty quickly the problem.

Since you got the car for $ 1000.00 less than asking. I cannot imagine it would be more than a few hundred dollars to diagnose and maybe a few more to fix.

Once its all set....you will LOVE IT !!!!

Good Luck

 

I don't know. Once I get the engine issue figured out there is still a transmission issue that I suspect is the valve body, but who can really tell because I just read through about 10 pages of posts on this transmission and it seems like sometimes switching it out works, sometimes it doesn't. Plus my wife informed me today that the AC stopped working. Lovely. I know you guys like these cars, but to me this car is the worst car I've ever bought, and I've had about 30 cars in the past 25 years.

 

Wow, you've gone through a lot of cars without keeping them very long!

My 2010 MINI I purchased new and I haven't had any problems with it. My other two daily drivers, a Volvo wagon and a Ford truck, are 19 and twenty years old, both with over 200,000 miles. I do regular maintenance on all of them and replace parts as they wear, all have been trouble free.

 

Well currently I have 4 cars, so yeah it's not so much that I don't keep them long, it's just that I like to have more than one at a time

I have had 5 different Volvos, 4 of them wagons. They are great! I have an XC90 currently with 225k miles and it runs and drives like new.

 

Have you checked the earth strap? Maybe that has become loose. Sometimes can cause an issue. It's a long shot but a quick check that could be simple.

 

I understand that feeling.

The Mini sure is a test of patience.

 

well it sounds like you have some knowledge of working on cars , and yes a Mini will test your patience alot , but they are fun when working right ( or even mostly right )

as far as it cutting out and restarting it would sound like power or fuel issue but i would think fuel problem would set a code of some sort , so that leaves power , if you lost Batt + entirely it would not show a code for it would have done a reset on coming back up .I would look at all power and ground connections and go from there

but doing all the other maintenance items is a good idea as well .