Each morning when I crank my 2013 Mini Cooper (non-s), it idles sparratically for about 5 seconds, then sits at a high idle (about 1200 - 1500 RPM) for about 30 seconds before dropping to about 800 RPM, its normal idle. This really only happens after the car sits for a whileans the worst is after it sits overnight, but it always takes some amount of time if the car has been sitting for over an hour or two (estimated). Generally if it hasn’t been sitting long, it won’t idle sparratically, and it only takes about 10 seconds or so to idle normal. Some mornings, or after it’s been a day or two without being cranked, it will take closer to a minute to idle normally.

But what I’m really concerned about is: if I don’t let it take the time to reach normal idle, then it feels like the car doesn’t drive as smooth until the next time it’s put into park or killed and restarted. It seems like it shifts harder, shifts slower, and it’s more “jerky” when accelerating. My fiancée actually noticed the same thing last time she drove it and mentioned it to me. I had notice this already but just gotten used to it.

Does anyone have any clue why this could be happening or what I can do to fix it?

 

The higher idle is normal, it's a warm up thing. Does it do it when cold more than warm? It sounds normal to me. My mini does the same thing. More so when it's very cold 15 degrees in the morning, I just let it warm up for a minute or two to get the oil heated and moving around.

 

Based on my experience with other cars the behavior you report with your Mini does not appear to be normal. Modern car engines with their precise fuel and air metering generally run pretty darn good cold. In fact in most cases the auto maker says no idling to wam up the engine just drive off and take it easy until the engine is fully warmed up.

Now my habit over the years is to give the engine a bit of warm up time. My "timer" is the secondary air injection system, the pump. When the pump shuts off and RPMs drop to near normal hot idle level I know the engine controller has gone into closed loop mode and the engine is being fueled even more precisely than it was before, and it was being fueled pretty darn precisely then.

But even if I do not follow my normal cold start/idle warm up but drive off right away the engine is still quite tractable and I really notice no issues or problems.

It has been too long ago and I forget some details but my 2002 VW Golf TDi engine was acting up at cold start. Nothing gruesome or horrific it just wasn't its normal self.

No CEL. No signs of any trouble after a cold start, once the engine was up to temperature.

I used an OBD2 code reader/data logger/viewer to monitor engine telemetry in real time and spotted the coolant temperature was not right. It was reading higher than it should have been based on ambient temperature and the intake air temperature being reported. I had the coolant temperature sensor replaced and the engine was back in top form.

Without an OBD2 code reader/data viewre and the knowldge of how to use it and what to look for you probably wnat to write down the conditions/steps you use to produce the behavior and have the car checked out by a qualified Mini tech. In fact he might have seen this before -- general rule of cars is nothing is new, it has been seen before, unless it hasn't... -- and can advise you as to what is going on.