MCS R56 misfire questions
#1
04-23-2018, 04:46 PM
MCS R56 misfire questions
I’ve owned my 2008 Cooper S for about 6 months. It currently has 74k miles. It’s been awesome and I love it! Sadly about 2-3 weeks ago my check engine light came on and I lost power. Here’s the story.
I’m pushing the car pretty hard. It’s topping about 85-95mph WOT on a long flat straight. All of a sudden all the power is lost, and it sounds like it’s misfiring. I get it back home and plug in a code reader to find out what it’s doing.
The code P0300 and P0301 are showing. That is a random misfire and cylinder #1 misfire. I end up clearing the code and swapping around the coil packs to narrow the broken part down. The codes remained the same. Next thought was spark plugs.
All 4 plugs looked normal in color, but the furthest left one had a little bit of oil on it. This could be due to a dumb mistake when I ran the car with the oil cap off not realizing. This was the first couple weeks of owning it. Oil went everywhere
Anyways, 4 new plugs later and the problem was still there. I decided to put some injector cleaner and run it about 40 miles. A new code popped up; P0303, a cylinder #3 misfire code. I also ran about 2/3 a can of Seafoam through the intake. It was a good smoke show, but still the same problem.
Its also getting really good gas mileage oddly. I used to average about 22 - 24mpg and now it’s around 35 - 40mpg in the city.
I’m not exactly the wealthiest man, so I’d rather not “just
take it to a shop.” I have knowledge around engines and tools to fix things.
My question is, what should’ve next to do?
I’ve read about these motors having a problem with sludge and carbon on the intake valves. I’ve called around for some quotes and Mini specialists are quoting about $450 to take off the intake manifold and clean it. How hard would it be to do this myself? I’ve see a couple guides online, but I’ve not done much to the engine bay so I’m not super familiar.
Should I do this or should I try to change injectors? Is it good to maybe do both? I’d rather not throw money at things that are not needed due to my limited budget.
I’m pushing the car pretty hard. It’s topping about 85-95mph WOT on a long flat straight. All of a sudden all the power is lost, and it sounds like it’s misfiring. I get it back home and plug in a code reader to find out what it’s doing.
The code P0300 and P0301 are showing. That is a random misfire and cylinder #1 misfire. I end up clearing the code and swapping around the coil packs to narrow the broken part down. The codes remained the same. Next thought was spark plugs.
All 4 plugs looked normal in color, but the furthest left one had a little bit of oil on it. This could be due to a dumb mistake when I ran the car with the oil cap off not realizing. This was the first couple weeks of owning it. Oil went everywhere
Anyways, 4 new plugs later and the problem was still there. I decided to put some injector cleaner and run it about 40 miles. A new code popped up; P0303, a cylinder #3 misfire code. I also ran about 2/3 a can of Seafoam through the intake. It was a good smoke show, but still the same problem.
Its also getting really good gas mileage oddly. I used to average about 22 - 24mpg and now it’s around 35 - 40mpg in the city.
I’m not exactly the wealthiest man, so I’d rather not “just
take it to a shop.” I have knowledge around engines and tools to fix things.
My question is, what should’ve next to do?
I’ve read about these motors having a problem with sludge and carbon on the intake valves. I’ve called around for some quotes and Mini specialists are quoting about $450 to take off the intake manifold and clean it. How hard would it be to do this myself? I’ve see a couple guides online, but I’ve not done much to the engine bay so I’m not super familiar.
Should I do this or should I try to change injectors? Is it good to maybe do both? I’d rather not throw money at things that are not needed due to my limited budget.
#3
04-23-2018, 06:30 PM
I have a very similar problem, and tried similar steps to fix the misfire fault with no success. So, I took the car to a local Indy shop. They put their scanner on it (I don't have that type of scanner). It turned out my #2 fuel injector had in intermittent fault. They replaced the injector all was well again.
Whatever you do tell the shop you only want them to diagnose the fault; change the part yourself. The markup on the fuel injector was 200%!
Whatever you do tell the shop you only want them to diagnose the fault; change the part yourself. The markup on the fuel injector was 200%!
#4
04-23-2018, 06:54 PM
While waiting for this post to go online, I went to autozone to buy a compression tester that actually fit the Cooper.
The numbers seemed normal and didn’t leakdown either. They read from left to right; 165, 160, 155, 155
I guess next stop would be to find someone with that fancier scanner to check the injectors. While the intake manifold is off, I guess it doesn’t hurt to do both the injections and the valve cleaning.
Anyone know of some good deals or recommendations for the injectors? It could be good possiblity to upgrade too!
Currently I have K&N intake, resonator delete, straight through muffler, blow off valve, and a catless downpipe sitting in my room. I imagine some better injectors wouldn’t hurt
The numbers seemed normal and didn’t leakdown either. They read from left to right; 165, 160, 155, 155
I guess next stop would be to find someone with that fancier scanner to check the injectors. While the intake manifold is off, I guess it doesn’t hurt to do both the injections and the valve cleaning.
Anyone know of some good deals or recommendations for the injectors? It could be good possiblity to upgrade too!
Currently I have K&N intake, resonator delete, straight through muffler, blow off valve, and a catless downpipe sitting in my room. I imagine some better injectors wouldn’t hurt
#5
04-24-2018, 09:24 PM
Figure I'll update this just in case anyone else has this problem another resource will pop up.
As of now, my R56S is fixed! I pulled the ignition coils out again to do a better inspection. While squeezing and bending the rubber on one I noticed it was very easily pushed in, as if the rubber was thinner. I bent it a little more and it teared slightly open to reveal the white area where the spark had been arcing though to the block. As a temporary test I wrapped it in electrical tape and viola! No misfire. Of course the tape isn't durable enough to last more than a couple minutes, but it gave me an answer!
I called autozone and found a 4 pack of the coils for $170 with a lifetime warranty. I picked them up and installed them in the parking lot. The drive home was perfect!
I've heard autozone coils don't last long, but if they fail on me I just pop them out and go get a new set for free.
Anyways, that's my adventure. Hopefully you don't have to also deal with misfiring minis but if you do, hopefully it's as easy as this!
As of now, my R56S is fixed! I pulled the ignition coils out again to do a better inspection. While squeezing and bending the rubber on one I noticed it was very easily pushed in, as if the rubber was thinner. I bent it a little more and it teared slightly open to reveal the white area where the spark had been arcing though to the block. As a temporary test I wrapped it in electrical tape and viola! No misfire. Of course the tape isn't durable enough to last more than a couple minutes, but it gave me an answer!
I called autozone and found a 4 pack of the coils for $170 with a lifetime warranty. I picked them up and installed them in the parking lot. The drive home was perfect!
I've heard autozone coils don't last long, but if they fail on me I just pop them out and go get a new set for free.
Anyways, that's my adventure. Hopefully you don't have to also deal with misfiring minis but if you do, hopefully it's as easy as this!
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