Hi everyone... I haven't been here in a while because my 2010 R56 "Justa" (auto trans) has been running pretty smoothly until the other day when the AC started acting up. The car has 60k miles, driven maybe 3k miles a year. It's driven daily but under a mile. Over the past week or so, I've noticed the AC not cooling very well. This is the deep south and the temps have been in the mid-90s, so I excused it. Two days ago I was stuck in traffic for an hour and that's when I noticed the AC on the passenger side is blowing warmish air, and the driver's side is barely cooling. AC set on 60, recirc on or off, Max on or off, the same thing. Compressor kicks on, but it's not cooling. So tonight my father decided to look at it. We never got to the AC part because he said the car was low on oil. We picked up some 5W-30 Castrol synthetic. He added a quart, felt it was still low and added a second. The dipstick from hell (seriously MINI could have done a better job on those) shows the oil halfway on the indented red part of the dipstick. The oil was last changed 1 1/2 years ago. I know I know. Financial reasons have prevented me from bringing it in. The car has barely been driven so I didn't think much of it. It's not burning it off. It was just low. Anyway. After a lecture, I started the car to head home. The car bounced, spat and sputtered, then stalled. Started it again. tach bounced from 500 RPM to 1100. Very rough. I stepped on the gas and let it run for maybe a minute at 1200RPM...it was fine. Once I was idling again, same thing. Tried backing out of the driveway, bounced all the way down, then stalled. All we did was add two quarts of oil. The last person to change the oil was MINI of Charleston and they put in 5W-30. Dad decided we should take it around the block. Ran a little rough but fine until we stopped. Then it bounced all over the place and almost stalled. At this point, I realized I had turned off the AC before we added the oil because dad didn't want me running the compressor if it was low on refrig. When I turned the AC back on, the car idled happily back at 800RPM. Turned the AC off and we bounced. At this point, the gas light came on. It did feel like something was in the gas, so we drove to the gas station on a wing and a prayer. Dad wondered if maybe there was some condensation in the tank because the car sits out in the sun all the time. We filled it. Drove back. And the car is running better at idle, still a little rough. Felt some jerkiness at low speeds. The speed limit in our development is 20MPH and the gas station was only a few blocks away, so it didn't go far. We turned the AC off again, and it appears to run the same. A little rough. There wasn't that sudden tach drop like there was earlier when I shut the AC off. Money is a major factor right now so I can't just bring it in somewhere. And Mini of Charleston is 120 miles away. I don't trust it to make it there even if I had the money.

I'm afraid to drive it now. Any ideas what is going on?

BTW...I posted this in the incorrect forum earlier and I'm unable to delete the original post (r56 Hatch Talk 2007+)

 

Check the oil cap and the dipstick again. It seems like a vacuum leak. Also, you should drive it more often to keep it alive.....also, even if you drive less, oil changes are needed based on mileage OR date. Whichever comes first.