I have an '03 with 54k on the odo, and it does this every time I start it up. I was going to replace the air filter plugs and coil pack, but it sounds like it would be to no avail.

 

My '06 just started this week. This is its first summer.

 

When mine idles is sounds like its gonna kill alot.

 

Mine just started doing this a month ago. It usually appears when I get in the car in the morning after the car has been sitting all night. I took it to the dealer and they said that it was an ECU software problem and that an adjustment would correct the issue. After two weeks, the problem started up again. I have yet to take the car tot he dealer again. i just don't have the time right now. And yes, I am using 93 octane (BP).

 

2006 MCS - Automatic. no addons
Had this problem start at about 5K miles, in december. Began on drive home from work. after driving about 1 mile and coming up to light on highway. lost power, running extremely rough, almost could not get off highway. Service engine soon light came on. Problem cleared after restarting. (light eventually cleared after multiple starts). After that, the car had trouble starting after sitting overnight or about 8 hours during the day. doesn't matter if hot or cold ambient air temp. Car would take longer to crank, and then either ran rough and sometimes stalled. driving to first stop sign, the car would roun rough again and almost stall. ONce driving, there was no problem. Car had no trouble accelerating or starting /stopping once having driven for a few hundred yards. Today I again had the power-loss problem while driving....car would not go above 2000 RPM. Service engine soon light came on, too. restarting the car reset the problem. Dealer said to try shell gas..I had been using sunoco. sounds like a noise glitch in the computer (from my digital electronic engineering perspective) or a sensor getting stuck.

 

06 MCSa with 2300 miles and chokes when it sits for a couple of days.

 

This sounds slightly different from the more common problem of the car almost stalling on startup. This sounds a lot more serious. How old's the car? Perhaps it's lemon law time? Or at least time to find a better dealer. Maybe call MINI NA and complain.

 

I believe that this thread is closely related to this thread:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=96609
since I am experiencing both problems. Maybe others are also having both problems.

The car was manufactured end of august '06/start of sept '06. and I took delivery in early september. I just hit 16K miles.

 

Sounds like a fuel map problem to me. ECU software or "reflash" is a temporary upgrade b/c the ECU will end up overwritting the map anyways, especially if you reset the ecu. You will just end up having to keep returning your mini to the shop. A piggyback or standalone is the way to go. You wont have to worry about the ecu overwritting b/c with a piggyback it will allow the OEM ECU to control the fuel, timing, and/or boost to a certain rate followed by the aftermarket ECU taking over from that point on. Is there a piggyback or standalone in the aftermarket for mini's?

 

The cure to cold start sputtering found?!

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=105627

What do you guys think?

 

I have had the same problem with cold starting the Mini S, We use octane 95-98 her in the EU, and i noticed that the problem was occuring less if I went to fill up at Shell with their super-unleaded97 fuel in stead of Texaco with their super-unleaded98 the problems whent down like 50%

Last wednesday I installed my new Invidia catbacksys and it is totally gone now, the car even starts up much quicker, it used to take the startmotor 3-4 times turning, now it's 0.5-1 turns

So it's probably a backpressure issue !!

Hope this helps

Greetz Barry

 

That is very interesting. I believe 95 octane in Europe is around 91 octane in the US. I usually use 93 octane so that's probably like your 98 but I never found that it made a difference in the problem.

But I've always thought that the root problem was the ethanol in our gas. I'd be surprised if you have ethanol-ized gasoline over there... but do you?

Your new cat-back that eliminated the problem is incredible though. I don't really know much about cat-backs or backpressure, but is something like that really the solution to our problems? And is there a way to increase (or are we decreasing?) backpressure without a new cat-back?

 

I was not revering to changing from 95 to 98 octane, but changing gas brand !
I even whent down 1 octane RON from 98 to 97, changed from Texaco98 to Shell 97(called V-power) which after some research on the net i just found out that it is rated as 95RON
So 3 Ron lower than i used to it turns out :impatient

To put it real simple, with changing the standard exhaust to invidia has decreased backpressure, meaning the engine has less effort to make with pushing out the exhaust gas, meaning being able to rev up quicker/easier.

The cheapest way would be the one-ball, but not sure because the standard system probably uses reflection dampers and invidia uses absorption dampers and also the piping is bigger, and one-ball means just cutting of one of the 2 dampers !

Greetz Barry

 

I've had the start - stall- restart problem with my '03 MCS since I got it. I've tried the "turn the key and wait" idea - no help. The service advisor recommended I go to 87 octane regular, telling me the knock sensor would protect the engine! I don't think I'll be doing that, I'll just turn the key again and go........

 

I used to get the stall on the initial start back when my car was new, then i went to the dealer and requested a software update and it was fine...until now. Its back so it looks like its time to get another update.

 

Or everybody buys a catback system, if your not doing it for the sound, and the starting problem, Stainless steel is a good investment, no more rusted exhaust

And try a different gas station for a while, see what happens.

Greetz Barry

 

I've tried:

- Dealership Reflash
- SEVERAL Different Gas Stations and Brands
- Catback Exhaust
- OEM stock plugs / Denso Plugs / Back to stock
- with/without Unichip

I STILL HAVE THE STUMBLES

Of these, the one that seemed to help the most was changing gas stations. That was short lived, though. Now it makes absolutely no difference where I fill up.

Next up:

- Header Install (not really doing it to fix the stumbles, but we'll see)
- Aftermarket flash

 

This problem is bumming me out. My stumble is getting more annoying. The other day it really stalled out while starting; up until now it just threatened to stall but always kept going. And I've found that if I stop driving maybe within 5 seconds of first driving, the engine will stumble (usually once I start in the morning or whatever, I don't stop for about 1/4 mile (long driveway) which is usually long enough to warm up).

Sigh. I'm beginning to think I should have gone with my second choice, an M3. Used M3s are beginning to look tempting. Or maybe the new 1 series when it comes out in the spring.

 

Your car sounds like the bypass valve is sticking. There are very specific fault codes for these and should be remedied very easily.

Good luck,

Chad

 

It's the ethanol!

My dealer, MINI of the Main Line in PA, just confirmed to me that the ethanol additives in our gasoline are causing problem starting the engine when it's a little cool out. This makes sense as my problems started when ethanol began to be put into the local gasoline back in the spring. I imagine in the fall when ethanol is removed my problems will disappear.

Apparently MINI/BMW has tested ethanol mixtures up to 10% and the engines run fine, but some of the local mixtures run up to 17% or more ethanol which is just too much for our sensitive high performance engines. Unfortunately they don't have a fix yet, unless perhaps upgrading to a 2007 MINI is a fix. Although I heard (perhaps mistakenly) that the new MINIs have their own more severe stalling problems...

 

2005 Cooper S - after several firmware upgrades, mine still stalling at startup in the morning. I only use 93 octane BP

 

My car only stalls when it's hot outside. Imagine that. No problems in the winter.

 

I hate to even say this, but...

Imagine how fast the problem might be resolved if someone had an accident and blamed it on the stalling/stuttering problem. With pressure thru a mega-buck settlement and/or the NHTSA, I bet MINI/BMW would throw an engineer or two on the problem and there would be a fix...

After reading a zillion posts on the subject, it seems like the problem is pervasive enough for MINI to do something about it. Are you listening MINI ?

 

Does anyone else have a VACUUM / BOOST guage??????

Watch what the car does when this happens!

Mine would go from a normal idle of around 18 VAC to about 0 during the stumble, and the back to normal.

Maybe it is the Bypass valve afterall???

 

Can't be the valve, I filled her up with the Texaco petrol again and the stalling is back but not as much as before the Invidia !

Greetz Barry