My parents came down to day for a visit. So I am taking my mom for a ride in MIB. I am driving and MIB hesitates and sputters. The engine died and then when I re-started, the check engine light says on and the DSC light is glowing. I did a quick visual check and the coolant fluid is a touch low. Yet the temperature gague never got above the normal operating temperature. I got MIB home (was at Dan Jones and 36) I am afraid to drive it.

A question on the coolant... What brand to use?

 

Any green kind should be fine. Stay away from the orange. I bet you had a misfire, the ECU will probably just need to be reset. I've seen that happen a couple times. It should be fine to drive to the dealership.

 

MrsDiff (Bobbi) spoke with one of the guys at D&R and they asked about recent refueling and tightening the gas cap. We double checked it and it clicked so maybe it is a loose gas cap issue?

 

SES or engine malfunction indicator on the center dash?

 

sounds exactly like the supercharger bypass valve issues we had......they diagnosed and fixed it within 1.5 hrs. Call your MINI dealer and get MIB fixed. Good luck

 

He is got a MCC not a MCSC

 

Actually it is a MC not a MCC. I love my TinTop MIB doesn't have a sunroof either!

Apparently it was the gas cap. MrsDiff said that the couldn't remember if she heard the cap click before taking off after fueling.

I was driving MIB and the check engine light went out, sputter is gone, All seems back to normal.

 

yikes, I don't like to hear this on such a brand new car

 

DrDiff,

I can understand the check engine light coming on, but your car running poorly with a lose cap kind of baffles me. There may be more going on there. I hope I'm wrong though. Seems I often am.

Chuck

 

wait...wait....wait.....doesnt MIB have the new 'check gas cap' light?

 

I don't understand why/how a loose gas cap could cause any of the symptoms described. Would someone more knowledgable shed some light ?

 

Its not unusual to get a check engine light on any car, not just a Mini, when the gas cap is loose. Same thing has happened on my VW once or twice... not the sputter and die, just the engine light. I'd take it to the dealer, you're under warranty so why not??? Maybe an O2 sensor... that could cause a sputter.

The real question is why the heck are u letting the wife drive it in the first place???

 

save your self the trip and just stop at a local autozone have plug in the scanner see what threw the code, if its the gas cap you'll know to be more careful, if its more serious you'll know what you're getting into when you go to the dealer.

 

That is a great idea motor on. I will hit autozone first and then if need be schedule an appointment.

JRZYMINI: Remember MIB is our primary car. And being she works second shift and I work third. Well MIB goes to both jobs!

 

I've had a similar issue intermittently. DSC and SES lights come on and stay on, engine splutters and coughs, goes into limp mode. Restarting the car fixes the problem only for a few minutes, then it returns. Next day car is fine. The service dept has yet to find an answer, and we can't reproduce the issue - happened once in November (car was 2 days old!!!), and now again 3 months later. The computer codes apparently aren't telling them anything useful.

 

That is the very thing that happened with MIB. Try your gas cap. Make 100% sure you hear the click.

Heck This is why I went MC over MCS to avoid problems.

 

Oh yeah, we checked the gas cap. The first time it happened we hadn't had the car long enough to have even filled the tank yet. There's definitely something else going on with ours, but it happens so rarely it's going to be a bear to diagnose. Last time the computer read a "single mis-fire" code. No word yet on what the computer told them this time, but whatever it was, it apparently wasn't sufficiently informative.