Sup guys and gals, my MINI is doing something really annoying. Sometimes it seems as if its lacking power, but on other days and even sometimes during a drive, it seems to come back to life and beg to be driven hard. the difference between the two is night and day. (on bad days the power feels like my hyundai elantra, but on good days it feels like the MINI again.. {i say "day" because the performance characteristics that it decides to have usually last all day}) on a bad day it will take an average of 1/8 to 1/4 throttle more to get the same power out of it on a good day. I know its not heat soak because it only changes during times as sitting over night, or sometimes when i'm going down the road about 70mph. the only thing i can think of is the ecu might be retarding the timing for some reason... any idea what it might be from? i've noticed temperature hasn't made a very noticeable difference in the cars performance, except on days when it gets over 65F, normal temps here are between 50-60F for this time of year (i would know, i'm a meteorologist ) I usually run a 50/50 mix of 90 and 95 octane gas since im in the military and stationed in spain... on base gas is 2.65 a gallon for 90, but out in town 95 octane is roughly 4.80 a gallon humidity hasn't changed much lately... Thanks for your help! motor on!

 

this would keep the motor from making boost. As a test, you can wire tie it shut, and see if the problem goes away. You may take a hit of a few miles per gallon during the test (Oh, you're in spain, so that would be km per liter), but it will let you know if it's the culprit.

Matt

 

Hey thanks! ummmm... do you have a how-to or anything? i'm not familiar with the MINI engine bay yet, but i do know alot about motors, just no experience with boosted engines.. yet!

 

if you look down by the intake next to the throttle body, there's a valve between the TB-SC duct, and it goes to the air horn that goes between the IC (exit or cool side) and the intake manifold. When you see it, it will be obvious....

Matt

ps, look for stuff on Ryephix II in the Yo-Yo Chronicals. There may be some photos there.

Also, get yourself a copy of the Bentley or Haynes manual...

 

If by RETARDED - you mean; Sweet, thoughtful, handsome, courageous, caring then my apologies in advance.

If however as I suspect you intend RETARDED to mean; slow, broken, malfunctioning. Then read on.

My son is retarded and not in any way broken. I bring this up out of respect to the normally caring Mini community. If you replaced the word with any other slur or racial attack we would be up in arms. But it seems that our culture has seen fit to allow RETARDED to mean broken. My amazing son surfs the web and likes My mini (although has been known to call it a Mini-Van) I would feel sad if he saw your post.

Flame me for being too PC, Maybe I am. So be it.

This was not written to hurt or attack. Only to educate.

 

I was also offended by the derogatory use of this term and find it innapropriate.

 

Lisdexic,

You might want to read 06 SuperCoopers post again. The "Retarded" he is referring to is the timing of the engine as in Advanced or Retarded. This is a common automotive term and has no realationship whatsoever to mental capacity. I do understand your sensitivity to the word, but in this case I believe that you are taking it out of context.

 

Thank you pjschaffer for pointing out that there is an appropriate use for the term. Sometimes I do forget that.

I would agree in this case except for the fact that he also used the term in another post this morning, saying that someone "typed like a retard" and then defended that it was not derogatory when confronted ("what it is" thread). This makes me question his usage above as well.

 

I did read the post, and yes I am aware of the other use of the term, but, yes a but, the humor of the posts title was derived from the idea that it could be taken both ways. Other wise it would have been 06 MCS TIMING RETARDED, yes?

It isn't the term I object to, it's the use of it as a joke in the posts header.

 

I guess I'm a little thick, becuase until you just pointed it out, I didn't see the "joke". I see your point, but I guess 06_SuprCooper will be the only one who knows for sure if it was a joke or simply a poor choice of words. Let's hope for the later.

PS: Didn't see the previous post with a similar use of the word.

 

I agree...while the word has a legitimate technical usage, the context from the OP gives the impression that the derogatory connotation is also being implied.

 

This isn't meant to be a flame. Just a question. Lisdexic Driver, is your user name meant to be a joke about people with dyslexia? Or are you actually dyslexic? If not, some people might find that equally offensive. Personally I'm not offended by your user name. Just an observation, not a flame.

 

Is this for real???

hey, i'm having problems with my rims after hitting a pothole... I guess they are geometrically challenged, not to be derogatory and call them bent or our of shape.

 

I'm glad somebody 'went there'.

Now, regarding YOUR user name...

 

nice

 

I edited the thread title after receiving a number of complaints about the usage of the word "retarded." This term, when used in a derogatory manner, is not acceptable or tolerated on NAM. Period.

 

Yes, offending minority groups is for real, believe it or not.

 

 

Oh yup, I am deeply dyslexic, I chose the name to fend off the post I have received in the past for miss spellings and other type related errors.

Thanks Miniclo!!!!

 

Might as well change the thread title to "06 MCS: timing after top dead center?".

At least that shouldnt offend bottoms, the living, and extremists. :impatient

 

how is it offensive if it's true? is that not just the hard truth??

can I no longer say that my swaybar looks too stiff becasue all the stiff people in the world could be offended? How about the back of my MINI being so dirty? is dirty derogatory / offensive, because there are dirty people out there...

where do you draw the line?

which negative adjectives are we able to use?

 

All of them. It's how they're used that matters.

Every word really has two meanings - the actual definition (aka the "denotation"), and the meaning it takes on in the particular context you're using it in ("connotation"). There are very few words that are patently offensive in their denotation - it's the connotation that matters. In other words, it's not what you say, but what you mean by what you say.

Granted, it's especially hard to figure out intent and meaning in an online forum, because you don't have all those non-verbal cues you get in conversation. Maybe the OP meant no slight by the word, and if so, no harm/no foul.

Anyway, the new thread title is a very diplomatic resolution of the whole thing - the word is still there, but in a way that is clearly on-topic. to that.

 

I realize that some people use common derogatory terms and don't even realize that they are offensive terms as they are commonly used, these are learned terms and are not the fault of the user but the fault of society.

But your question is obvious. Stiff and dirty are not minority groups that have stereotypes and prejudice. They are adjectives that do not offend a certain group of people. They are not slurs. I am guessing that you know the difference and are just being difficult for the sake of argurment, but if you would like a list of commonly used slurs that are offensive to minority groups I would be happy to send you one. These terms are very easy to learn, but very difficult to unlearn.

 

We now return you to your originally scheduled thread.

 

On the topic at hand, you might also look into whether your dips in performance have any correlation to your refuelling stops. Since the ECU adapts itself to the fuel mixture, you might occasionally be getting bad fuel that's causing it to adjust the performance.

I'm not sure how it is in Spain, but here in the US we get stories from time to time about unscrupulous service stations that were watering down the fuel or marketing regular 87 octane as premium 93 octane. That sort of thing might give your ECU a "bad day".