It's recently cooled off here in the Minnesota metro area, hovering around 30-40F lately. Since it cooled off, I've been noticing a very strange happening -- every time I start my car if it has been sitting in the cold for a decent amount of time, probably 4 hours or more, it's a very very hard start (which is normal; it is a MINI after all), but what's not normal is the grinding sound I get. Every time the RPMs fall, there's a faint grinding/spinning noise heard, and the car feels very anemic. This keeps happening until the engine warms up, just for a few minutes. It sounds like it is coming from the driver's side of the engine compartment.

Is this something common? I'm barely 2k over 50k, so if there's something serious I want to take it in ASAP and see if they'll work with me still under warranty.

 

get it looked at .you sound like the guy that gets shot and turns around to ask if anyone feels it could be problematic. seriously ....there's too much it could be man. sounds bad though; like stuck starter or something.