Hello all, new to this forum...thought it would be cool to see experiences with other owners and pose a question. Just bought my wife a new, 2011 Mini S. Love the car but after 1400 miles the yellow check engine light came on. The engine seems to be missing? As luck would have it there is no authorized, "warrenty" dealer to work on it in Alaska. No, the light didn't come on because its cold...60/70 in the summer. Any ideas what the problem is?

Took it into a import mechanic and they seemed baffeled? Could it be a octane issue? Number 2 cylinder seems to be misfiring, changed the coil and nothing, checking compression on Monday. Plugs check out...help! If the problem can't be detected here I have to ship it back to NW Mini in Washington State!

 

ANY OBDII Scanner can dive you the trouble code ,
Have you CHANGED the plugs/Wires ???
The Injectors couldbe bad/ swap them and see if the misfire moves

 

On my Mini the CEL came on within the same milage as yours. The code read random misfire. Erased the code and now have over 11,000 miles and tha CEL has never come back on.

 

My wife just bought a 2011 mini and we are taking it in to the shop for a 3rd time for the yellow check engine light issue (less then 5,000 miles). The mechanic says they have problems with the software for the computer on the minis and they send out a false code that turns on the check engine light. Sounds like they are still trying to figure out a fix.
If it gets to a 4th time, the Lemon Law kicks in.

 

the new n12/14 n16/n18 engines do not have spark plug wires. they use a coil and these rarely go bad. a misfire at that low of miles can only be a few things from my experience. bad gas (high alcohol content) is the main contributor. anything less than 91 octance will cause a driveability issue. with minis using a high pressure direct injection fuel system the intake runners and intake valves are subject to high deposits of raw few/carbon deposit build up.
polarice - now with ur mini having 1,400 miles on it id be curious to see what else could be going on...if there is no dealer in alaska where did u buy the mini new?

 

are u taking ur mini to the dealer? has it been in for the same issue those 3 times? or an issue irrelated to ur actual first complaint...just curious on your statement of the 'lemon law'. there is definately some fine print behind that.

 

Yes we are taking it to the Mini dealer.
They are all the exact same problem, If they can fix it we will be happy to keep it, but if they don't......

 

I had the exact same issue with another direct-injected engine in a 2006 VW Jetta GLI at about 1900 miles. The problem ended up being a fouled fuel injector. The problem has less to do with the octane content than it does the detergent content in the gasoline. Per the owner's manual, make sure you're running "Top Tier" gasoline in your car, which has higher detergent content than cheaper gasoline. Shell, Texaco, Chevron, Exxon, those are four that are on the Top Tier list. BP/Amoco meets the Top Tier standards, but is not on the list. I've run Shell 93 V-Power in every tank of gas I've put in my '09 R56, and for 55K miles, I've had not one fuel system related problem, or any other problem for that matter. I also never had another fuel injection problem with the VW I owned after I started using Shell gasoline. Everything else on the car broke, though!!

 

Has anyone had a problem with electrical components and batteries?

My battery was completely drained yesterday.

 

Hello all -
I have a mini s that just had the yellow half engine light come on. It has a rough idle in the morning and also does not allow full power when accelerating. I can warm up car & it still does it, however when i stop after driving for a bit & then start back up, light stays on & i receive full power like there is no problem.
this has been happening for 2 days. I have checked gas cap, hooked up to check codes (got no codes). tried injector cleaner & use premium gas, so i don't get it?? Weird that it only happens in morning and never again through the day????

Any ideas?