Hello, a new member here.

I had my lovely 2010 MINI Cooper S about 2.5 years now, and recently (around 32 000 km mark) I had to bring in the car for the yellow engine light, and the problem was carbon build-up in the fuel injector.

It was covered by the warranty and I did not have to pay anything, and since then, there has been no more issues and the car runs like brand-new

Because of where I live, I do a lot of short-distance drives in the winter (< 5 km) and seldom do I engage in highway driving. Carbon build-up being a consistent problem for all gas direct injectors and worse for turbo-aspirated engines, I was wondering, is Italian tune-up real? I realise that the cars do seem to run better after highway driving, but maybe it is simply because the engine has reached optimal temperature.