The car is a 2006 Mini S Convertible (I KNOW IT'S AN R52, just hoping other models may have had this problem and therefore a solution)

This is the 4th time this has happened. Details on what happened. Driving along and we lose power, completely, and need to pull off the freeway. Granted most of my driving is Freeway miles at speed, but it's never happened on city streets. We do not lose electrical and can crank the vehicle after it's off the road, will not start for hours. Also, the first two failures had a few thousand miles between them, when I replaced the belt it has been a week of daily driving to get to where I am today.

The first two times it appeared to be a low battery, charged it once, and replaced it the second time (tested bad). The alternator is pushing out around 14volts.

Thrid time we thought it may be a slipping belt causing it to go into limp mode, but in all instances, it failed and would not restart immediately. Anyway, the belt was cracked and way out of specs for tightness. Replaced with new.

This last time it failed, I noticed a buzzing from the fuel pump when trying to restart it. I removed the cap to ensure it was not vapor-locked, no start. This happened this morning and I assume when I go to recover the car this afternoon it will restart and I can drive it on to my trailer.

Based on what I am seeing I believe I am dealing with a failing fuel pump. Has anyone else experienced these "gremlins" and if so what was the ultimate culprit?

cvs334

 

Got the thing home last night ... here is what happened along the way.
the car broke down at 0700 ...
1500 son tried to see if it would restart and drive home. no fire.
1900 brought flatbed ... tried to restart, still noisy fuel pump, eventually fired, but would only run for 30 seconds. we lined it up to load and the person steering the car was able to start it and drive it onto the flat bed.

Smelled like raw fuel from the exhaust ... will play with it tomorrow and see if I get any codes. But again ... based on the following anyone have similar symptoms?

 

Hooked up the computer last night, no codes, the thing runs, the fuel pump is still noisy ... so not sure if this is me being over sensitive?? Is there anyone who has experienced random failures with no stored codes? Datastream looks good as car is running, nothing looks out of range.

 

I'm no professional car mechanic, so please keep that in mind. Now I am an aircraft mechanic, and it sounds like it could be a fuel pump issue, possibly a relay or some other electronic part causing this issue. Possibly a bad fuel pump as well. I'd recommend testing that relay somehow, or testing the fuel pump. The intermittent stalling and not starting up does sound like that though. Here's a nice article I found that might help point you in the right direction. Best of luck man.

https://www.yourmechanic.com/article...obert-tomashek

 

Ok, Installed a new pump and filter, the filter was very dirty. The first long drive went well, hoping for the best, but still need a few weeks before I am happy.

 

It failed shortly after posting the previous post. Someone on Mini Mania suggested replacing the Fuel Pressure Regulator/Fuel Filter Housing. So ... here we go!!

Everything is finally installed and running. Had a little problem with the new Fuel Pressure Regulator/Fuel Filter Housing. Since I had a new filter in the old system, I swapped that and apparently I broke the o-ring and it would not get fuel pressure. It took some thinking to figure that one out, but when we started to bleed off the fuel from the line, it was not coming out very strong, so figured the new part was bad or I had installed it wrong ... this time it was me.

Anyway 70 miles so far ... running good. Will keep all informed if things change.