13 replies to this topic

[alexb1]

Car Cutting Out!

Mini Cooper
2007 (56)

I have only had my Mini for 6 weeks, however last Friday whilst driving home from work, I approached a set of traffic lights, slowed down through the gear box, breaked to a stop, engaged the clutch in second whilst crawling to put the car back into first gear and the car cut out. It was so unobvious that this had happened that due to having the radion on, the only time I realised was when the car didn't react when I pressed the accelerator! There were no warning lights at all. The only way (after starting the car four times) that I could keep it running was to hold it on the clutch biting point until the lights changed (which was only about 10 seconds by this time).

The car continued to drive OK, until I slow for junctions. It refuses to tick over!

Once home I called Mini emergency services who came and confirmed that no fault was recorded on the on board computer. Nothing they could do.

I have continued to drive the car over the weekend with no problems, even took it to work and back yesterday with no problem.

Today it cut out 15 times in 17 miles in exactly the same way.

I called the garage that I bought it off of and they told me to book it in. The car was taken to the local garage, and lo-and-behold they can find no fault with the car, however I refuse to collect it until they find and fix the fault. They don't believe that there is an issue. The car logs no problem whatsoever.

I don't know what to do next, I don't know what my rights are as I have only had the vehicle for 6 weeks.

Has anyone had or ever heard of such a problem?

Any guidance would be gratfuly received, I am absolutely devastated!

[L400RAS]

Hi Alex,

This forum is mainly used by classic mini owners, as such, you may get better info on your car at www.mini2.com

However, i am intrigued by your problem - has your car got a push buttom to start the engine? If so - are you perhaps confusing hte "autostop" function? This only happens in neutral - not first gear as you say but;

When you stop at the lights, and take the car out of gear and lift the clutch into neutral, the car stops the engine. When you want to go again, you press the clutch in, the engine starts, you engage first and go. This is done to reduce emissions, but the system takes a little getting used to. Does this sound like what you are experiencing?

Ryan

[alexb1]

Sorry I didn't realise, I have had a very stressfull day as you might be able to tell!

The car doesn't have the idle facility when you stop at the traffic lights, its too old, that didn't come in until 07 reg's apparently, so I am afraid that its not that!

I am just desperate, but thankyou for replying, its much appreciated.

[alexb1]

It certainly feels like someone has switched off the fuel feed, there is no shuddering, not like when you stall because you don't engage the clutch quick enough. The infuriating things is that its isn't logging in the memory so BMW/Mini just wipe their hands of it and say there isn't a fault. I nearly had an acident in it this morning due to an impatient lorry driver, so the vehcile is completley unfit to drive. There is no logic to it at all, but definately no lights on the dash at all, they only come on when I start the car again as they normally would, but all go off as normal once driving!

As there is no issue on the computer, its like they won't get their hands dirty and look any further.

This was my dream car, and its rapidly turning into a nightmare.

Thankyou for posting I am so grateful just to tell someone my woes!

[kazmini]

It certainly feels like someone has switched off the fuel feed, there is no shuddering, not like when you stall because you don't engage the clutch quick enough. The infuriating things is that its isn't logging in the memory so BMW/Mini just wipe their hands of it and say there isn't a fault. I nearly had an acident in it this morning due to an impatient lorry driver, so the vehcile is completley unfit to drive. There is no logic to it at all, but definately no lights on the dash at all, they only come on when I start the car again as they normally would, but all go off as normal once driving!

As there is no issue on the computer, its like they won't get their hands dirty and look any further.

This was my dream car, and its rapidly turning into a nightmare.

Thankyou for posting I am so grateful just to tell someone my woes!

I have just found your problem through google, I have been having the exact same same problem from the end of December 2009, and I have been to my dealer with the problem, and again they can find nothing wrong woth the car.

I am just looking to see if you have got your issue sorted, and if so, what was the problem.

thanks

[jenksy123]

It certainly feels like someone has switched off the fuel feed, there is no shuddering, not like when you stall because you don't engage the clutch quick enough. The infuriating things is that its isn't logging in the memory so BMW/Mini just wipe their hands of it and say there isn't a fault. I nearly had an acident in it this morning due to an impatient lorry driver, so the vehcile is completley unfit to drive. There is no logic to it at all, but definately no lights on the dash at all, they only come on when I start the car again as they normally would, but all go off as normal once driving!

As there is no issue on the computer, its like they won't get their hands dirty and look any further.

This was my dream car, and its rapidly turning into a nightmare.

Thankyou for posting I am so grateful just to tell someone my woes!

I have just found your problem through google, I have been having the exact same same problem from the end of December 2009, and I have been to my dealer with the problem, and again they can find nothing wrong woth the car.

I am just looking to see if you have got your issue sorted, and if so, what was the problem.

thanks

[jenksy123]

It certainly feels like someone has switched off the fuel feed, there is no shuddering, not like when you stall because you don't engage the clutch quick enough. The infuriating things is that its isn't logging in the memory so BMW/Mini just wipe their hands of it and say there isn't a fault. I nearly had an acident in it this morning due to an impatient lorry driver, so the vehcile is completley unfit to drive. There is no logic to it at all, but definately no lights on the dash at all, they only come on when I start the car again as they normally would, but all go off as normal once driving!

As there is no issue on the computer, its like they won't get their hands dirty and look any further.

This was my dream car, and its rapidly turning into a nightmare.

Thankyou for posting I am so grateful just to tell someone my woes!

I have just found your problem through google, I have been having the exact same same problem from the end of December 2009, and I have been to my dealer with the problem, and again they can find nothing wrong woth the car.

I am just looking to see if you have got your issue sorted, and if so, what was the problem.

thanks

[Carlos W]

Take them out for a drive, or beter still, get them to drive it with you in the car, then they can witness it for themselves

The computer may not be logging a fault, but unfortunately modern fitters rely on them too much rather than skill and experience!

[antchong]

I had the same problem with my 09 cooper. Dionostics was saying no fault and gararge couldn't find anything so I thought I would give my car a visual onece over myself. To my surprise I checked the oil level and was very low but the oil light was not coming on so I put 4 liters of oil in and it solved the problem

[FabPhil]

Just to let anyone who is interested know. I had a similar problem recently. The car cut out for a fraction of a second when on light throttle. Didn't seem to do it when accelerating or at junctions only when cruising. Gradually got worse.
Searched online and found this discussion but not many answers. After 35 years fixing cars I knew it wasn't lack of oil - when oil stops them they never run properly again is my experience.
I have several obd computers and none showed any faults - one showed dead spot at 31% on throttle pot which I planned to change and then it stopped completely. No dash lights, no obd info but turned out to be fuel pump. Changed it and all sorted.

[spiguy]

As above, I would guess fuel delivery. I don't think the engine management system would neccessarily be smart enough to detect a complete lack of fuel being delivered, though I am a little surprised it wouldn't cause some kind of code for the fuel pressure, or maybe even O2 readings as the mixture would presumably lean out very quickly. That said, as the car will have an inertia cutout switch of some kind, then it is possibly engineered so that you don't need to go and get a management light reset if you trip it through hitting a large pothole for example.

 

Maybe you could get a generic obdII interface and use something like the excellent Android app torque, and have it logging fuel pressure so that you should see if it drops when the issue occurs. This of course would depend on fuel pressure being available to the tool, a bit of research on the internet should reveal whether this is possible.

 

Pretty poor show on the part of the dealer though.

Edited by spiguy, 10 February 2016 - 05:12 PM.

[eknight91]

My daily drive is a BMW and I must admit my experience with main dealers is that they are not interesting in problem solving as you have found.
I would suggest speaking to an independent bmw/mini mechanic as they tend to be a little more interested.
I would also suggest searching your issue on google replacing The word Mini with BMW.
Let us know how you get on to this, might help someone out in the future.

[gazza82]

Searched online and found this discussion but not many answers. After 35 years fixing cars I knew it wasn't lack of oil - when oil stops them they never run properly again is my experience.

Agree but some can go into limp mode to try and protect the engine if they sense the oil is lower than it should be.

[gazza82]

.

Edited by gazza82, 11 February 2016 - 07:48 AM.