Engine Light

Dumpnrun · Motorer

Engine Light

Dumpnrun · Motorer

I found the problem at this link//http://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums/stock-problems-issues/124867-yellow-engine-light-full-engine-power-no-longer-available.html

tedscar · Motorer

Haven't had the problem Chris, but I do remember seeing that thread on NAM. My MINI's been idle for several days. I thought I should start it today for a while as I'll probably do once a day in this cold weather. I didn't spend any time in mine today; just started it and let it run for 10 minutes or so. Did you notice the light right away? Was the idle normal or was it just when you drove it you noticed it was half-power? Just curious; maybe I ought to be checking more thoroughly...

Glad to hear the MINI folks will take good care of you!

Mitch · Motorer

Actually I had an abnormality today also. When I first started it this morning, and I went to get out to scrape the window the engine cut out. So I restarted and it did it again. The third time I started gave it a little rev (for a real reason for once) and drove off it seemed to be fine from that point on. Never had that happen, but I have never really had it in this cold of weather before. No lights or anything just stalled. I check like 30,000 times that it wasn't in gear as it alway cut out just as I let the clutch out.

Dumpnrun · Motorer

Yes the light was on right away,and the idle was intermitent,and you will notice the power loss as soon as you drive away. If you read the thread its happen to minis out in MN WS,Chicago where the cold front just went thru.What is happenin is the intake has moisture in it after you drive to work and park the car the wind and cold temps cool the engine down rapidly which freezes the moisture in the throttle body . Something to that effect. May your winters be warm. Seeya CJ

redbaron · Member

I had the same problem last week!
I called Towne MINI and Mark explained that moisture or an air bubble can get into the fuel system and cause the engine light to come on temporarily. I drove it for a couple of days and the engine light turned off. Simple as that don't worry too much. The cold weather does a job on any car, I'd say let it warm up well before you start on your journey. Just think the warm weather is coming and we'll be out their tearing up the road soon, very soon.

tedscar · Motorer

Might grade of gas make any difference? I use the premium gas and so far, haven't had the problem, but not a lot of experience in this cold yet either.

Though this weather is cold, it doesn't seem out of the realm for NYS. I asked on another MINI board about the need for / issues with gas line antifreeze and the couple responses I got said no need. Does anyone here use it? If so, have you had the described problem?

I have to go into Jamestown this morning. I think I'll take the MINI and see if I encounter this issue.

-- Edited by tedscar at 06:52, 2009-01-15

TINMAN · Motorist

Well it happened to Nigel at about 5:00 pm yesterday. Started finer in the morning, drove to work no problems at all. Left work,started up and noticed a very rough idle like it was firing on only 2 cylinders. The engine light was on. I let it run for about 5 min and then shut it down. Restarted and let it run for 10 or 15 min with no improvement at all. Called Towne Mini and they said bring it in. Had no power at all took almost a mile just to get up to 30 mph. I left it at Towne and they talked to me this morning.Mark said that Nigel was going to be there over the weekend because it was probably the intake or the fuel pump. I miss Nigel already.

tedscar · Motorer

Well I figured I'd better bite the bullet and see if tedscar was acting out. Not to gloat, but just to see if we can isolate contributing factors at all, I had no problems today.

Mine is justacooper (non-S).
Fuel tank was full, w/ 93 octane gas.
Stored in unheated garage.
Besides yesterday, it probably hasn't been started in about a week.

It started right up this morning, no engine light, no rough idle. I took it about 12 miles into town. Shortly after I left home, I noticed the thermometer registered 4 degrees so that's about what it was when I started it. I was in town (~10 degrees) for about three hours, but the sun actually came out during that time! Again, no problems on return trip.

tedscar also handled very well on my return trip; the first of this cold front has moved in. We're supposed to get 2-3 ft of snow out of it by Saturday. Fortunately, only have a couple inches so far!

I'm bummed to hear you folks are having issues. I don't know if this info helps narrow the field of of possible causes, but I hope it gets resolved for you soon.

Mitch · Motorer

And just to throw my situation in again, no problems again just that once. I am guessing I had just a bit of water in the gas, and I also run 93 in the winter. I go with middle grade in the summer so far, maybe I will go 93 all the time. I found last summer I got the best gas millage with middle grade and not 93.

Grammacoop3 · Motorist

Not sure I had exactly the same problem...but my Clubman started up and then gave me an icon that looked like a cooper with sticks under it...then I lost radio and clock...the book said the computer system failed and to abort the mission....I was still in the driveway so I just shut it off....the day before that my rear doors kept popping open while I was driving...when I got home and manually opened them I could hear a clicking like the latch was repeatedly releasing...Mark at Mini said there is some sort of recall on it...the rear door handles need to be replaced and something else...it about a 3 hour job...with all the bad weather we haven't had a chance to get it in for the tweek job. I've only driven it on short trips twice since then out of fear I'll lose power or something.

Grammacoop

BOSS10L · Motorist

AFAIK, I thought all Coopers had to run on premium fuel because of the high compression ratios of the engines. I've always put 93 in and have never had a power problem yet. Kassy stays outside in the elements year-round, as our garage isn't fit for inhabitance right now.

laurendesigns · Member

TINMAN wrote:

Well it happened to Nigel at about 5:00 pm yesterday. Started finer in the morning, drove to work no problems at all. Left work,started up and noticed a very rough idle like it was firing on only 2 cylinders. The engine light was on. I let it run for about 5 min and then shut it down. Restarted and let it run for 10 or 15 min with no improvement at all. Called Towne Mini and they said bring it in. Had no power at all took almost a mile just to get up to 30 mph. I left it at Towne and they talked to me this morning.Mark said that Nigel was going to be there over the weekend because it was probably the intake or the fuel pump. I miss Nigel already.

Mine is currently being towed to Towne MINI as I type this. Same exact problem as TINMAN.

Happened yesterday...called Mark. Started fine after warm up. Happened again today but would not run out of "safe mode" even after several attempts and it being fully warm. Going on vacation so wasn't about to risk taking the car with it being flakey like that. It's a new car so there shouln't be problems!

I now have a rental and Miss MINI is in the shop

-- Edited by laurendesigns at 18:28, 2009-01-16

Ashman · Member

ugg. Sorry to hear about these problems. So far "Little Brown Jug" is doing fine in the weather.(Knock on English Walnut) I've been using the 93 kwikfill.

Dumpnrun · Motorer

If you read this link the problem has nothing to do with what type octane gas you use. Mini does not have a positve cure for this nation wide problem link//http://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums/stock-problems-issues/124867-yellow-engine-light-full-engine-power-no-longer-available.html .Thank you CJ

SPDinNY · Motorer

Bruto had this problem and it is partially why we chose to just buy a winter vehicle. It is a known issue and basically we were told the car doesnt get warm enough to vaporize all the moisture off the throttle body causing it to freeze. This was back in late 07 at we had this problem. As far as we know...there is no fix.

-- Edited by SPDinNY at 12:26, 2009-01-17

Dumpnrun · Motorer

What i dont understand if the dealer and mini know that there is no fix right now,and maybe there workin on one. Then why are they taking the cars in to be repaired and giving people false hope by just thawing it out and saying its done. Maybe i will park mine for now untill it warms up or they have a recall.CJ

gvcmel · Motorist

Well, add another one to the cold weather failure to start. Considering the number of posts I see about cars effected by this I am surprised that there is not a fix available.

Hopefully tomorrow will be warm enough ( lol - 33 is now warm after this week ) that I can pull some things off and see if I can dry things out.

MightyMo · Motorer

MiniMo has had this problem a few times. Called mark and he kind of sighed, like, here we go again. He must be getting hit with alot of this. Find it hard to believe that BMW in the cold of Germany (it does get cold there, let alone England) came out with a car that would have this problem. Well here is the deal. Start the car and let it run for about 15 mins. (time it take to defrost the window) then shut the car off. Count to 5 and restart the car. It should run fine then. If not repeat. As The real MightyMo said. If I only have to deal with this a few mos. it is worth it to still own a MINI for the MINI fun in spring, summer and fall.
-S
One more thing. When this happens to you, listen to the car. As the idle goes up and down we think it is saying "itttttttts colddddd -itttttttts coldddd, or f..... thissssss.... lol

-- Edited by MightyMo at 08:53, 2009-01-18

Dumpnrun · Motorer

Thanks for your kind thoughts MightyMo ,today im going to try what you said,i havent started mini since thursday the day my first light came on. i ll let ya all know how it goes later today. I just noticed that ive got a gold star.....yea me....Seeya CJ

TINMAN · Motorist

I picked up Nigel from Towne on Sat. morning. Mark said that there was a fix and the new manifold is on order. He said it should be ok for the next couple of weeks. Well, I went to start it Sunday morning and it is doing the same thing. I guess it goes back to Towne on Monday and I get another rental.

Wow that was a short 2 weeks. I hope I can get it to the dealer without having it towed. This is getting old real quick.

gvcmel · Motorist

Update:
tried the simple method of starting the car this morning (25 degrees at the time) and letting it idle for a while. Engine was running ruff and blowing lots of moisture out the tail pipe. Shut it off, waited a couple of minutes the restarted but no good.

So, picked up the car and took the heat gun to the bottom of the intake manifold for about ten minutes. The manifold got warm while I froze. Restarted the car and it idles nice and smooth. So, shut it off and cleared all the fault codes then restated it again. Now, no problems and it runs.

So, took it for a short run of a couple of miles and tried something crazy. If moisture collection is the problem I tried putting the car in a high vacuum state while warm. Did this by running in third gear at 50 the lift off the throttle and coast until it reaches 30 then did it again. Figuring that a high prolonged vacuum might, might just assist the car if clearing the moisture.

Plus, i now intend to let the car sit and idle for a minute when I get home at night while it is cold out. Hopefully the warm motor idling with the hot exhaust right underneath it all might help to clear a little moisture out of the throttle area.

YMMV. Who knows, this may all have been a waste of time. The only really aggrivating thing about this so far besides being stranded is that Towne did not call back when I reported the problem. sigh.

Venno · Motorer

Brainstorming....
True although water freezes when there is a vaccum (carb icing is an example) I doubt that there's much moisture in the air to 'Ice' up the throttle boddy ...I think that you'd have a better chance of this happening at on days with higher humidity...anyone note humidity on days that this happens??
i doubt that the throttle boddy would be an area for moisture to coolect....It's gotta pass through your Oiled air filter and then it has to condensate on a hot surface and I havne't seen any tea cups having condensation on the outside when left out in the cold...
Plus Water in small doses doesn't hurt engines...
Could it be that the density altitude of the air is outside of the paramaters that the mixture control computer has been programed to??

Btw because this is an injected engine, it has no carb so carb Icing can't happen, but its the thought that i was going after

Heres another Video of water being shot into an engine

-- Edited by Venno at 17:18, 2009-01-18

-- Edited by Venno at 17:20, 2009-01-18

-- Edited by Venno at 17:21, 2009-01-18

Dumpnrun · Motorer

Update .........I went out this morning 24 degrees started the mini.the light came on for 10 secs then went out.The motor idled just fine then drove about 50 miles everything seems to be back to normal.We ll see what happens in the morning. Thanks for everybodys input on the situation. Good to hear from you Venno,hows the weather on the other side? Are they having problems over there too? Untill then Seeya CJ

tedscar · Motorer

Chris; glad to hear things went better today. Hope that's the case for the rest of you too.

Here's to a better week!

SPDinNY · Motorer

Venno, it doesn't go into the TB, it gathers on the TB and freezes causing it to not operate properly is my understanding. I don't think Mark from Towne posts much anymore.

Venno · Motorer

Weather here is Cold (20s) moist, overcast and the air has been stagnant for the last week......picturesque..
Not many people here have the next gen of MINIs who are on the boards but i havn't heard of any problems here...

Yeah I thought I'd just brainstorm a little...Throw some thoughts out there and see if as a team we could figure something out....

tedscar · Motorer

Venno wrote:

Weather here is Cold (20s) moist, overcast and the air has been stagnant for the last week......picturesque..
Not many people here have the next gen of MINIs who are on the boards but i havn't heard of any problems here...

Yeah I thought I'd just brainstorm a little...Throw some thoughts out there and see if as a team we could figure something out....

Well, that makes for two interesting (?) thoughts. Is there something different about the MINIs manufactured for the States? And, from this small 'poll', it seems this is mostly as "S" thing. With the exception of redbaron, those of you that have experienced this own the S, no? Several of us non-S folks have NOT had this situation. (I didn't track that closely on the NAM thread, but it looked many who experienced this were also S owners.)

TINMAN · Motorist

I left my MIni s in a heated garage over night and it started just fine. I went ahead and took it to towne and left it there because I can't depend on it running after it has stayed outside.(don't have a heated garage at work). So mark says the part is on order. It apparently is a new updated intake that will solve the problem.Sure do hope so. I'll keep you posted after the fix.

TOWNEMINI · Towne MINI - Official

Hello to everyone, I apologize for my lack of presence in the past six months or so, at the dealership we are obtaining business at a fairly quick rate and prevents me from visiting as much as I would like to. To anyone that has purchased a model year 2007 and newer hard top S you may have been experiencing problems in the recent cold weather.

As of now the fix is not immediately available, MINI USA is well aware of the issue and is working to remedy it. It requires new parts that have not been manufactured on a large scale and are not available to order at this point in time.

We are working diligently to address these issues; an appointment can be made per new documentation we just received today. When the appointment is made it will not be the final repair, but the current repair to keep it running smoothly until the updated parts are available.

When or if you experience this issue, the vehicle is doing its job and protecting itself. When temperatures drop below 20 degrees the vehicle may put itself into safe mode preventing high RPMs and rates of speed. Allow the vehicle to come to operating temperature and then shut the vehicle off and restart, the vehicle should then leave safe mode and run as it would any other day; the check engine lamp will stay on. Please do not be alarmed, this is not a mechanical issue and is not doing harm to the vehicle. As in any case regardless of how smooth it may be running, always allow the vehicle to warm up adequately.

-- Edited by TOWNEMINI at 15:32, 2009-01-19