Hello everyone. I hope this is the proper forum to post this question. My girl friend had an 08 and she complains that it hesitates at times. I told her to tell me in great detail what it does, when, under what conditions etc, and apparently she doesnt know what detail means, so here is a cut and paste of her description.... When I start the car and it's warming up it sometimes hesitates like it will idle down. Then when i drive it will hesitate as I apply the gas. or when I am at a stoplight and start to apply the gas to go it will hesitate even when I'm on the interstate and apply more gas it'll hesitate I know that isnt much to go on but can anyone point me in the dirrection to be looking. It seems to run ok when its warmed up. She is 6 hours away so I cant check anything at the moment
A few questions: Have you owned it since 2008? How many miles are on the MINI? Has it ever been to a MINI dealer and been Walnut blasted to remove built up carbon?
Answering these questions will help greatly. I'm sure someone here can figure it out for you given enough clues.
Is it a stick shift or and automatic? An MCS or a Cooper? The Cooper automatic does hesitate if it is a CVT.
I do not know the answers to these questions. I know its a city driver, not much hiway use. I will find out and inform. more to follow. Thanks for the input. How does the walnut blasting work. is that anything like a seafoam treatment
Seafoam will not clean the baked on carbon. The dealership and some M/A vendors uses a special machine that uses walnut shells to power clean all the carbon off your valves. They will look brand new when done. It's like Seafoam on steroids x 10. If this car does a lot of short trips and runs cheap fuel (87 octane) the carbon will build up and cause the issues she is having.
Mine had an annoying hesitation/stumble at idle when I first got it. I only used ethanol free shell v-power the first few months, and added seafoam once or twice,that mostly cleared it up, but I found two corroded contacts on the coil. Cleaning them up and applying a dab of dielectric grease smoothed it out the rest of the way.
mattc85- If your plug wires have more than 40,000 miles on them I'd pitch them & put a set of new ones on. Fancy plug wires are of no real benefit, oem or NGks will work for not much money. Throw a bottle of Chevron Techron at every oil change. It will keep the fuel system nice & clean. No need for seafoam.
Plugs and wires are next on my short list. I'm pretty sure it still has the ones it left the factory with, 108k miles and 11 years ago.
Yes it is time for sure. Plugs n wires..... I have these on mine. Cheap & work well. Bosch 09202 Premium Spark Plug Wire Set : Amazon.com : Automotive
You have that exact set in the picture ? (5 wires) or is that just a generic picture? Do they fit and look like the OEM ones? I may order a set soon and add it to my Pre-Dragon service.
Excellent news but I was going to give the extra wire to JUSTA Jim since I think he still has a cap and rotor set up. :lol::lol::lol::lol: FYI: Most kids have no idea what that setup is. ^^
Heck yes & what's a dwell angle? Oh the many fun times of setting your points on the side of the road. Those were the days. :lol:
Thanks Dave, I could put it to good use. I'm about ready to change the points and plugs. Any recommendations?
OK more info. Its a turbo, has been well maintained by a dealer prior to her getting it, unknown when last tune up was done. I'll look into tune up stuff and the blasting of the valves. Do these cars have a cap and rotor or is it some other ignition type set up