2nd Gen R56 Cooper S Most liked posts in thread: The 'Carbon' Problem...

I appreciate the effort Redbeard.
When the mechanic said "I probably shouldn't tell you this....." They must not have wanted the info to get out of their hands. Normally some type of "identifier" shows up on the work order. I'm sure they have it logged on their computer that they re-flashed your ECU and what version of the flash was installed.

Hmmmmm..... I wonder if all I need to say is.... "give me that 181 IPS re-flash". Followed by.... Would you like a box of chocolates?

Then immediately I'll get this look..... To which I'll say... Never mind...

 

To be fair, SIM130107 is for the non-turbo N12 engine. But I agree, "Bad Gas" is a joke.

 

What the hell does "bad gas" have to do with carbon fouling of the intake valves and ports in a direct injection engine? The valves never see the supposed bad fuel, so how the hell can it have any effect?

 

It's easier to point to something outside of their control as being the cause of the problem. The only other possible ingredient would be "Bad Air".

 

FYI ... there are two people down here with similar problems. One woman's '07 MCS has been @ the dealership for 7 straight weeks b/c of a CEL they can't get to go away, and the other woman's Justa has been at the dealership 6 times (over 90 days total) since October of last year for CEL's.

 

Or install a water/meth kit, and run it continuously, until your happy with a visual inspection, and then you can run your water/meth kit as normal, either from on boost demand or from fuel load demand.

 

:cornut: The chocolates only work with Female techs. To Male techs you offer a case of beer.:lol:

Jasonopcorn:

 

My 09 Clubman JCW is in for it's 30k service and I just talked to the service guy and on the "Recommended Action Plan" was an line item - PERFORM IN-RAIL FUEL INJECTION CLEANING for $161 - he had already marked it as declined in the plan so I called to see what this is about.

He told me that MINI is now recommending that this be done on an annual basis to help with the carbon buildup problem. However he also said that it wasn't mandatory and that I could add a Techron Fuel System cleaner every 3-5K miles.

Has anyone else heard this from their dealer?

Since I have about 5-6K until my oil change I decided to wait and figure out what's best and maybe have it done then.

Any ideas? I know this topic is the proverbial dead horse, but it's also doesn't seem to be going away. - Thanks

 

I have always used the Techron concentrate after every oil change on all my vehicles. I also only use Chevron gas w/Techron. It's good stuff. It's debatable whether it helps for a direct injection engine, but it certainly isn't going to harm anything and it's relatively inexpensive preventative maintenance.

 

That's what I thought from everything I've read - I'll ask the service guy what he thinks.

 

Meh, I'm still kind of miffed about the whole thing. I drive for about 65 miles round trip every day on the highway with plenty of opportunity for hard pulls and cruising. At 46,000 miles I've had no misfire issues or sluggish engine response. Then again, I've seafoamed my intake tract every 5000 miles since about 25,000 miles on the clock. Basically before every oil change. I'm hoping this is helping the issue but I haven't had a chance to look in my intake ports yet. It's a major inconvenience knowing that if you want to do a great job of cleaning everything out you need to pull the head along with major labor and special tools (cam timing) to alleviate something silly like this. The other alternative is to try and scrub the ports carefully with some type of brush, solvent, and a vacuum pump. I really love the characteristics of the Prince engine, but this is such a pain. :mad2:

 

Does anyone know if this is an inherent problem with all DI engines? I don't hear about this being a problem with other DI engines.

 

I have heard that it is a problem with other direct injection gas engines. Sooner or later somebody has to find a fix for the carbon issue.

As for now I am very afraid of the Prince of an engine. There have been changes for the 2011 model, but the jury is still out on the latest fix. The Justa R56 is not direct injection & shows none of the problems the R56 MCS has.