the Mini is at the doctor

[cmcpokey]

so a two weeks ago a light came on in the Mini. it was the service engine soon light, not the most urgent of the check engine lights, but one you should have looked at. took 2 weeks to get it in to the shop, but finally dropped it off yesterday afternoon.

apparently what i, and they, thought was something small, likely to the changing weather this time of year, ended up being something weird. it seems one of the bits of plasting piping just down stream from the wastegate has a crack in it, and was leaking the pressurized air out. i guess it leads to a pressure sensor for one of the computers in there. so it was delivering faulty measurements and not regulating the injection properly.

it seemed to be little sluggish at high rpms. where as it begged to be taken all the way to redline, it now was sputtering a bit up there. and cruising at 70 at 3200 rpm, it also seemed a bit sluggish.

so here's where i am asking for the wise knowledge of UCP. can this be harmful to my engine. it was only about a week of driving, and now its being replaced, but i am wondering if this could have led to major damage that will come back to haunt me later?

on a side note, i got a nice little BRG cooper cabriolet. traded the supercharger for a ragtop for the long weekend. unfortunately the high over the next few days will be like 45F.

[Wouter Melissen]

I have suffered a similar problem with my father's turbocharged Xantia. A hose in the turbo system burst about 600 km from home on the autobahn in Germany. There was a noticeable decrease in power and a lot more smoke than usual (it is a diesel). So pissed off that my record run from Italy was interupted I checked in at a local Citroen dealer. After a quick drive and a check on the bridge he found the leaking hose. Having no spare part available he sent me on my way and told me to take it easy. With the lack of power there was no other way to take it.

Anyhow 600 km later we had the hose replaced and were assured by the dealer that little could have gone wrong. The only issue was a slightly clogged exhaust from the unburnt fuel that got in there. The advantage of it being a pressurized bit is that the airflow is out bound so there is little change of dirt getting in the engine. Our incident was in June and the car is still going strong. Actually we are going back to Germany tomorrow to the Essen Motorshow with it.

I am no expert, but it would surprise me if it caused any additional damage.

[Esperante]

From what I've heard, tiny little problems like that abound on the BMW MINIs but are almost always covered by warranty and never happen again.

[Clique]

is it a supercharged mini?? if it is then::
i dont think it will cause major damage (i.e engine failure) but i am sure that there will be alot more dark smoke coming out from the exhuast because of the unburnt fuel as the ECU increases the amount of fuel just before the supercharger kicks in... i think the best thing is not to use the car in case something big happens but if you do use it keep it at low revs... i say this from experience as i am no mechanic myself i am sure someone could give you better advice...