Last week, I was troubled by unstable idling issue about my mini cooper. If I say from the conclusion, it was just because engine oil was low level. However, I did not know it until I went to dealer and I felt a little bit depressed mentally while thinking many bad results. So, I want to list up symptoms about my situation in order to help peoples who are troubled by same thing.
1. Unstable idling occurred especially after brake to stop. If I look at tachometer, RPM goes down from high to low, and it was unstable around 700rpm by going back and forth during idling. Additionally, during unstable situation, I could feel stumbling of the car. Engine was stalled once after strong brake. At this time, RPM went down to zero smoothly. Fortunately, I was able to restart engine. In my case, this symptom did not happen every time. That might indicate that situation was still early stage, and not too late to be fixed.
2. Irregular acceleration after 2000rpm. This occurred since same day with issue 1, so this might be related to issue 1. After 2000rpm, engine behavior sounded irregular response a little bit. Additionally, when I controlled the mar with back gear, irregular response was awful and uncomfortable sometimes.
3. Warning of low pressure engine oil was displayed on the front panel in special situation. When I curved the corner with a little bit high speed as much as I felt transverse G, this warning came out for a few seconds and disappeared soon. If I look back, this was a sign for the cause.
When I arrived at the dealer, and showed my car, and explained symptoms, then a person in charge, Peter, realized the cause soon after starting the engine and looking at the behavior of tachometer. I was really relieved and felt that I bought reliability at dealer because labor fee is generally expensive at dears.
I brought my car at early morning on Friday, and it took a few hours to fix my car, so I used a shuttle service to go to the office. This service was fee of charge and I really appreciate this service because I have only one car. In mini cooper dealer in San Jose, they outsource this to peoples who already retired, so drivers are old guys. My driver was old gentle man, he is over 80 years old, and moved to this are from Canada more than 40 years ago. His father and mother moved to Canada from England. So he looks like British guy. On the way to the office, we could not communicate well because he did not seem to understand my Japanese accent English. Before 3 pm, I got a phone call from Peter about completion of my car repair. The old gentle man also picked me up at this time, however we could communicate each other on the way to the dealer. It was easy solution. I just spoke loudly. That`s it. I was just because it was hard for him to hear. It was short time from the office to the dealer office, but I could enjoy conversation very much about him and me.
At that morning, I was a little bit depressed, but at the evening I was feeling good even though I paid much money.
I’m glad you’ve had it repaired, even with the money you had to pay for the repairs. Unstable idling issues with cars can pose serious safety threats since the change in speed might catch you off guard. And it wouldn’t be too smart to still take risks, even with the knowledge that something is going wrong under the hood. Anyway, it’s also a good checkup for your engine’s health.
ReplyDeleteTyra ^.^
It is a good move that you went to your dealership to get your vehicle checked. As car owners, it is a must that we get our autos some thorough checkup when we feel that there is something wrong with it. You may spend a considerable amount of money, but the security and peace of mind that it gave you are definitely priceless. [Kerstin Shed]
ReplyDeleteIt’s really a nice feeling when you get good service from a car dealership, particularly when people are really trying their best to help you out with your problem, and they even give you extra service. You must’ve been very happy to get that kind of service from them. Anyway, I hope your Mini is not giving you problems anymore. ->Arlyne Nelms
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for writing this up. I had purchased a used 2009 Mini Cooper Hatchback a few months ago. When driving to work yesterday, it suddenly did the #1 you described. I was able to limp it to work and it worked fine when I went to leave work, but then the #1 came back when I stopped to run errands after work. I also experienced the #3 when turning into a parking spot to run errands. I was so scared I was going to have to chase down a problem and spend tons of money. Upon checking under the hood when I got home, I noticed my oil was very low (1.5 pts low), but didn't think that was the cause until I read your blog. Your blog is mentioned in 1 other mini cooper forum that I could find. It turns out the valves in our engine is hydraulic powered by the oil pressure, so when the oil level is low, the oil pressure isn't high enough to actuate the valves at the correct time at idle. Thanks again for helping.
ReplyDelete> David
ReplyDeleteI am glad to hear my post helps you !
What was the fix?
ReplyDelete