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RenaultF1 · May 19th, 2005, 04:39 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by GBMINI

This is a famous (infamous) problem with MINIs in USA - particular areas of the country are most affected at the start / end of "winter" - general opinion is that the chemical mix in the gasoline changes and confuses the engine computer.
You could try to get your dealership to wipe the learned engine parameters - then the car should run OK through the summer until the gas mix changes again in (approx)November.

The software is better than it used to be - GBMINI#2 used to stall and have to be restarted; now GBMINI#3 just runs very rough and tries to stall for a few seconds.

Gary (head tech) at MINI Peabody suggested a lower octane gasoline (easier to ignite) but I have not tried that yet.

Gary & Chris told me the same thing (when I bought my MCS in October), I've been using lower octane the last couple of times I filled up because the car was basically stalling on the 1st cold start of the day (it's been going in the 20s overnight here in Maine

). It actually helps a lot. However, I definitely would like to get my ECU reset on my next service so that I can go back to higher octane.

May 19th, 2005, 04:39 PM	#4
RenaultF1 Of course it is... Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Maine Local Time: 06:44 PM Posts: 644 Offline	Quote: Originally Posted by GBMINI This is a famous (infamous) problem with MINIs in USA - particular areas of the country are most affected at the start / end of "winter" - general opinion is that the chemical mix in the gasoline changes and confuses the engine computer. You could try to get your dealership to wipe the learned engine parameters - then the car should run OK through the summer until the gas mix changes again in (approx)November. The software is better than it used to be - GBMINI#2 used to stall and have to be restarted; now GBMINI#3 just runs very rough and tries to stall for a few seconds. Gary (head tech) at MINI Peabody suggested a lower octane gasoline (easier to ignite) but I have not tried that yet. Gary & Chris told me the same thing (when I bought my MCS in October), I've been using lower octane the last couple of times I filled up because the car was basically stalling on the 1st cold start of the day (it's been going in the 20s overnight here in Maine ). It actually helps a lot. However, I definitely would like to get my ECU reset on my next service so that I can go back to higher octane.