Hi folks, shame my first post on here is to try and fix a problem, but there we go! I really hope you can help!

I have an 07 cooper and it's been a bit of a Friday car! I bought it 2nd hand from an official Mini dealer, and the day after I bought it I had to take it back as the ABS module packed in. Then the anti roll bar links went, then one of my rear light clusters were faulty, then when cold the gearbox would crunch when going into 2nd gear. This was a 2nd gear syncro problem but the dealers didn't accept my diagnosis (actually my husbands as he used to be a Honda tech) and decided it was the clutch, so I got a clutch and lo and behold, it still crunched going into 2nd so they replaced the full gearbox!

So, not the most reliable!

Now the car is at just over 50k miles and during the week I noticed when accelerating, there is a noticeable loss of power from 2200/2300 rpm. With my foot to the floor on a straight road there is hardly any acceleration. My husband has checked the air filter and a few other things, but the only thing he has found is a fuel pipe casing has been rubbing against something and worn due to the mechanics at the garage not reattaching the clamp it's attached to when the gearbox was replaced.

Any ideas on this loss of power from 2200/2300rpm? Iv been reading problems with a short term (a second or two) loss of power (although I'm not convinced this is the same fault) and advice to add an additive to the fuel as there may be a build up of carbon in the pistons?

Has anyone else experienced this problem and if so what cured it? Or are there any ideas what it could be?

Thanks in advance!
Jen

Hi Jen Did you ever find out the problem with your mini? Mine has had the same problem and is losing power at a constant speed of 100km. The engine light comes on and the car starts juttering losing power and not accelerating at all. Ive brought it in to the garage and all and they said the computers don't show anything and to keep driving it until it happened again. I did this and the car actually ended up being towed.

Thanks,
Cel

Hi, apologies for the delay in replying, I forgot my password and no-one got back to me about resetting it so had to create a whole new account!

I think my fault sounds different to yours, as it never actually cut out and also it happened when above any revs whether accelerating or at a steady speed. Basically, when accelerating at half to full throttle, and the revs hit 2200/2300 in any gear, it would accelerate at a much slower pace, to the extend it would slow down while going up a hill. The garage plugged it in when it went in for fuel lines as the engine warning light had come on by that point and it came up with an emissions fault.

My hubby then started to take everything apart to 'de-coke' it as advised on other forums but when he got far enough in he could see the pistons were spotless. (Although a little scored). He put it back together (without changing or cleaning anything except a new oil filter and gave it an oil change as it was due one in the next few thousand miles - I think I had done 18k on the long life oil), then took it to VW to trade it in for a brand spanking new 2.0 tdi golf. On the day I signed the paperwork to trade it in, the car started to run better and by the time it came to handing the car over for my new one, it was running great with no lag in the acceleration.

Contrary to what I had been told on other forums, my car must have had a variable valve control which kicked in at 2200/2300rpm, which both me and my husband (who is a very experienced mechanic, though not BMW or Mini, by trade) reckon was clogged by old oil and stuck shut (even though it should have been fine according to the manual and service plans), so the new oil had cleaned it out slowly and started to work again. I don't know how it is now though as I traded it in last September.

I stuck to the service intervals advised to me in the manual and by the garage but I wouldnt advise going over 12k oil service intervals, as I reckon this was the cause.

Good luck! Hope you get to the bottom of it.

Jen