[lightbody]

Mini Cooper - November Build - 4000 miles on the clock.

Driving on motorway at about 60mph, 5th gear, CD on, when I realise the rev counter is showing 0rpm - try to start it but no life, manage to get to hard shoulder and stop.
Turn it all off and then try and start again - engine turning over but no life. Leave it a couple of minutes, try again - starts perfectly, idles a few seconds then just stops again. This happens a couple more times until I give up, get out, phone MINI emergency rescue.

Car is trailered away, cant be seen until Monday, and I need to go away on business ALL of next week so I phone and explain this to mini emergency who offer me a Corsa or Polo - hardly a fair replacement for a 14000 pound car - which I have to go and collect myself because its a weekend, and they couldn't give me a satisfactory answer about whether they'd pay for the whole week. "I have to work that out with the dealer".

I'd just polished the car and was generally mega-chuffed with it but am really quite ****ed off now... it really was very frightening losing all power on a busy motorway.

[skott]

Sorry to hear about your hassle Rob.

I handed back that blue replacement MINI that I took on the run on Sunday past.

My ignition barrel hassle started at the end of November, and the dealer had had my car since Dec 30 2001.

After 2wks of using a replacement VW Golf I spoke to BMW UK Cust Services manager (Bramwell Waring) asking why the part hadn't arrived after 7wks.

He phoned me back to say a replacement MINI would be at the dealership within 2 days.

You might just have to take what you are given initially, but should it get past a week with no definite return date I would be asking BMW UK some pretty searching questions.

Scott.

[mr.bill]

Lightbody, when you find out what the problem was, please let everyone know. It sounds like something electrical, either you lost the ignition system or a sensor cut off the fuel. A lot of new cars will cut the fuel flow if they sense a sudden drop in oil pressure to protect the engine from damage. It could be a bad connection, faulty sensor, etc. Let's hope this is a rare problem. I shudder to think what would happen if Basil was tooling down the road in the Outback with a roadtrain on his arse, only to have the engine stop with no warning. (That would stop his posts once and for all. )

[Basil]

Quote:

Originally posted by mr.bill
I shudder to think what would happen if Basil was tooling down the road in the Outback with a roadtrain on his arse, only to have the engine stop with no warning. (That would stop his posts once and for all. )

Certainly would mate!!!....... ha ha ha.

Thanks for the thought.......

ha ha ha

[Basil]

Seriously though. I had EXACTLY that problem with my Astra. In fact it was the straw that broke the camels back. But it was traced to a faulty fuel pump sensor. Which the engine management CPU didn't like so shut down the whole vehicle. It was replaced. But I had bought my Subaru by then !!

Hopefully your MINI has the same problem. Easy fix.

cheers

[mr.bill]

About 40 years ago, I was going through Arizona and came upon an accident. A red MG (maybe an A-H Sprite, hard to tell) had been run over by a Navajo truck. It was flat as a pancake. Found out the two men in it survived, had jumped out just in time. (Car was a convertible with the top down and that was in the days before seat belts were required.) If you are on the highway and the engine stalls, you are in deep doo-doo. It is far worse in a very small car.

[Basil]

Quote:

Originally posted by mr.bill
About 40 years ago, I was going through Arizona and came upon an accident. A red MG (maybe an A-H Sprite, hard to tell) had been run over by a Navajo truck. It was flat as a pancake. Found out the two men in it survived, had jumped out just in time. (Car was a convertible with the top down and that was in the days before seat belts were required.) If you are on the highway and the engine stalls, you are in deep doo-doo. It is far worse in a very small car.

Blimey mr.bill, you've excelled yourself. Consider this:

One day you wake up, and find that your so paranoid about life that you decide to opt out altogether. So you leave your job, say goodbye to your family, sell the house and move to a little cottage in the middle of scotland called lockerbie. You lock the door behind you and never go outside again. One day you are awoken by a dull explosion, you get out of bed and cautiously open the curtains a little, just in time to see an Boeing 747 hurtling towards your little house that had been blown up by a terrorists bomb at 40,000 feet........

I rest my case

[R1]

Quote:

Originally posted by mr.bill
If you are on the highway and the engine stalls, you are in deep doo-doo. It is far worse in a very small car.

I know. I used to own a '77 Pontiac Firebird whose engine stopped on me (bloody American cars! ) .
Not sure about the small car being worse... you want to try pushing one of those things on your own!!!

[mr.bill]

I've always owned small cars, but I learned a long time ago that if you want to avoid accidents, always drive like everyone else on the road is a blithering idiot. It is much more dangerous on the roads now than it used to be. Far more vehicles, illegal aliens who cannot read English can get a license and then there is the popularity of huge Stupid Useless Vehicles driven by "soccer moms" who are too busy scolding the kids, putting on makeup and yakking on a cell phone to pay any attention to where they are going. Small car vs. Suburban or Excursion; small car loses. Luckily the trucks with double trailers are limited to a few interstates. Basil can probably tell you how the sweat pours out when you glance in the rearview mirror and all you can see is the front of a roadtrain with 'roo bars on the grill.

[Basil]

Quote:

Originally posted by mr.bill
Basil can probably tell you how the sweat pours out when you glance in the rearview mirror and all you can see is the front of a roadtrain with 'roo bars on the grill.

Too right mate !!

Ride a bike for a week on public roads and your car driving skills and awareness will increase 100 fold........

I'm sure R1 will agree

[mr.bill]

I used to ride a "murdercycle" (OSSA) on the streets 30 years ago, but gave it up as being too dangerous. Too many people in cars who cannot drive. I got run off the road (intentionally) by a looney old bag in a Cadillac who hated motorcycles. Luckily I managed to stay on the bike until I got it stopped. Reported the incident to the cops, but it was in a small town and her relatives ran things, so no recourse but to "forget about it and move on." Still have an old OSSA Desert Phantom dirt bike, haven't ridden in years but kept the bike because it was the 2nd one to arrive in the States and "Super Hunky" dented the exhaust pipe doing a test for Dirt Bike Magazine in '75. It is not street legal so that saves me from being tempted to pull on the old brain bucket and go for a ride. I am often tempted to buy a street bike, but some of them cost more than a car. That's another reason I considered a MINI.

[Dom]

Quote:

Originally posted by mr.bill
...with 'roo bars on the grill...

Are they an option on the new MINI?

Dom

[Basil]

Quote:

Originally posted by Dom


Are they an option on the new MINI?

Dom

In time ...... what a terrible thought!!

[mr.bill]

They could rename them "Basil Bars."

[lightbody]

I've been away all week on business...in the MINI supplied rental Vectra...

I called on Monday to see if they'd got my mini from the rescue service who held it for the weekend - they looked around and said they had.

Tuesday - no call from them.

Wednesday - no call, until I called to find out what was happening. Crankshaft sensor they told me - they'd had to order/fit a new one - the cars computer told them there HAD been a fault in the sensor, but they never actually made it go wrong...

They didn't even try to make a fuss about me holding onto their rental car until tomorrow - they got BMW to agree to it "we can hardly stop you working can we?" was what they said. So thats good. Not many other manufacturers would do that - would they?

I'm surprised no-one called me to ask me what exactly happened to the car - they seemed happier asking the cars computer than asking me - weird.

In my typical pessimistic mood, I'm really not confident that it won't cut out on me again - especially since they say they haven't heard of this before... but I've got another business trip to do next week - 1000 miles - so if it doesn't misbehave then I'll be happy.

I'm going to get it back tomorrow morning, will update this thread with anything interesting...

- Rob

[Basil]

Quote:

Originally posted by mr.bill
They could rename them "Basil Bars."

amazing......

[lightbody]

After a week of driving a Vectra, then getting back into the MINI was just amazing. The MINI is so much more ALIVE - its the only word I could think of for it.

I thought the gearlever wasnt working until i realised that its throw was about half of the Vectra's and it was actually in gear... I zoomed off unintentionally quickly - forgetting what hte sharp pedals are like - and the screen to a halt quicker than i meant to too!

At this point I was already grinning - it was like the day I picked it up all over again. For the rest of the day I zoomed around central Scotland with an enormous grin on my face - the fact that it was a lovely sunny day helped too.

My MINI is perfect again and I'm a very happy chappie!