noisy engine

[PipCoop]

Would anyone else say that the engine on their Cooper causes them to feel a minor but noticable (and irritating) vibration through the back of the drivers seat between 2-3000 rpm. I have taken it to the garage twice and they say this is a normal characteristic.

I drive a One when mine was in the garage and this did the same thing but much less obviously and you really had to put the throttle down.

[Basil]

Quote:

Originally posted by PipCoop
Would anyone else say that the engine on their Cooper causes them to feel a minor but noticable (and irritating) vibration through the back of the drivers seat between 2-3000 rpm. I have taken it to the garage twice and they say this is a normal characteristic.

I drive a One when mine was in the garage and this did the same thing but much less obviously and you really had to put the throttle down.

Welcome to MINI2 PipCoop

Someone around here will help you out shortly I'm sure.

[PipCoop]

My problem has got worse!.

If I put the car in 5th gear and put my foot to the floor at 1,500 rpm it starts to accelerate slowly but as it reaches 2,000 rpm as pretty loud deep BRRRRRRR sound builds up and then goes away again to normal engine noise as it reaches 2,500 to 3,000 rpm.

At-least it is obvious enough for the garage to have to fix it now.

[HarryHBMCC]

Exhaust may need an adjustment. Often you only get effects at certain harmonic reasonance frequencies. My MINI is fine with this but in the year or two before I traded my Geo Metro in for the MINI I had all kinds of exhaust rattles and vibrations that would be fixed for a day or a week and then they'd come back or new ones would come up. I hope they can find it as exhaust gremlins can be tough to find and sort out. Good luck!

Harry

[catalyst]

Pip -

You wrote:

"If I put the car in 5th gear and put my foot to the floor at 1,500 rpm it starts to accelerate slowly but as it reaches 2,000 rpm a pretty loud deep BRRRRRRR sound builds up and then goes away again to normal engine noise as it reaches 2,500 to 3,000 rpm."

Does your MINI generate the same vibration and sounds in lower gears?

I ask because IMHO flooring the accelerator in 5th gear at 1500 RPM doesn't sound like a good thing to do - at only 1500 RPM in 5th gear, the engine is so far out of its power band that it is likely to suffer and strain - I believe some folks call this "lugging" the engine.

catalyst

[PipCoop]

Yes it will do it in lower gears although it is pretty difficult to keep doing it in traffic in 1st!.

I agreed that it isn't a nice thing to do. However if a Daewoo Matiz can manage a similar thing without becoming a vibrating mess I've have though my MINI should be able to occasionally as well!. What I described was the best way to demonstrate the problem rather than my normal driving habits.

[Basil]

Let us know what the outcome was from your Dealer Pip.

Your right, regardless of being in too low a gear, it should simply be a case of the engine struggling as opposed to major vibrations.

[PipCoop]

She's booked into the MINI Doctor next tuesday so I will feed back the diagnosis.

[PipCoop]

Car is back from the garage. The plastic case around the air intake apparently had a big crack in it so they said the noise was an induction sound with too much air being sucked in?.

Although the louder noise has now been fixed I still believe the original problem exists, i.e. a minor but noticable vibration. Oh well.