No turbo!

[Lawrothegreat]

Hi, I couldn't see any other obvious posts on this, so here we go!

I have a Nov 07 build R56 MCS, which generally has been very good. It has just been run in, and today I was driving along at about 3000rpm in 2nd gear for about 20 seconds, and then I put my foot down: result? - acceleration like a normal 1.6 litre (Cooper for example) but no turbo kicking in whatsoever. I accelerated up to 4000rpm waiting, then slowed down. The engine was fine after this, and has been fine since. I am not talking about the difference between normal turbo boost and overboost, this was simply no boost.

Has anyone else experienced this?

I also have the engine clutter, but only sometimes when its cold - sounds nasty but lasts less than 30 seconds.

[caesar]

Hi, an interesting thread which has not appeared before!!

A couple of questions: -
a) At the time this occurred was the Sports button on or off?
b) How hard did you press the throttle

On my July 07 MCS you can tell when the Turbo kicks in by the induction noise, did you hear anything?

[Lawrothegreat]

Thanks for your response.

I honestly can't remember whether the sport button was on or off.

This was full throttle.

It has happened once since, so looks like a trip to the dealers.............

[Lohen]

Quote: Originally Posted by Lawrothegreat (original)

simply no boost....

Has anyone else experienced this?

I also have the engine clutter, but only sometimes when its cold - sounds nasty but lasts less than 30 seconds.

We know the story of both those problems...

1. When our R56 had some warranty work done on the clutch, BMW decided no to put all the pipe work on properly and the car was very slow, probably around the Gen 1 Cooper area. It was obvious to us since we had already done 6K in the car and knew how fast the cars was.

2. The engine clutter - not sure if you have the same thing as we did... one of our "tensioners" was a little too loose and was rattling at idle A LOT, so we had that fixed under warranty.

I suppose you should just go to your dealer and be honest with them that the car is slow and not performing very well at all!!!!!!! And see what they find, at the end of the day you paid a lot of money for YOUR MINI and it should be right!

There!

Andrey

[brgc00perboy]

Hi Andrey

What warranty work did you have done on the clutch. 50% of the time mine is difficult to select 2nd and the thrust plate bearing rattles noticeably when the car has been running for 20 min or more. Should you j expect thrust plate bearing noise on a car thats only done 10K?? :-(

Cheers,

Paul

[turbo tel]

I had a similar problem, not just once but around 3 times and it lasted for 10 mins or more, the car just felt like a cooper, no Turbo. later it would feel Ok but there was still something missing.The dealer seems to have fixed it by replacing some inlet manifold gaskets -- at least thats what they said..

[gez09]

Sounds like the boost pipe popped off hence no boost.

[kenatMiniMania]

This happens to our MCS from time to time. There is a short post discussing this problem in the NAM post. Apparently, some type of software glitch.

As soon as we check our MINI for codes, the problem clears up even with no codes recorded... It seems like a software glitch...

edit: It feels like the bypass valve is stuck open, but we haven't confirmed that yet...

[Lawrothegreat]

great thanks for your posts.

the car is going to the dealer later this week so we shall find out!

It has happened a few times now - the other day I was driving at about 30mph in 3rd gear, went to full throttle, and the car started to accelerate like a normal 1.6 litre. It took a good 1-2 seconds for the car to boost. I'm not an automotive engineer and my knowledge on turbochargers extends to a quick read on wikipedia, but my thoughts are:

• Twin scroll problem, only one of the channels of exhaust gases properly working?
  
• Wastegate / dump valve (what does the MINI have?) - allowing air to escape into the atmosphere too early / not allowing the pressurised air to reach the cylinders?
  
• what else has been mentioned here!

Will update if the source is discovered.

[kenatMiniMania]

Lawro, any updates?

Thanks,
Ken

[Lawrothegreat]

Thanks for asking. Unfortunately the dealer could find nothing wrong. The car had only covered 3 miles by the dealer so it hadn't been extensively tested. The problem only occurs every hundred miles or so, so I'm just going to keep an eye on it and try and work out a pattern as to when and why it occurs. I've got a feeling it is software related rather than mechanical. As I drive around 20,000 miles a year, and plan to keep the car for 3 years I will get to the bottom of it! - and I will update this thread if (when) I discover the cause.

[kenatMiniMania]

Thanks for the update lawro. I will post if/when we find out anything at our end.

Ken

[Den W]

Hi guys I had a similar problem with mine.. It was a software problem my dealer (ELMS Bishops stortford) had to get an update disc which took about a week to arrive.. So far so good (touch wood!) but mine is an earlier build than yours Dec 06

Den

[kenatMiniMania]

Thanks Den, let us know if anything changes with your MINI, or maybe an occasional update to let us know the problem hasn't re-surfaced.

Thanks,
Ken

[Den W]

Quote: Originally Posted by kenatMiniMania (original)

Thanks Den, let us know if anything changes with your MINI, or maybe an occasional update to let us know the problem hasn't re-surfaced.

Thanks,
Ken

Hi Ken
As yet the car is still running well only the 'cold start rattle' as experienced by quite a few other owners is the only 'problem' I'm having

All the best

Den