My 2009 Dooper has done 14000 miles and for the most part its been everything I was hoping for.
However about 5000miles ago it began to exhibit slight hesitation in the power delivery at small throttle openings and around 1500rpm. I've driven other Doopers with various mileages but never noticed this in any of them.
As the mileage has increased this 'hesitation' has worsened making it difficult to pull into the flow of traffic on a roundabout for example. I've also noticed an occaisonal 'misfire'.
It reminds me of a TDI PD 130 VW/Audi engine where there is initially no power until the turbo has spooled up and then there is a huge rush which has the driver scrabbling to change up a gear.
In my simple mind it feels like the actuator for the variable geometry turbo is sticking.
I asked my mini dealer to investigate when the oil was changed at 12500 miles but they failed to find any issue even though they drove it 40 or 50 miles and there were no fault messages logged.
The ECU adaptions were reset but the problem persists.
i had the same issue after my first inspection service and also asked the dealers to take a look but they couldn't replicate it. However the mechanic who collected the car from the house said that in the past when he's seen these type of symptoms it's been down to poor(er) quality fuel. I had been filling up at a different petrol station before it happened and the hesitation stopped when I stopped using that petrol station. worth a shot!
changing fuel is worth a go, as is perhaps calling in to Mini dealer and asking to try a demo car - see if it does it, if it doesn't then get the service manager to drive both and explain the difference.
Hi, I have a late 2008 Cooper D that has had exactly the same issues as you, the hesitation, then stalling etc I asked my dealer in the UK, and they couldn't find anything. It was as though a breather pipe was letting in air or the turbo wasn 't spooling up quickly enough. Last month it was noticeable but it had just had a service so I left it.
Went to the S of France 2 weeks ago, and it went it a big way, as in loads of smoke (turbo oil seal?) unable to run under 3k rpm, little power, no boost and 3 cylinders(?) then curtains, all in the space of 15kms. The car is 25 months old and has done 46000mls. It is still in France as I write, the Euro breakdown assistance is another story in itself!!
Will let you know what the outcome is as I'm sure it is directly related to the hesitation, which started about 10-12 months ago.
My car has had the turbo lag issues described above.... to-day it's died at the side of the road. I've used various types of diesel in the car so the old don't buy at Tesco is rubbish... Even they have to sell diesel which has passed standards etc.
The car would exhibit what would appear to be flat spots mainly around 1500rpm. It did this very badly to-day them now power and stopped. I tried to start again and it sounds like a bag of bolts then cuts out. No engine light nothing. I filled the car on Saturday and it was working perfectly for 35 miles this morning. I'll be interested to find out what they say as the car has had to be taken to the local dealers.
I got my new Cooper D in December 2009 and have driven about 35000 kms in 11 months. I think it is a great little car and have not had any problems, aside from the problem described here with the turbo lag. It is the reason I landed in this topic as I was searching for other Cooper D owners with similar problems.
I've had the problem for about 10k kms now, being not to severe at first, to atm completely stalling sometimes when pulling up from stand. So the first 25000 kms were fine!
The problem occurs frequently, but not always and on some days it happens several times and on other days not at all. It even varies in severity -from the engine picking up reluctantly to completely/almost stalling for about 1 second. I also noticed it always happens between about 1500 and 1800 rpm. Mostly when it happens I have been driving slowly behind other cars, low in rpm (< 1500) or after just having shifted a gear up from 1->2 or 2->3. In higher gears I did not notice the problem.
I decided to have the car checked by the dealer to be on the safe side, but I have small hopes that a problem will be found as I read this topic. The cooper will be in on monday the 22. november, so let's see..... of course they asked me - when I reported the problem - if I tried driving around a bit in high rpm's or changing fuel/gas station to see if it gets better, but that does not help: I always try to be careful with the car/engine but don't drive like grandad And for fueling up I go to several gas stations..... and mostly use regular diesel and sometimes VPower like diesel.
I can live with it for now - but hope it doesn't get worse :-(
Car's done over 20K miles now and have changed from supermarket fuel to Shell and now to BP diesel which initially seemed to have solved my issues however.....
I was driving along a local country main road last week behind a lorry at a constant 30 to 40 mph with very small throttle openings, at about 1500rpm, when all the old problems reappeared
The dealer has offered to have another look at it, over an extended period but I will probably leave it until the 25k service.
I don't hold out much hope of solving it as it's such an intermittent problem.
In my opinion the fuel 'quality' does make some difference to the overall smoothness of the engine but does not solve my issues with hestitation, flat spots and misfiring.
So frustrating.
Perhaps I'll just chop its in against a new one with the BMW diesel engine.
Anyone got experience of the 2 versions? i.e. Peugeot vs BMW diesel engines?
Perhaps it it the fuel injectors needing replacing or the fuel rail pressure regulator needing replacing. Both of these problems cause similar symptoms to the ones described in the posts so far.
I think either of these issues would show fault codes when plugged in at the dealer however.
I always by the same brand of diesel. Recently our local Caltex stations started to stock a different diesel that is supposed to better for your engine. It's to early to tell if it has made a difference.
I did find in the past with a high performance turbo engine that fuels from different petrol stations made it run worse. So I developed a habit of going to the petrol stations with good fuel. I have stuck to that with the Cooper D.
My Cooper D has been in this week for a check on the same problems I described earlier in this thread. And of course, not faults found and nothing was changed. Although I believe they looked extensively into the problem and took their time to ask me in more detail about the problem, I am still stuck with the problem as it still occurs. They told me that they were going to report the problem to BMW so let's hope more reports from similar cases will make some difference and someone will see the light on this...
On workdays I do no motorway driving. Just driving for about an hour (single stretch) on main country roads, but due to heavy traffic with a lot of start/stopping. Speeds vary from 65 mph down to 0
On weekends I get on the motroway frequently.
I never experienced the problem in gears 4, 5 and 6.
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And for fueling up I go to several gas stations..... and mostly use regular diesel and sometimes VPower like diesel.
2009 Cooper D Engine Problems (Turbo Lag) 
