Australian Idle

Yep, it's my first post and it unfortunately ended up being in Faults and Fixes. I have been watching these forums since buying my Mini and have found it a boundless source of information but have never needed to post myself till now.

Let me start by saying that I love my MCS even more than I thought I would. Sure beats my old Impreza RX, but this little problem has put a slight tarnish to the finish...

Had the little fella (more affectionately known as Astro) for just over two months now and everything was sweet till about 2 weeks ago when all of a sudden it started to idle high even after becoming warm. By high I mean it sits around 1100 when idle at the lights with a secondary symptom of surging between 1100 and 1500 when it gets real hot. The surge has a frequency of about 1 second between the two (ie, it jumps from 1100 to 1500 and back again within a second) and will keep going back and forward till I take off. This is rather embarrasing at the lights as everybody thinks you wanna race! Funny thing is that if I turn the air-con on, it idles perfect.

Another thing, that I didn't really think was related, was that every now and then (1 out of 10 times) I'll get into the car, start it, and then the first time I use the brakes, there is no pressure (as if trying to use the brakes with the ignition off). After I drive off, it's all good and doesn't happen.

Took it to BMW Parramatta yesterday morning and booked it in. The guy told me that the idle problem was more than likely an air leak from a hose around the intake/manifold and they would have it fixed by lunch. With the bonnet up, I could detect a slightly different note, so accepted this as the go and went about my business.

Got a call back from them around lunch saying that it won't be finished today as there is now another problem. (What!!) Basically, if they fix the air leak, the car is a mongrel to start and won't idle properly at all, if they break the leak (as I took it in) the car starts properly, but then the idling problem I took it into get fixed is still there. On further discussion with the service guy, it seems that the brake problem could also be related to this as pressure is vacuum fed via the manifold.

Anyway, they are now trying to use parts off a new MCS to see if they can troubleshoot the problem. I am very anxious to get Astro back and hope this is not the start of an ongoing saga....

Service assures me that this is not a common problem, anyone else out there had a similar thing?

Cheers

AstroBoy d^_^b