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Long time lurker, first time poster - these forums have been a great help to me with eliminating issues, so hopefully someone can point me in the right direction with this...

I'm on my third R56 Mini now, and the latest one has been nothing but trouble since practically the day I bought it

It's a 2010 MCS with a N14 engine. I won't bore you with the past issues, but at the moment I'm having problems which have surfaced in the last month or so...

1. Car is not firing up as normal - previously it would fire within 1 or 2 cranks, but now it takes three or four to start whether it's hot or cold.

2. No power in 1st at low revs making a swift take off of any kind almost impossible.

3. Low response between 2 - 3k revs - much better over 3k revs, but there is some hesitation there.

4. Intermittenly get a fluttering on the revs at idle - but this is very intermittent, doesn't do it every journey.

The coil packs and plugs were changed last year, and I've only done a few thousand miles on them. I've changed the Vanos solenoid and had a tiny bit of improvement.

I took the car to Lohen (as they're just round the corner from me) to have it de-coked. Made some improvement, but not much. They reckon it might be the turbo, but want it in for diagnostics along with an open ended cheque for labour... I've already thrown about £1.5k at this car and I've not even had it 12 months yet!!!

I've had the turbo pipes off, and there is a tiny bit of play in the shaft, but you'd expect that at 60k miles, it's not going to be like new.

Worst thing is I can't get the EML to come on, because that would be a great help at narrowing down what the issue is.

Any suggestions as to what I could check or what the issue is?

I've got a C110+ code reader to get live data, but I don't know what the "normal" readings are for a lot of things sadly.

 

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Thanks for the feedback

I've already ran out of patience with the car, so investing in a more expensive scanner is a no go for me I'm afraid... this thing needs to go once it's fixed.

Chain hasn't been done, is there anyway of knowing for sure? I'd hate to spend the money on that and then it still run like a bag of nails!

The only thing of interest I have noticed is that on the scanner I've got, even though the EML isn't on, it's showing a misfire on live data on cylinders 1 & 2 (two is worse than one) - would that indicate timing out (i.e. stretched chain?)?

 

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good luck fixing it without good data from diagnostics autocom cost £40 works on most cars up to 2015, as for the chain remove rocker cover and see how far the tensioner is out, as for misfire on 1 and 2 i would do compression test on both cylinders if both low add oil to each cylinders if reading increases then its a ring issue, if it dont could be head gasket blown between two cylinders, lek down test would how this better is air line in to one spark plug hole and if the cylinder next to it hisses that the issue, or could be could cracked valves maybe, compression test it would be my first job, also could move the spark plugs and coils from 1 ans 2 to 3 and 4 see if it all moves

£40 I can live with, I'll take a look - thanks!

How do I check the tensioner? Not something I've done before... getting the rocker cover off won't be an issue though.

I've tried moving the coils, nothing changes, still reads a misfire on 1 & 2.

Thanks again for you help

 

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Many thanks (again!) for the advice...

While I'm waiting for the scan tool etc. I've popped the rocker cover off and this is what I see:

The guide rail is still in place and there's nothing floating around but I've got no idea if the tensioner is gone or not!

I think I need a new rocker cover gasket though... bit of oil collecting around the edges.