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Mini Cooper D has developed a slight hesitation, feels like fuel loss. Happens sporadacicaly and only with in about 5 min of starting. Yesterday the car just cut out, wouldn’t start for about 2 minutes then all fine.
Just been serviced but didnt plug plug it in . Bloke at work reckons he has diagnostic kit, should I let him loose, what damage can he cause?
Garage that did service great at bolting things on and on and replacing parts, not convinced they are great with the laptop stuff.
What do do you think?
Can’t do any damage reading codes. Petrol ones suffer from high pressure fuel pump (hpfp) not sure if diesels have one. Currently and only ever had petrol Cooper s.
Supermarket diesel? Ours had exact symptoms. Put a tank of the expensive BP stuff through it and then ran it on the normal BP stuff since. Never had an issue again. The way I understand it is the supermarket stuff is European spec which is lower than the BP/Shell UK spec. The lower quality of the supermarket stuff some engines don't like. I don't know if any of that is true or not but running on BP/Shell never had an issue since. Worth giving a shot before paying for diagnostics.
Hmmm just put a tank of Asda fuel into it.
I had the same last week directly after filling up in sainsburies fuel, cleared up after 2 weird hesitancies and hadn’t returned. Have since refuelled at sainsburies...
Oddly enough our symptoms began after Asda fuel. The advice I received was from a mini forum where other people were experiencing the same. Must be something in it. I'd get it down to half a tank and brim it with BP and only use decent quality fuel from there. Should be trouble free then .
The supermarket fuel adheres to the minimum standard that is legal. I went to a Shell seminar on fuel in conjunction with my job. I would never put supermarket fuel near my car again. I use Shell V power when I can or BP Ultimate if I can't find that.
While I do think branded fuel is better, I would not walk out of a Shell seminar without a healthy dose of sceptism, it's not like they are impartial 🙂
I think that the fact it has been recently serviced is significant here. Wouldn't surprise me if they have disturbed some electrical connection or not put something back as it should be. The risk of reliability issues increases significantly straight after maintenance activity so that is your most likely cause. I'd give the garage a call back with the "ever since you did the service it's had this problem" line and leave it to them.
Using your 'mates' diagnostic kit won't harm, but they only tell you what the symptoms are, not necessarily the root causes - i.e. what sensor or component is triggering the fault, but not why...it could be a fault in that sensor, or a fault further down the line meaning that sensor is not functioning correctly, so might still need some investigative work doing.
When was the fuel filter last changed ?
If you doubt the fuel in the tank, buy some Millers Diesel additive and put a double dose in the tank.
ODBC II readers are cheap, and will bluetooth to a phone app and tell you if there is an error, and what it is.
Was just about to say "fuel filter" but cranberry beat me to it. If you don't have a full tank most of the time in winter months you can get condensation build-up, which flows into the filter.
There's no difference between supermarket fuel and your generic Shell / Esso / BP etc.
Possibly some crap in the tank which was disturbed refuelling. A friend had really odd symptoms where every now and then the car would cut out. After months of issues was traced to a small bit of plastic inside the fuel tank which every now and then block a pipe. After cutting out suction would stop allowing the plastic to float around some more.
(not a mechanic!)
A few direct injection cars don't like supermarket fuel.
You are wrong if you think asda fuel and branded fuel is the same
08 era Transits don't like Tesco or Morrisons fuel. Sets the pump hunting.
Asda or shell fuel stops it hunting. Will run for months on Asda or shell with no issues. Shortly after you use Tesco or Morrisons it hunts and sounds broken till you get it sufficiently diluted.
My dad had one with these symptoms - from new) my mate bought one near end of life and it also has these symptoms - he was panicking the first time it did it.
But it's the same stuff don't let anyone tell you other wise 😉
What's the mileage? If it's above 60k change the fuel filter first, BMW rate as a life component so they never get changed at services but once you take one out you might beg to differ.
I've only ever had problems with poor fuel twice. Both times from Asda. Both times it cleared up when filled up with something different (not premium stuff, just not Asda). I now actively avoid Asda fuel unless absolutely desperate and then only a splash to get me somewhere better.