Hello all!
Merry Christmas and happy new year to you all!
I've had a problem with my mini cutting out whilst driving which has deteriorated over time. The car is an '89 reg with an A plus 1275 engine put in to it. Single carb.
The first encounter was driving on a motorway where it cut out whilst driving. I took it off the motorway, gave it a rest and it was fine. It was then fine for the most part on the short journeys I used it for (didn't really take it on motorways or big A roads as no need). I then had my first MOT done and after this the engine was a lot more responsive and felt better. The MOT replaced a lot of wiring, the ignition coil was replaced and the fuel was adjusted.
I took this on a large A road to push the engine and see how it responded but found it did the same thing again - it would start cutting out and losing power around 60mph after a minute of driving (probably 4.5K revs, maybe 5). If I shifted down a gear and it slowed down it would just about continue on but deteriorate until I was going back down under 40mph.
I took it off the A road and managed to drive home easy enough whilst travelling at these easy speeds.
I took it on a longer drive to a friends house but avoiding fast roads to see how it behaved but found it actually seemed to have gotten worse and it kept dying whilst driving. I got the car home after a very stop/start journey and left it for some time before I had the money to get a mechanic round to look at it.
During this time I did have a look at it with a friend to see if we could see any clues as to what was happening. We tried short drives locally but as soon as it tried to accelerate quickly and maintain a fast speed it would cut out. It was definitely getting worse. During these weeks I would turn it on to hear how it sounded and found it was really struggling to stay on, eventually cutting out after just idling for a few minutes.
The mechanic came and checked the ignition coil but this didn't seem to be heating up to indicate it was this that was failing, and as mentioned it had been recently replaced in the MOT. He checked the points condenser and didn't seem to think it was this that was causing the issue as there was a decent blue spark as the key was turned. We started the car and, as the engine died, turned the key off. We checked the little fuel pot that is before the carb (not sure what this is called) to see if there was fuel in there, which there wasn't. This suggested it was a fuel delivery issue.
We've just replaced the mechanical fuel pump but now the car won't even kick over. It sparks and then dies before maintaining any real revs.
He has suggested that this might mean there is stuff caught in the fuel tank which is clogging up the delivery of fuel (he did mention this could be the case before replacing the fuel pump but thought it was less likely). The new fuel pump might be increasing the pressure at which the fuel is being drawn through and therefore dragging whatever is in the thank in to the exit point of the fuel tank faster and therefore not allowing any fuel to be delivered.
I can understand the logic of that and I have had the guy recommended to me as he is used to older cars so I don't think he is having me on, I just thought it would be good to see if anyone else has any thoughts on what could also be causing this issue.
If anyone has any thoughts that would be great! Also, if I've missed any crucial information please let me know and I'll add this in.
Thanks in advance!
Noah