10 replies to this topic

[Christoff-Mpi]

Hi all.
Having problems with the mini (99 MPi sportspack).
Basically the car has no pulling power, so slow It struggles to achieve 50.The engine oil is getting very hot and the car cuts out now and again. Its only happened today and no idea what it is. Actual engine temperature is fine but oil temp gets very hot and the oil light comes on as the oil becomes thin really thin.

Its not a healthy car. Any got any idea what the problem is?

[Ethel]

Check the water level, if the sensor is sat in air the engine can get much warmer than the gauge says

[Guess-Works.com]

What Ethel said.... Check the water level, also check the oil for evidence of water...

[Christoff-Mpi]

Hello, cheers for the advice but found out today that it was the Catalytic converter that caused my misery.And the fact she was a bit low on oil. Simple decat seems to have sorted the problem for now tho.

[Sprocket]

If the engine is in the situation where it is melting the cat, you seriously need to get it fixed and not just fit a decat pipe. Fix the problem and not the symptom

[R1minimagic]

Does the catalyst substrate have any melted cells? If you hold it up to a light can you see all the way through all the cells?

If you can then i don't see how the cat can be causing problems even if it has deactivated as there are no downstream sensors on a mini.

If it has melted then you obviously have some running problems but it would have to get well above 1000 degrees C before that happens!

I think you need to check the catalyst for evidence.

[Christoff-Mpi]

Corr blimey yeah didnt even think about that. I cant see through the car but it appears as iv the inside has cracked and broken rather than melted. But i shall investigate, cheers guys.

[R1minimagic]

I was going to say that. If the cat has hit some speed bumps or something then it could have cracked and crumbled over time, in which case the backpressure in the exhaust would be quite high and that would explain the performance issues.

[Christoff-Mpi]

Yeah i know the exhaust had been hit hard once by a silly mountain of a speed hump, but it all seemed fine and it wasnt on the cat that it hit. The car was running a little low on oil so that could explain the oil situatuion combined with the blockage making things worse.

[R1minimagic]

If the backpressure goes up everything will run hotter, the engine will be working very hard, so I think mainly the catalyst has caused the issues.

You should be Ok just to fit a new/2nd hand cat or run the de-cat but there could be some damage done to the bearings and maybe some deposit formation if the oil has got very hot.

How long have you had the problems?

[Christoff-Mpi]

Not long at all, Only 2 days max. But it all happened very fast but wasnt really put under pressure when it was performing so badly. I didnt try and push it at all because i knew somthing was wrong. Hopefully all seems fine.