10 replies to this topic

[The Don Phileone]

Rover mini cooper
1993

Hi guys, i have just bought a 93 cooper and am now having some problems.

Initially the car started fine and ran well, but after about 2 miles started to become a bit jumpy below 2500 revs. It then got to the point where the engine cut out at low revs, The engine wouldn't start although i managed to get it going again with a jump start.

All the time the revs wee kept higher than 3k the car ran perfectly but as soon as i let the revs drop the car would cut out. Had the bonet up second time and neither myself or my mate could see anything obviously wrong. Though when trying to turn the engine over it did cough up a great black cloud from the air filter.

Before i bought the car it had been SORN for 3 years, all though it was taken out for it's mot every year last MOT was September and it passed needing no work. The battery had been disconnected and fully charged while the car was off the road.

Does anyone have any idea what this problem might be.

Thanks in advance

Phil

[zelliott]

excuse me if i make a dick of myself..

but it wouldnt by chance be the choke?
i have one on my bike and quite often if you start it from cold without the choke it will cut out when you get to low revs.

i cant even remember if rover minis have chokes or not?

[df13]

Yes it would have a choke next to the brake test switch far left on the switch panel u need to pull it out before starting the car and then push it back in after abit other than that take the air filter off and make sure it's all cleaned out and fuel getting to the carb okay hope this helps

David.

[maston]

Yeah, take the air filter housing off, pull the manual choke out to keep it idling high and then spray some carb cleaner down the carb mouth. You could try the old fashioned technique of pouring redex down too (used to be great fun to really annoy the neighbours !). This should help.
Failing that check all the leads/plugs/dizzy are ok and clean/replace if necessary.
Hope this helps

[The Don Phileone]

cheers guys

will have a look at the air filter. Have driven choke cars before so prety sure it's nothing to do with that.

thanks again for getting back to me

[spam242]

i have had excatly the same proplem lately! thanks for the advise guys will let you know how it goes...

[mniguy_nz]

Do you have access to a compression tester. I blew a head gasket between 2nd and 3rd which behaved similarly. It would have poor compression from leaking through to the other cylinder but when it got up in the revs there wasn't enough time to force all that air through so it appeared to run smooth. Just a theory for yours and I hope its not that. Tell us what the problem is when you discover it and we'll all learn something

Good Luck Mate

[The Don Phileone]

Do you have access to a compression tester. I blew a head gasket between 2nd and 3rd which behaved similarly. It would have poor compression from leaking through to the other cylinder but when it got up in the revs there wasn't enough time to force all that air through so it appeared to run smooth. Just a theory for yours and I hope its not that. Tell us what the problem is when you discover it and we'll all learn something

Good Luck Mate

Hi Miniguy,

Not got access to anything remotely mechanical, although i'm pretty sure it's nothing like that. The car was only MOT'ed last month and hasn't been run since. apart from a quick drive back from the body shop, as it hadn't been taxed.

This was it's first proper outing in a couple of years and to be honest i only did about 5 miles tops.


Everyone else keep the suggestions rolling in and i'll report back with anything i find out

[reffle]

Check the piston that controls the air/fuel mix in the carb isn't sticking. Make sure the dashpot is topped up with oil.

[The Don Phileone]

Hey guys,

a mate of mine who knows what he's doing.

pulled a cable off the thing in the picture, squirted it with wd40 and twenty seconds later i had a happy perfectly functioning car.

Cheers for all the help though

Attached Files

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[reffle]

Thats the coil, it ups the voltage from 12V to well over 1000V for the distributor to then send to the spark plugs.