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 Posted: Jan 4, 2021 07:49AM
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Will do ... so far, it's going good. In hindsight, I learned something that concerns me with the Mini. 

As I said before the car just died, then hours later it just works. No codes, no apparent issues. 

In replacing the fuel pump and the housing that holds the fuel filter and HP pressure regulator I noticed there are two fuel floats, Both of these are in the tank and accessible under the rear seat, one on the driver side (USA car, fuel pump) and one on the passenger side (housing). I wondered why but assumed they were redundant. 

When I replaced the fuel pump, I lost the gauge, so this showed that if one fails they both fail. The new pump was not the issue, and it eventually ended up failing in the same way.

I never really questioned the two-level sensors after that until recently. 

I cannot say for sure, but what if every time I had a failure it was at a 1/4 tank or less. I know a few of the fails came after a left turn, sometimes at speed, which would throw the gas to the passenger side. The two sensors are because the tank has a hump for the exhaust. So it is possible to starve the fuel pump yet had tons of fuel in the tank. 

I can't imagine how this was not noticed before by shops or "experts" I have consulted, BUT remember this ... if your Mini just dies, for no reason, then can restart ... with no codes or indication ... yet you have fuel indicated ... then maybe it's an issue with the fuel delivery and not an electrical or mechanical issue at all.

Cheers and thanks for the help ... if anything changes I will report here.

 Posted: Jan 4, 2021 06:15AM
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Thanks for the post - keep us updated.

 Posted: Dec 31, 2020 08:02AM
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The limp mode has not happened in a year, it's gone to complete stalling.

BUT and this is a big BUTT ... yesterday we decided to bring some gas picking up the vehicle. We tried to start it and it would not ... then we added gas, and it fired right up and has gone 75 miles so far with no problem.

My theory on what happened is when we replaced the Fuel Filter housing and the HP regulator ... that has a float in addition to the float on the fuel pump. The last two stalls were both low fuel levels, so I think even though the gauge said over a 1/4 tank and the trip computer said I had 70 miles left in the tank, I ran out of gas.

So I will reset the trip miles every run and make sure I fill around 1/2 to a little less of a tank. See if I can correlate the data there as well.

I believe the problem was actually a few steps back with the fuel filter housing/HP regulator since every stall after that was at low fuel levels. I am glad I did the CPS myself since the part cost $70 and took a few hours to replace versus having a shop do it for $550.

Going to drive it a bunch here and then got to So. Cal to sell it with my son, for some reason convertibles are not desirable during wintertime in So. Oregon;-) Will keep all up to date on my findings ... since this has been an odd one.

FWIW, I did confirm when it died, the tach was still working which implies the CPS is still working.

 Posted: Dec 31, 2020 06:33AM
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It seems that if your car goes into limp mode, there should be a fault code in the computer...  This fault code may yield some clues....

 Posted: Dec 30, 2020 08:39AM
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ARRGGGGGHHHHHH ... 1500 miles and it died again:-(

The only difference here was this was the first time i used the spare key ... also it was the first time since the last repair I did not have BOTH keys in the car. 

Does this sound more like a key issue? I'm afraid to take it to a shop again since they are clueless.

 Posted: Dec 17, 2020 04:43AM
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Thanks for sharing! Glad you finally figured it out!

 Posted: Dec 16, 2020 02:46PM
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Wow, this is a shaggy dog story and is played out in the following thread:

 

https://www.minimania.com/msgThread/126191/1/26/Stalls_On_Freeway__hours_later_restarts_no_problem

In a nutshell, the car would stall, sometimes it would restart, and in others, it would have to be towed, although it would eventually restart. Also, it would randomly go into LIMP mode and required a restart, although that stopped the last 5k miles.

This was going on for about 20k miles and got progressively worse.
I replaced the following:
1. Battery
2. Fuel Pump
3. Fuel Filter
4. Fuel Filter housing with HP regulator
5. Serpentine belt
6. Gas tank purge valve.

What appears to have finally fixed it is the Crank Position Sensor. Apparently, these buggers fail while driving and will not throw codes!! You'd think the computer would say IF no CPS signal, is the engine still spinning via Cam Position sensor? If yes throw a code.

You will see on the thread ... someone who had the same problem fixed it with the HP fuel regulator, which is in the tank.

I have worked on the mini a bunch now and although I dislike the lack of room, they did do a good job making things easy to get to once you REMOVE THE ENTIRE FRONT OF THE CAR. This sounds awful if you've never done it but goes rather quickly.