Howdy,
the past week my Mini has been bunnyhopping and stalling.
When I take off from a complete stop, sometimes for no apparent reason the F*^k#$g thing stalls, or drops all power. Really handy when you are trying to pull out onto a major road or into traffic!!! If I give it HEAPS of revs and slip the clutch its okay, but this tends to leave a large patch of rubber on the road when I do this.
Othertimes its fine to drive cold or warm and doesn't need any abuse at all. Although it seems to be more prominent first thing in the morning. It Revs fine, it's just when it's under load, from standing start but also when in 2nd and car is moving.

Any ideas??

At first I was thinking dodgy fuel but has been going on for 2 tanks of fuel. Could be a partially blocked fuel filter or a fuel blockage somewhere? Then I remembered it's a Mini with Lucas electrics, so could be any F$%king thing.

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1970 Mini Deluxe - 1275, Weber, Clive 346 cam, MS 4-pot slotted discs, Megajolt ignition Now with new improved Mambas... almost on the road
1966 Van with Traveller rear seat conversion
2008 Prado GXL
All in various states of repair...

Prob not same thing but mine was doing that yesterday fine when it was cold once it warmed up putt putt putt so had to nurse it home slowly. Bought some new spark plugs today and changed them sweet as now (well we'll see) but old plugs were black as so maybe check them or cap, leads, coil???

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I was thinking it might be due to the rain we've had in Melb and that it might be moisture in the distributor.
Does this sound reasonable, even though it starts first time every time?

Stupid Fing Rover.....

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1970 Mini Deluxe - 1275, Weber, Clive 346 cam, MS 4-pot slotted discs, Megajolt ignition Now with new improved Mambas... almost on the road
1966 Van with Traveller rear seat conversion
2008 Prado GXL
All in various states of repair...

mmmm maybe, had trouble with that myself get a clean dry cloth and give it a wipe out see how she goes then

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Assuming this is SPI
What condition of the contacts on the distributor cap and rotor buttons? Are they all clean?

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If it is SPi, throttle position sensor (TPS) and MAP sensor are my two most likely suspects. Water in MAP sensor is bad, check there is no water in the MAP sensor line. This is the thin tube that runs from the intake manifold / throttle body to the underside of the computer, where the internal MAP sensor lives. If you've got water condensed in this line you may get weird responses to sudden vacuum changes.

TPS could just be worn out. My old Toyota AE86 ran like crap when the TPS wore out. The computer is expecting a smoothly varying resistance but when the TPS wears out there is open circuit and the computer doesn't know what to do. Test with multimeter, analogue is easier, just connect up to measure resistance and slowly move throttle. If resistance doesn't change smoothly, or drops out, TPS is stuffed.

Alternatively could be: Fuel filter, engine sensors, vacuum leak, blocked injector, water in fuel, crook fuel pressure regulator

M.

I'm no Rover Expert, but isn't there something about an in line fuse, or a fuse box tucked up under the scuttle that corrodes and gives these symptomns?

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Sir Alec! we are not worthy!

Outside of the fuse box, I think there are 5 in-line fuses. There is a group of them in the centre of the firewall on the engine side. Outside of this group there is at least one buried in the dash wiring. Only post 99 Rovers had a decent blade fues box inside the car.

Thanks for all the advice. To top it off the F%^king car broke down on the way home on the Eastern Fwy. IN THE RIGHT HAND LANE in peak hour. No indicators, and car won't start while doing 100kph, hmm that's odd and just a bit distressing. Now if i could only get to the left hand emergency lane.

Ring RACV..., they'll be there in an hour. Hmm I wonder why the indicators don't work? What if I try resetting the alarm?
Voila car will start. So now I'm noticing that everytime the car's stalling, burping and being a general ning nong the alarm light on the dash flickers. Could this be an electrical prob associated with the immobiliser or is there just a whole lot of things f$#king up at once with the stuupid Rover.

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1970 Mini Deluxe - 1275, Weber, Clive 346 cam, MS 4-pot slotted discs, Megajolt ignition Now with new improved Mambas... almost on the road
1966 Van with Traveller rear seat conversion
2008 Prado GXL
All in various states of repair...

Rip out/bypass any farken alarm bullshit nonsense crap device and see how it goes...
Definitely sounds suspect, but not certain that it is indeed that.

I agree with willy, try disabling the alarm / immobiliser permanently first (do this using the key for the alarm, not the remote) and see how you go. I had an MX-5 that did the same thing, for no apparent reason would decide to stall usually at the most inconvenient times like on the freeway. A mechanic suggested that I disable the cut off - never had the same problem again.

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One should never skimp on the zip ties.

Oh yeah! That's your issue. Alarms, depending on sophistication disable:
> Start
> Ignition
> Fuel
> Computer.

Sounds like yours is isolating the ignition or fuel pump power. Probably installed by the usual "strip & twist" method that you pay so dearly for at the usual ICE installers. A couple of drives & everything shakes loose.

FAAARRRKKK!!!

F*&king thing broke down again this morning. Ran ok from home. Stopped to get fuel, and wouldn't start. Engine just turned over and over and over and over and over, but no spark.

Checked spark plugs. They're new, (less than 1500km's). Rang RACV, I'm beginning to be very popular with them. I think I might put their number in speed dial on the mobile.

RACV guy shows up, "so show us what you did," I turn key and bastard starts, then ran all the way to work as if nothing had ever gone wrong.

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1970 Mini Deluxe - 1275, Weber, Clive 346 cam, MS 4-pot slotted discs, Megajolt ignition Now with new improved Mambas... almost on the road
1966 Van with Traveller rear seat conversion
2008 Prado GXL
All in various states of repair...