Please help, need carburettor and distributor

[mordamoja]

Hi,

Injection in my SPI mini is dying, and I am already fed up of fixing it.
Can anyone help?.
I am looking for brand new, reasonably priced carburettor HIF44, distributor 65DM4 and possible manifold. Second hand in good condition (no wear on the bearings, etc) will be good as well!
I know my emission will be above the limit so I am getting new catalytic converter as well.
Please give a shout if you could help. Perfect if you are around Dublin or Kildare area.

Thanks for reply and help.

[irlmin]

What is wrong with your injection system its normally trouble free , we even keep it with modified engines up to around 85 + bhp and even bore the throttle body and use 44mm butterflies , its really simple in design and really is only a carb if you look closely , what are the problems you are having and lets see if we can sort it here online before you give up and make a retrograde step by going to carb .
G

[mordamoja]

Thanks for quick respons!
This is 1996 SPI German import Cooper.
Basically engine cuts off, mainly when driving slowly in traffic on very low speed, just stops, and sometimes restarts after couple of seconds when I turn the ignition, sometimes I try several times before it starts again. Lately I had lots of problems to start the car from my drive way.
I had noticed as well the engine hesitate sometimes when accelerating, only for split of second before kicks off and full power is delivered.
I read about similar to these symptoms around the internet, but my knowledge is very limited so I better will not write about any possible thing that might cause this problem.
I was just advised to get rid of injection and replace with more reliable carburettor
Thanks

[irlmin]

It sounds like your idle speed is low and needs adjusting , I would check your throttle cable and make sure its adjusted correctly and as it sometimes is slow to start from cold I would look at the 'stepper' motor at the side of the throttle body to ensure its correctly operating , I am certain its an easy fix and if you feel like a trip to Cork I am sure we can have it sorted while you wait ,the Spi and indeed Mpi minis are usually 'bulletproof' and need very little maintenance BUT you do need to know how they work to keep them in good condition . let me know if I can help .
G

[mordamoja]

The car is at the moment in a garage waiting for potential carburettor donor.
I will definitely pass your comments to the gay who is doing the car. As far I know he had adjusted idle already and run some other checks. He has done my gearbox not so long time ago and I found him very good, but obviously I should gather as much opinion as possible before I start doing anything. It’s just I got this car last year in September and not driven much because there is always something wrong…..so I am trying radical steps!
Cork is lovely city and I would like to come back there one day, but at the moment I am lucky to drive to a local Tesco and back home the same day, so the journey to Cork seem to be little bit too much
If you had any news about the parts I am looking for please let me know.
Thanks very much

[irlmin]

No problem , BUT I would be very worried about the competence of anyone that would suggest taking the retrograde step of fitting a carb to an injection mini , all I would say is be careful and make sure you keep all your old parts as at some stage you should consider having it repaired correctly .
G

[irlmin]

Just one other thing , was the mini cutting out at idle when you bought it OR was it just after the gearbox was done I ask because there are sensors and vacuum pipes that may have been disturbed during the work and are now causing this problem , when the 'cable' was adjusted did the guy adjust the idle after using the Rover diagnostic computer if not how did he do it
G

[mordamoja]

Hi again,

It started to show these symptoms before changing gearbox, not so often so I could life with it. The only modification I have done since I own the car was changing filter box for K & N 57i Kit, and as I found out from different forums, the car did not need any rolling road test etc, just fit and go, so I did.
Gradually the symptoms worsened until I got fed up and decided to bring the car to the mechanic.
He did check vacuum pipes, not sure about sensors. Because of other people suggestions I told him what in their opinion (thanks to the mini forum) might cause the problems.
He assured me he did check everything.
My understanding for names of parts, elements of engine is very limited as I am foreign nationality, so I do not understand everything, but I have to admit I am very happy with the job that was done on my gearbox, so I could have certainty about what his diagnoses are.
What do you think?
Thank you ones again for concocting me in order to solve this problem!

Maciej

[irlmin]

The K+N induction kit is of no use on a mini !!!!!!!!!! it will make more noise and produce no power increase it will only serve to cause lean running ,where did you put the sensor that was on the airbox originally I think you need to get the standard set-up back on and have the car 'reset' to factory default settings before you move any further .
G

[mordamoja]

The sensor that was originally on the airbox was inserted in specially designed hole at the bottom of K & N induction. This is where it should be placed according to the manual sent with induction kit.
If you were actually on K & N website they recommend this kit for 1996 SPI mini, as they have kits for any other cars. From my own experience I’ve seen many coopers with those kits and they were not suffering similar symptoms.
In relation to bulletproof SPI and MPI; it depends were you look and what you read, for example, this is from minimania website:
....Know as Single Point Injected or SPi for short, the system also incorporated its first ECU into the car. This version of the Mini was produced until late '96 when it was changed to the Twin Point or Multi Point injected version. The SPi Mini might have achieved the objective of better fuel economy and emissions control, but the loss of performance and reliability still plagues the life of the SPi Mini. In addition the SPi Mini is very difficult at best to upgrade to get any significant performance enhancements……
It’s just little bit of confusion at the moment, but I am sure I will somehow get this right, perhaps after your recommendation I will plug the car to ROVER computer in order to diagnose the problems.

Many thanks

Maciej

[irlmin]

Minimania are based in the USA and the SPi and TBi minis were never sold there therefore they have no experience of working on them and their comments are just typical of someone that has no experience in solving problems that may occur , the SPi is almost trouble free if treated correctly and 99% of the problems we see are caused by third party intervention and people with no experience of the system trying various 'solutions' and making things much worse , why I mentioned the Rover computer is because it will allow adjustment of the idle speed and reset the parameters etc , the Mini 'MEMS ecu is a complex system that will self adjust to compensate for things like wear in the engine , fuel octane etc , the SPI minis are restricted in power outputs beyond 85 bhp ( remember std Coopers have 63 ) and of course you will have to look at other options if you want to get higher power outputs , I am basing my opinions on working with SPI minis since they were new and working on and owning hundreds .
G

[Owen]

Twoki jenzyk Angielski jest Doskonale

[mordamoja]

Minimania are based in the USA and the SPi and TBi minis were never sold there therefore they have no experience of working on them and their comments are just typical of someone that has no experience in solving problems that may occur , the SPi is almost trouble free if treated correctly and 99% of the problems we see are caused by third party intervention and people with no experience of the system trying various 'solutions' and making things much worse , why I mentioned the Rover computer is because it will allow adjustment of the idle speed and reset the parameters etc , the Mini 'MEMS ecu is a complex system that will self adjust to compensate for things like wear in the engine , fuel octane etc , the SPI minis are restricted in power outputs beyond 85 bhp ( remember std Coopers have 63 ) and of course you will have to look at other options if you want to get higher power outputs , I am basing my opinions on working with SPI minis since they were new and working on and owning hundreds .
G

Again, those Americans!
Just have heard this morning in the news,they are greatest people in the world……questionnaire were conducted in America . How wrong they are?
I spoke already this evening with the mechanic, and he is going to diagnose the car at the weekend, and getting some spare parts to SPI to replace them and if works he will fit them.
So, I hope there are good news cooming soon, because it seem like the weather is slowly improving and I am getting little bit impatient.
I will let you know what happened, so I could confirm that your intuition was dependable.

Cheers G

Maciej

[mordamoja]

Twoki jenzyk Angielski jest Doskonale

Ha ha….

Your Polish is definitly improving since you sent your post last time!
I wonder who’s the teacher, with such great skills to pass the knowladge so smoothly?
No surprise all good ones had emigrated to Ireland!

Cheers
Maciej

[Owen]

Dziekuje To jest moja dziewczyna. Hope you get your car sorted.