GBMINI#3

… I reached 1250 miles tonight! Run-in miles officially over (though they were unofficially over at various times last Sunday).
Interesting to read what Carnuts Garage has to say about run-in miles:
… Once the break-in period is over, it is not a signal for “anything goes”. Gradually increase your RPM limit over the next thousand miles or so …

Yeah, well …

I have filled GBMINI#3 four times now, with calculated MPGs of 27.8, 24.8, 23.7 and 25.6; an overall average of 25.56.
This is about as low as my worst MPG on GBMINI#2 (and that was with the 210hp JCW upgrade!)
Obviously the automatic transmission has a significant effect on miles-per-gallon (some people claim it also hurts “smiles-per-gallon”!)

When I picked up GBMINI#3 from Sublime Restorations last week, the “SES” light was on – I dropped in to MINI Peabody and they did various tests and cleared the light.
Tonight on the way into town for dinner, the light came on again 😦

GBMINI#3 SES light

So I guess I will be back to MINI Peabody soon – hope this is not going to be a regular occurrence …

UPDATE: On the way to MINI Peabody the light cleared itself; nevertheless the log as read by the techs showed an “O2 sensor” fault.
Apparently, as Todd wrote in the comments, there is a known issue / interaction between the automatic transmission control algorithms and the engine computer – see this MINI internal service measure:

Since it was written, the issue has been partly identified and the dealership does not now need to hold the car; but a software fix under development is not yet available.