Newly installed turbo cutting out

JJBURRIS

MEMBER
2014 MINI COOPER S
1.6L
4 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
33,000 MILES

My car was in an accident and the turbo was replaced with an upgraded model (old psi about 12 max new about 20) along with an upgraded inter-cooler. Now under aggressive throttle car stutters (seems to be turbo). Yesterday when trying again had a cylinder misfire and the car went into limp mode home. Restarted and now running fine after clearing code. Car is okay during regular driving. Plugs are older but don't look bad, and swapped coil in 1 to 2 and have not received a new code. I do have a stock turbo down pipe that I will be swapping today as well as new, colder plugs. What do you think my issue could be?

1 Reply

STEVE W.

MECHANIC
13,463 POSTS

More than likely it is the extra boost. The ECU is mapped to the old system. The larger unit is pushing in more air than the stock injectors and engine can handle. To get it to work properly you will need to see if someone offers a tuning service to get it to use the higher boost. Keep in mind though that those increases may come with the cost of a blown engine or holes in the pistons from it running lean unless it is tuned. Even then the engine may not be able to handle the extra boost.
If it has an adjustable waste gate you could try adjusting it to lower the boost back to stock level until you can do the other work. If you live in a place that does smog testing the car may not pass with the tune in it either, depends on how they test.
Probably not what you wanted to hear but turbos are not real easy to deal with on modern cars with all the computers.