Ugh. Owned my 2011 MCS for less than three weeks and the check engine light came on today. Did not notice any loss of power so I am hoping it is just an exhaust issue. Made an appointment with the closest MINI dealer for Friday morning. Any suggestions for any car behavior issues I should be aware of between now and my service appointment? I just want to be as educated as possible.

Thanks

 

did you just fill up the gas tank? a loose gas cap will trigger the check engine light

 

I filled up 5 days ago and have driven close to a 150 miles on this tank. If it were the gas cap would the light come on immediately?

 

Interesting... Hope it isn't anything serious.

 

yeah, it comes on quick

 

Pick up a to pull the code. It could be something minor, so reset the code and see if it pops up again.

* They also make inexpensive ($15-$20) bluetooth & wifi scan tools that work with iOS and Android apps. You can monitor dozens of sensors in real time. I find this to be a better value than the reader/eraser tool.

 

Thanks for the tip. Could you link me to a Bluetooth scan tool that you mentioned in your second point? Sounds interesting.

 

Have you been a little hard on your new toy? It took me by surprise as well, when the light came on after leaving church one Sunday two weeks back. The techies may disagree with what I say below, but this has been my experience...

If the light is yellow/orange it means you won't lose power but should drive it carefully until the problem has been identified and resolved. So I ran it up to the dealer on Monday morning and they wanted me to leave the car for a day at least. Nah.

I called a close friend / trusted mechanic who knows my driving habits. He said that I should add a quart of oil and then restart the motor. Sure enough, light went out.

So I drove it hard for a couple more days and the light came back on. Added another quart of oil and then restarted the motor again, same thing - light went out.

I've been behaving much better with it since, and the light has not come back on. Not sure if running 93 octane gas is too lean, but I only put super premium in the tank. There are no signs of the black exhaust carbon on the chrome tips, and I haven't smelled oil nor seen any signs of a leak anywhere. I'm just using the Sport button too much and running it hard maybe.

Another observation is that the oil dipstick is basically useless. Even after letting the car sit overnight, when I pulled it to check the level in the morning the whole orange-ish guage at the tip came out completely full of oil and therefore indistinguishable from when the motor was hot and oil level was low. Wish there was an electronic way to get the level off the dash (like in the BMW's).

Hope this helps. And I welcome any feedback from those who know more. Cheers.

 

My light came on a couple of days ago, I have a scangauge and pulled 2 codes that detected misfires. Took it to my local shop and they verified that I have carbon build up on the valves, not a huge amount, but enough to be a problem. I also noticed it hadnt been idling as smoothly as usual lately.
So I get the car back later today. They are cleaning the valves and replacing the spark plugs just for good measure since I am over 30,000 miles.

 

This discussion is kind of meaningless unless you know the code. You need an OBDII scanner. You can get an ELM Wifi OBD device for $20 on eBay and read codes with a smart phone now. Pays for itself within the first use. Standalone devices are pretty much obsolete now with how rampant iPhones and Androids have spread. Otherwise, let the useless "it might be" posts roll right on in!

Oh yea, don't just add a quart of oil for no damn reason *face palm* There is such a thing as overfilling an engine with oil.

 

LOL, pretty funny. Yeah I'd completely agree that adding oil randomly isn't advisable. With that being said, the whole purpose of my post was to ask about the OP's immediately preceding driving history. If you push these little turbo motors pretty hard for extended periods they DO CONSUME OIL. Moreover, there'll be no indication that the oil level is low until that simple (scary) little orange light turns on (seemingly out-of-the-blue).

The other point I was making was that I fully agree with your post (and others) who've said that having our own ability to diagnose the engine light is a must-have in today's market. The dealerships want to charge an arm & a leg, and keep the car overnight. It's a revenue thing for them, but for us it's both cost and inconvenience.

Getting back on track, and continuing to keep it on the positive side, I'd like to hear from the wrenches who know how these little power plants consume so much oil without leaving any residue or evidence of being burned off. At least with my N54 it's easy to see the black soot tipped exhaust pipes as a result of a hard days running.

Cheers

 

thermostat or high press fuel pump

 

My gut instinct says it's not carbon buildup because I had a huge amount of carbon buildup and it never affected idling, this is typically what the dealers do before even checking the HPFP. Do you know how many members have had their MCS's intake valves cleaned only to still have problems with misfires? Too many, I see a pattern emerging here!

Can you link an OBDII scanner that doesn't get in the way of your left leg and one that's for an iPhone please? Don't you need a Bluetooth not WiFi OBDII scanner for MCS?

Thanks

 

Just made it home from the MINI dealership in Louisville. Good news, the light came on for some type of leak in the exhaust. However, the tech said they were unable to find any leak, so it is simply a programming issue.

The actual invoice states, "21561 CHECK ENGINE LIGHT CAUSED BY SMALL EVAP EMISSIONS LEAK DETECTED CUSTOMER RETURNING VEHICLE FOR PROGRAMMING."

I did find out a great piece of news and that is, unbeknownst to me, the car had the extended maintenance plan (good through July 2014), and in the course of doing their inspection they recommended I have the front brakes replaced which the maintenance plan will cover! *VIRTUAL FIST BUMP* I will admit it is kind of nuts to be needing new brakes at 22k miles though.

The other bit of good news is that when I purchased the car the factory warranty was set to expire in March of 2015. However, because the car was some kind of demo the factory warranty was extended. Now, my bumper to bumper warranty runs through October of next year! *ANOTHER VIRTUAL FIST BUMP"

The only bummer is the reprogramming and brake job will take 3 to 5 hours and they could not do it today. So, I have to set up an appointment and drive 2 hours back to the dealership in a couple of weeks. That sucks, but she said they would give me a loaner so I could go into the city and mess around for the day while the work is completed. And they did assure me the brakes were really not in that bad a shape and despite the check engine light being on the car was perfectly fine to drive until I return.

 

Thermostat has nothing to do with oil. If you were losing coolant or engine was running hot and not circulating coolant at all then that could be a busted thermostat.

 

I've seen them both for wifi and BT. How about this one -

http://www.ebay.com/itm/IOBD2-Wifi-Wireless-OBD2-Scanner-for-Iphone-Ipod-touch-OBDII-Apple-Code-Reader-/110964082062?pt=Motors_Automotive_Tools&hash=item19d5f9858e&vxp=mtr

 

This looks perfect, thanks!

 

...enlightening, even if it is a bit dated...

http://www.clubscmm.com/board/index.php?topic=8979.0

...

Cheers !!

 

Sigh. So, today, in addition to the check engine light, I now have the TPMS telling me all four tires are low AND that the gas cap is not secured. Just frustrating, but hopefully something easily resolved when I go to the dealer for the re-programming appointment on April 23rd.

 

Cold weather drops the tire pressure a bit, probably time to air them up.

 

I hate electrical problems because sometimes shorts don't always act up when you are looking for them.

 

i had the same thing come up. on looking at the gas cap I noticed that the rubber seal had several cracks. i cheated for a quick fix. i rubbed some Vaseline around the gasket and it solved the problem for a month. i final bought a new cap and have not had any problems since