First off, hello all!!

I've had my '02 MCS for a bit now and she's got 55k on her, always driven pretty modestly and a great follow up vehicle since parting with my MR-2 Turbo a while back. Bone stock aside from Plasti Dipping the wheels since they had a little rash on the edges, and painted the scuttles.

Posting from my phone so I apologize in advance for any sloppiness.

Had a recent light trifecta so I'll be hitting the troubleshooting parts though I seem to have a mixture of issues. All kind of happened suddenly but such is life and I'll have to make due to get it back to 100%. I has the tell tale signs of a wheel sensor (Service Engine, ABS, DSC) but now randomly my speedo will cut out and when that happens my gas gauge goes crazy (reads all over the place) and my BRAKE and Tire Pressure Sensor lights come on. Then I'll drive for a few miles (or days) and the speedo and everything acts normal again. Off to a troubleshooting section I suppose!!

Happy motoring!!!

 

How old is your battery, it can make some funny things happen if it is weak. Maybe a place to start

 

I'm new here, and not an auto repair whiz, but that being said, could the computer module be getting wet or could it just be going bad? I learned of a issue with some minis where a sunroof leak actually caused water too get onto the computer module. It can be very hard to detect.

Sunroof or no, the control module sounds hinky, but as I said before I don't know what I'm talking about anyway, so take it with a grain of salt.

 

That's a good place to start. Your Body Control Module is under the plastic cover at the passenger's side foot well, under the A pillar. My cousin had a windshield leak in his '02 R50 which caused a ground fault in his BCM, exhibiting some similar symptoms. Pop off that plastic cover and see if there's moisture coming down around there.

 

Windsheild isn't original, that I do know. I will pop the passenger lower panel off and check. looking for corrosion? Condensation? Anything overly obviously?

 

I can't help with what to look for, but on a car I looked at but did not buy, a service center told me the car was examined for wetness on the control module several times and it was missed before being replace, which fixed electrical issues the car had.

Best of luck, keep us posted please, would love to know what you find.

 

First check for moisture in the passenger's side carpet. Then scour the interwebs on how to pop off the plastic kick panel, at the passenger's right leg. It's the part that surrounds the bonnet release lever, and goes under the door sill. You don't have to remove it, just pull it away from the chassis. Look very closely for evidence of water running down the metal frame rail from above.

 

Perfect. I used to be a Porsche/Audi tech so I've got a small case of interior trim tools for those lovely clips Germany loves to place every three inches. I'll pop that off and while I'm there I'll check the door sill for rust as well. If I do see condensation or anything is my best bet removing the unit and using a damp rid or coating? Or sourcing the window leak (yikes?)

 

I just had a run in with some electrical gremlins and it turned out to be a loose connection on the cars battery. I'm sure you have checked that though.

 

You will want to do both: remove the unit, and chase down the leak. If the BC1 is soaked, you can try to wick the moisture from the circuit board with rubbing alcohol--much like Porsche techs do with the body control module from a Boxster. Being a Porsche tech, you probably have seen those units soaked under the driver's seat. Sometimes works, sometimes it doesn't.