So I get to get up at 6 tomorrow to take our 1.5 month old Mini Countryman S down to Mini of Baltimore County. Hopefully it's something stupid.

 

Did you fill up your tank with the car running? Did you not tighten the fuel filler cap all the way after a fill up? That's one potential cause...

 

Nope, came out out of nowhere. Filled the car after that, made sure gas cap was tight, etc.

 

How many miles have you driven since it came on? It could also be bad gas..

 

Mine came on at the 3K mark as well. Turned out to be a fault in the valvetronic system. They reset the ECU and timing, and sent me on my way!

 

15, back to home. I'm driving to the dealership in the morning, another 50.

 

Mine went at 5,000. They replaced my "Valvetronic". However, just 2,000 miles later, I'm in the shop again for the same codes.

This is not good.

 

My service advisor thinks it's more likely a sensor problem, but we'll see.

 

It was the pump that pressurized the gas tank for leak detection.

 

wife tells me the CEL is on again. I'm not sure the mileage, but probably around 5000

 

Mine seems to light up every 3K miles or so (~13K on the clock currently).

It's annoying and I think it's a sensor in my CM since there's no rhyme or reason to it lighting up. Aside from "reduced power" message from connected (which, BTW, they're not kidding - I think the turbo's disengaged and the thing runs like a turtle).

I've had connected bring up the engine malfunction message, I've had just the engine icon illuminated, I've had both connected and the icon (they don't seem to talk to one another). After some start/stops, the light/message clears. I think the icon is currently on today. SAs always point to gas cap. I'll have it checked when I go in for my service in a couple K, but I don't believe the light/message indicate anything useful at this point since there hasn't been any performance issues that I can see (touch wood...)

My luck will be that I'll need a new motor or something when they do check it... I treat it as the boy that cries wolf at the moment.

 

It could be the same problem again, or it could be a loose gas cap, or it could be one (or more) of about 98 other things that can turn on the CEL light. Aggrevating, isn't it?

 

What did the problem turn out to be the second time?

 

They replaced the computer. All has been good for the past couple of months.

Thanks for asking!

How's your CM?

 

So this one they say was from overfilling the gas tank. It disolved the charcoal in the overflow filter, and that clogged the works. Gonna cost me $875 to fix.

 

Now that sounds like a complete crock. I always round mine up to the full dollar when I fill it up. You put gas in until the pump doesn't let you any longer. This is what the average car owner does! For them to now suggest you somehow did something wrong seems like BS to me and FWIW in the middle of writing this I got a call from a SA regarding my recall appointment and told him your story and he agreed that it sounded crazy that you would have to pay for it, if you are still under warranty.

 

We are at 2600 miles after 2 months. No problems other than the minor issue with one of the radio presets that I posted about. Not worth a trip to the dealer just for that.

 

Thanks for closing the loop and telling us what the problem was. This used to be a problem on older BMW's and I didn't know it could still happen. It's probably why MINI recommends no more than 2 clicks of the gas pump.
Having had the problem on 80's vintage BMW's, I don't top off the tank to more than one click after the pump stops.

That being said, I can't believe they won't cover it under warranty. I would escalate that or take the car to another dealer if you have more than one in your area.

 

We only have 1 dealer in the immediate area, and I already told him to do the work. That said I will escalate it to the manager when I go to pick it up. I can't imagine that the design is so bad that in only 5000 miles we managed to overfill the gas tank enough to cause significant damage. I've driven several cars for multiple hundreds of thousands of miles and never had that problem before.

 

Good luck Grawk. This seems like BS.

 

They refused to budge, but apparently comprehensive insurance will cover it. I hope my insurance company then goes after them, because it really is weak.

 

I'd escalate it to the district or zone MINI rep and the national office. What is their reasoning? They cannot prove you overfilled your tank and there is nothing I am aware of that cautions an owner from doing so (but I haven't looked in the manual to see). If there isn't any wording about it there I'd take them to small claims court if someone higher up at MINI doesn't approve fixing this. You simply must go over their head. Or better yet, take the car back after it's repaired and stop payment and let THEM try to collect and then let a judge or arbitrator decide.

 

Makes me wonder since I am a chronic overfiller, how long is this filter supposed to last? Activated charcoal isn't a forever product anyway. Realoem shows the part to be on the bottom of the tank, shouldn't be a difficult fix (pure guess on my part). It does show to be around $375 plus core though.

 

How can they prove than you overfilled the gas tank? I agree with others that this smells like BS.

I bet this same dealer asked you to give a perfect score on the dealer survey after you took delivery ... "because anything below a 10 is a failure" ...

 

I can't confirm or deny what their claims are to be as to why this is happening to you, but for what it's worth, there IS a reason why you're not supposed to top off your tank.