I was out motoring today in the heat wave we are having on the east coast, my outside temp indicator hit a record 104 degrees. It was just about when I was wondering if the high temperatures would affect the car in any meaningful way, when my CM had one of its error message seizures. You know, the ones where you are alerted to some condition 4 times within 12 square inches of dashboard. Now, warnings of this type are typically reserved for true emergencies, such as being slightly low on washer fluid. But this time things were different.

The center screen said "Engine Malfunction!" And then followed with a paragraph of text, explaining that while it was still theoretically possible to continue operating the car, if I knew what was good for me I would drop everything and rush to my nearest MINI center. Actually, it would be more of a mosey to the service bay, the car said, because engine power would be reduced.

Fortunately I had a bit of free time, and hopped on the phone with my friendly service advisor. I told her about the error message Jihad that was currently being waged on my sensibilities. She seemed to share the car's concern. "Where are you?" she said in a worried tone. "Can you bring it in?"

"I'm 5 minutes away, I'll be there in 15," I replied, remembering the reduced power. "Just pull right up to the service doors," she said. "They open automatically." This was getting serious.

I pull into the dealership and the car is whisked away to a service bay. 5 minutes later there are 3 technicians looking under the hood of my car. 15 minutes later the service advisor comes to find me in the waiting room.

"There was an error code," she said grimly.

"A what?" I croaked, the tears welling up in my eyes.

"An error code. About the boost pressure. But, but---we reset it. Everything is going to be ok."

"Oh thank goodness. I thought you were going to tell me I was low on washer fluid," I replied.

She shuddered. "No, nothing that horrible. Just give us a call if it happens again."

And with that, she handed me my keys, and I was on my way, exactly 30 minutes after I came in. "Wow, you guys are like the In-n-Out Burger of dealership service," I quipped. "Which is funny, because the secret name for my car which doesn't like to be anthropomorphized is Animal Style. Just kidding, naming cars is lame."

So less than 45 minutes from the time my afternoon was interrupted by an error message explosion, I was back on my way, error code free, and feeling great. Until...

1 hour later, I'm on my way to pick up my son from preschool, and Osama Bin Error Message is back, along with his top Lieutenants, Explanation Paragraph and Power Loss.

So I am booked into the outpatient Mini Free Clinic at 8AM tomorrow morning for a diagnosis. Yay for me.

In all seriousness, huge props to Mini of Mt. Laurel who operate the best dealership service department in the history of the universe. I sure hope their excellence in customer service carries over to excellence in making my error codes go away.

 

Ha my brand new CM suffer the same problem when i was first collected. The car just about 7-9miles. Then follow by door noise, chrome line peeling off and fumes smell inside cabin and all problem start to present within a months for a NEW car :(

 

@Royson G:

Loved your post, great writing, you have a gift!

I haven't had such a display yet, however I'm expecting mine to be English nanny scolding, or Herr Doktor correcting me when a malady occurs. We shall see!

Fully anthropomorphic here, even the lawn tractor has a name ("Manny" short for Mannheim Steamroller). I'm not expecting a cure.

 

Sorry to hear of your troubles. My CM has 37k miles and this is the first real problem I've had.

 

Oh my gosh Royson! You almost had ME in tears!
I hope the problem is taken care of promptly and effeciently! "Osama Bin Error Message" was my favorite part.

And yes, you do have quite the gift for writing!

 

+1

 

Love reading this, but do hope your baby is fine! As for the heat -- we had a mild hail storm here on the Isle of Long -- and I gotta tell you, me and my girl were definitely sweating it!

 

Unfortunately I wasn't as lucky 2 weeks ago! $7100 worth of damage. . .

 

so, I will be equipping my new CM w/ a handy code-reader & showing my wife how to use it.
Its rather unfortunate a brand new 30K car is so issue prone & the manufacturer is OK with this. The uber sensitive ECU goes into limp mode so easily. Wasting owners/dealers time for simple resets.

I already own 2 older very reliable cars, dealing w/ car I'm paying for that strabds me when I need it most will be quite irritating.
...code-reader to the rescue. thx MINI :(

 

5280, what broke this time? Not good at all. We had the flashing, multiple codes on our first long trip last summer, but we had full power and they reset.

Successful trip, but modules were replaced when we got back to Denver after a 3700 mile trip into Montana and Canada.

For a time there, I was wondering what State the CM was going to be towed. :(

So far good so good this year, TG for warranty and the good dealer service departments.

 

did they ask you if it was yellow or red ? ( engine light)

 

So i had same problem today - was merging highway and suddenly my car stalled and somebody almost rammed into me.
Called mini service. Car is still there.
Oh - yellow engine malfunction light came up and car was not starting anymore.

 

The light has come on for my Mothers 4 month old "baby" also. When I went to start it today to bring to the closest service center (2 hours away) the car would start and then turn off a few seconds later. Mini service and towing to the rescue!

But what was the cause of this problem for the others that had this? What was fixed, ect?

 

A few weeks ago, I had the CEL come on again. It turned out to be a fault in the valvetronic system (again). There was a TSB (M12 07 12) out that said it fixed the issue, plus a few more from what I picked up from the service managers tone. Its only been 2 weeks but, the car runs quite a bit different since the update to the DME.

 

The ultimate solution to my (original poster) problem was to re-flash the ECU with the latest software. The problem has not come back. What later posters have described (car shutting off and not restarting) sounds more serious and is probably not related to my issue.

 

Can you describe the difference?

 

The good : it idles quite a bit better while at a stop.

Not so good: It just does not seem to have the same gitty-up-and-go higher in any given gear that it used to. Before I could cruise at 3-4k on the tac, then mash the go peddle, and you could feel that little bit of power that put you back in your seat. Now that is gone!