OK, So I worked on my son's 2012 Countryman S. I'm an aviation mechanic by trade so forgive me for terminology that might not match. We bought him this car as his first car, less than 60,000 miles used. dealership (mini dealer) has already chased an oil leak down and had replaced alot of parts prior to us buying it. (forgive me for not remember what they replaced this was 2 years ago. Drove fine, perfect in fact. not driven daily as this car was for him to learn how to drive so it would get frequent time off the clocks. One day we noticed when we left it at idle for a bit and drove away, we would smoke everyone behind us like we were setting a smoke screen in WW2. We took in to a local import shop. They looked it over, checked the usual suspects and did see that the valve cover was leaking a little so they replaced it. The tech told me they couldn't find anything, told me how the turbo, the pumps, and pan where all good and even said the compression was good. His only suggestion was that it was the exhaust valve stem seals and I should get them replaced. He said his shop wouldn't be able to do it. So I called around and average rate was $3,000. So, couple of youtube videos later I felt comfortable doing the job myself. I bought all the tools specific for the task. I will hit the highlights so it clears up any FAQs for the job.

• pinned the flywheel and removed pin when completed
• brackets placed on cam shafts to keep timing correct, removed when finished
• supported chain when removing sprockets
• replaced timing tensioner
• torqs all set to specs on reinstall
• spark plugs, coils, and wires went back to where they the originally were

Where my worries are:

• When I disconnected the battery I made the mistake of POS side first and did get a spark on the metal frame (worried I could have shorted something)
• I did not fully remove the High Pressure Fuel Pump as I did not want to disconnect fuel lines, just moved it out to the side enough to remove in the intake cam (maybe damaged from hanging,) does have a P306C code now
• The starter is clearly turning, I see the RPM tach move slightly towards 1,000 then drops, The motor does not even sound like its turning though.

I have a CEL and its P306c which most online forums and videos state the HPFP, I just want to see if there is something else I should be Checking before the pump. I'm at work now, plan to pick up a 5 prong relay and swap relays out as I have seen others with the same "sounding" no start have success because of a bad relay. I will also pick up some starter fluid to see if I'm getting spark, I saw where this was a quick check to spray into intake and bypass the HPFP. What else should I be on the look out for?

 

P306C is HPFP pressure briefly too high, rpm and load factor limited. I don't think this should stop it from starting, just not revving/accelerating well.

Overall this one could be as simple as missing an electrical connector somewhere, or as bad as toasting a controller from the short circuit. These things have the worst electronics system of any vehicle manufacturer I've ever owned. So sensitive.

Do you have a play by play of what you did, or a link to the videos you followed? Maybe a video clip of what it sounds like while cranking?

 

Skip to like 4:10ish to hear the no start.

There's a quick walk through of what I did, well a narrative of what I did.

The picture is the tool I used that is for keeping timing, basically you put a one of the pins on top in the flywheel and the black brackets go o to cam.

 

So I deleted the code p306c, I disconnected the battery before shooting the video above. I did the video and now I no longer have the p306c code. Yet still no start.

 

When I first got my used mini it would randomly do something like this where it cranked and no fire. Also, once in a while while driving it would throw all sorts of codes. The dealer was no help and the codes made no sense. Dealer wanted to replace all sorts of things that would not have fixed this intermittent issue I had. I took it home and ultimately, I got lucky checking the basics and when fiddling around and pressing down fuses and relays to ensure connections. I found the relay to the DME was intermittent. I could get it to crank and fire or not when fiddling with the relay. I was thinking it was a connection issue so bought a used fuse box just in case to swap out for connection issue. However, simply swapping the DME relay with the same cooling relay in the fuse box, the problem went completely away. I tossed that relay and replaced it and all has been fine since. I was ready to light this thing on fire by the way...

 

So I changed both the r1 & r6 relays still nothing. Battery was reading 51% so I'm going to charge it over night and see if that makes a difference.. Thumb and finger on relays I replaced.

 

If I recall it was that very top yellow/green one in the middle that was my problem. I could have the car on and in run mode and then go outside and fiddle with in and hear other noises go on/off. Seems like something is not allowing spark. Perhaps not enough fuel pressure to trigger the spark? Computer is not seeing some parameter to allow the fuel to inject or spark it seems. Definitely charge the battery and maybe load test it.

 

I'm considering doing the entire process over to retrace my steps, but I don't think it would yield any different results. Ive seen other post about timing being off after similar work, but I find it hard to believe that would be it.

Locked flywheel with proper tool before work started

Locked cams with proper tool

Sprockets came off then just cam lock tools. Flywheel pin stayed in.

Pulled cams, replaced valve seals and reversed my order. Tensioner got torqued then sprockets.

 

Retraced steps and have a few updates

 

So the best I can guess is that it was the grounding wire on the ignition wire harness. As for the sprockets, I must have forgotten that I broke the torque on them when I took out the tension bolt, therefore the reason they are loose in the above video. With everything out back together the smell of oil is no longer in the cabin and there is no smoke out the rear. What a “fun” little project. So fun in fact I think my next car will be a Mini.

 

That would certainly makes sense if it was a bad ground. Thanks for all the interesting information and videos. Hope it stays fixed.