Hello everyone. I could really use some help here.

I was cleaning my engine bay, and pulled my intake to clean the inside since so much gunk gets built up. I put everything back together and drove the car the next morning. My power brakes went out while driving, no big deal since the MINI weighs little more than my mountain bike. But then I had a warning light come one. It showed the engine. I took it to my buddy who has an ecu diagnosis tool. He said there was air loss into the engine bay or something. He set everything back to stock, essentially flashing the car, from what I understand. Then we fired it up, and looked under the hood. Problem was so simple; the vaccuum line to the brakes was disconnected slightly. I plugged it back in, and my power brakes were back.
I thought the car must have gone into some survival mode because of that (purely speculation). So we thought we had it all cleared up, then I drove off. I thought the car would re-learn and up the boost. However, my 07 mcs has maintained a 6 psi max since then, when it use to be 13 psi. What is going on here!? It has been about 5 days, and I want my HP back. Any ideas? If this helps at all, the engine upgrades car has are ddm race intake, alta cold tubes, m7 muffler delete, alta intercooler, and bov.

Thank you all,
Seth

 

What do you mean "essentially flashing the car"? He cleared all the fault codes right? I would disconnect the battery for over an hour to reset the memory of the ECU if you're still having major problems and of course check all air hose connections that could cause a boost leak.

It's well known that people with the Alta cold side boost tube (throttle body boost tube) have had leaks occur because of bolts in the valve cover rubbing on it. It happened to me before I got rid of it for good and got something better. If it has holes or wear in it, replace it with an NM engineering hard pipe setup for both the cold side and hot side boost tubes.

I know to get my '09 R56 in overboost, sometimes it can be finicky and I have to double tap the throttle to get up to 12 psi boost.

 

Thanks for the reply Shane. He has a computer with all the pre-programmed info for bmw. He reset my MINI. Not exactly sure, but that shouldn't be the issue. So disconnecting the battery for an hour will reset the ecu to factory? Any problems associated with that? How about mods having any negative affect after the reset?

One a side note - So when I get my ECU upgraded, if the battery died then the flash would dissapear and reset to stock?

 

After an hour of disconnecting the battery and then reconnecting, it should reset. You'll know you got it right since presets on your radio and the time will need to be reprogrammed.

As long as all your hoses are connected correctly and everything is properly tightened they should not cause any error codes. Again, double check your boost hoses and since you have an Alta BOV, make sure the vacuum line didn't fling off and the MAP sensor adaptor is seated properly in the port.

I don't have experience with ECU flashes so I'm not the person to ask. Ask someone with experience with that like the guys at Mynes or RMW.

Another thing I can think of is one time on my R56 where I got a max boost of around 3psi because of a P115D code, which is a MAF sensor issue. I cleaned it with some MAF sensor cleaner that I got from an auto parts store and I don't have any more problems like that. Since you have the same intake as me, with an oiled filter, I would clean the sensor at every oil change. For me that's every 6000-7000 miles.

 

Thanks again Shane. I will try the battery trick. If that doesn't work I will try the MAF idea.

So disconnecting the battery would, or would not get rid of a $600 tune, once I get one of course?

 

No

 

You should check for other leaks as well.

 

Did the car go into limp mode? Maybe the car running lean...I would rescan the car for the code.

 

I think he's talking about disconnecting for over an hour to reset the ECU. Hopefully the answer is still no or there would be a lot of pissed off people out there.

 

Okay. Came home to disconnect the battery. Where the hell is the battery in this car?!!! I thought it was in the boot. Please help.

 

Under the hood, passenger side, it's under a plastic flap.

 

owner's manual has a diagram with battery location shown.

 

So I disconnected the battery and let the car sit for 2 hrs. Radio station presets still there but clock reset. Still only 6psi though. This really bothers me. It's ike I'm driving a Mini Cooper 1/2 S.

 

If you have a tune and you disconect your batt the tune will still be there its programed into the ecu the only way to lose it is if you reflash it. i have had my batt out of my car all winter with no problems, also i had a R56 here at the shop last week to replace the batt had it out for about 45mins and eveything was normal... so im not sure whats goin on with your car im going to look into it

 

Are you still under warranty? Hopefully you are and your dealer won't give a crap about your mods. I wish you knew what codes your buddy cleared.

 

I really don't want to pull all my mods then take it into the dealer. Yes it is under warranty. I just know they will find something to complain about. I really dont want to pull my intercooler, that would be a pain. I am going to purchase either a kiwi wifi obd transmitter and the REV app for the iphone, or buy a ScanguageII. Not sure which one would work best.

 

i also have the kiwi and rev it works very good

 

The ScanGuageII is real nice and you can keep it mounted in the car to monitor other stuff like coolant temp, AFR, O2 sensor voltage...etc. Even if you scan the ECM for pending OBDII fault codes, the odds are you're going to have to go to the dealer.

Don't bother removing anything yet. Be polite and describe your problem... that you're only getting 6psi of boost. You don't need to explain the whole story of wrenching around under the hood from the other day. Only if they tell you on the spot that you need to remove your mods, then do it.

 

Boost leak? have you check your boost tube? cold tube in your case...

 

Yeah. Checked it all. Just ordered a golink obd cable for my iphone.

http://gopointtech.com/

Can't find anyone else on NAM using one. Maybe it will work well. We will see. Should arrive tomorrow.

 

OK this may be a stupid question ....

Would disconnecting the battery for the day delete the JCW stage 1 tune that a dealer installs

Thanks

 

NO

 

Disconnecting the battery will do nothing for the ECU. That is misinformation and pointless to do. You likely have a boost leak someplace. I would check and recheck it all.