Take the UniChip out - run the car for a week. It may need to be retuned ( will need to be retuned ). The engine will run fine without it..........

How long after you installed the header til 0108?

FYI CO2 is cheaper than Argon, I use Argon for SS & CO2 for everything else - been doing this over 40 years

 

I also noticed something the other night - When the SES light does come on, the motor feels like it hesitates slightly, for a split second. Do our cars have a "boost cut" feature that pulls back timing when a certain boost level is met? I experienced the same thing with my DSM until I upgraded to a 3000GT VR-4 MAF.

Steve, within 10 miles of installing the header, I threw that 0108 code. I've had trouble with the Unichip throwing codes in the past, even causing the car to go into limp mode a few times on the highway. All that involved was shorting a wire out on the unichip harness, thankfully.

I don't know how well the car will run with all the stuff I've done to it (s/c pulley/intake/exhaust/headers) without the tune. I do have some 450cc Helix injectors waiting to go on this weekend along with a Screamin' Demon coilpack and some new plug wires. Maybe I'll take the unichip out for a day and see what happens ...

I actually like the way flux core welds on mild steel, I just wish it wasn't so damn messy. Every few beads I lay, I gotta bust out the welding brush ... Co2 is a great tip, though. I rarely weld stainless.

 

Huh. After some searching, I found this:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...650-post6.html

This makes sense to me. The only time I can forcibly actuate the SES light is initial tip-in when going to WOT.

 

"I don't know how well the car will run with all the stuff I've done to it " , trust me, it will run fine - if no leaks.
I have a bit more hardware on my engine. A twice warmed over Cosworth head, 16% pully, warmed over TB, DTB, 380 injectors, exhaust, Forge IC ( works very well ).... stock ECU - no codes, makes good power.....
There is a knock sensor that pulls timing out - after the hesitation does the engine go into limp mode? The UniChip has spasific parameters that are set in a tune. If the UniChip doesn't know about the header the ECU won't learn. The stock ECU is pretty good at learning, better than people think.

 

I have a canned tune for all my mods. I'm kind of regretting getting Helix 450cc injectors as I see the usefulness of just plugging in the 380ccs and running with them. I was originally going to go bigger (Sprintex) in the future, but I've decided to just save for repair bills and a nice vacation after the bar exam ... If I do end up buying one more power adder, it'll be water/meth injection.

I know I'm at the limit for stock injectors ... Hence why I'm a little apprehensive about taking the unichip off.

 

The 450s are in on the car now? If so, it shoulden't run well if at all. There is a way to scale them without a tune, I'll check my notes later to find the piece you need.
I'm planning Sprintex soon. No plan for a tune any time soon.
The engine will run fine w/o the UniChip. Just leave the Unichip right where it is, plug the OE back on & see what you get...... The 0108 needs to be isolated.
The OE injectors are a limited but you need to hammer the crap out of the car or drive it at over 4500 all the time. I use to drive my 911 & all British sports cars like that - they were made in the 60s. Today with a blower engine, w/fi, there's no need. All you do at low speed driving at those rpms is add heat - we don't like heat..... If you have water/meth it's a different story. I haven't seen the need here - but for just about all of this month, hot, hot, hot...... & more hot.

Breaking news.... Wiley Coyote now owns 51% of Acme thanks to J P Morgan, film at 6

 

Well, I'm happy to report that I'm free of the P0108 curse (I think). I drove about 100 miles today and hammered it a few times. 1.1 BAR, no SES, no nothing. I installed the 450cc injectors and had the proper tune for it. It was great.

... On my way home to celebrate this momentous occasion, I noticed that the car tended to "yo-yo" at low throttle. The yo-yo became more severe after a few miles of stop-n-go street driving. Pulling into the interstate on an on-ramp, I went into limp mode. Probably THE worst place to lose all power. Thank God the highway was relatively empty, and a friend with an OBD code reader had decided to tag along with me.

P1125 and P1126. It appears that I'll have to either replace my throttle body or the throttle body wiring harness.

I ****ing hate this car.

 

The Unichip has a tune that can scale the injectors? A 1126 can mean the dowstream O2 is not reading what the ECU expects. A 1125 can mean a combination of things, but, without being there - the 450s are the problem.
Do you know if there were pending codes? The 450s have been installed for how many miles?

 

what codes are P1125 and P1126?

...and, lets be fair, MOST cars are a love/ hate relationship! you sure your not just hating to Love the mini?

and... if you ditch the car, you should sell me your headers

 

A 1125 is a throttle position, TB problem , a 1126 is usually coolant - with our cars both codes could mean lots of things. The only real way to know the "exact" issue is from the dealer or own a very expensive code scanner with all the BMW Mini DTC codes & an in depth analysis.
When SEL & limp mode kick in there might be just 1 code that will kick the system. Most of the time you can shut the engine down for a minut or so, restart it, you will have a light but the engine will run. Many code scanners do not see impending codes, since there's no light, you don't know the event code that may have lead to the kicker code. I'd bet there is at least 1 pending code 0101 - out of range. The OE MAP can't handle an injector bigger than a 400, 380 for most I'v seen. Big injectors need to be scaled, pulse width, injection timing etc. to work with our engine.

 

I fixed it eventually.

After spending (wasting) the ENTIRE weekend testing my throttle body and throttle pedal with an ohmmeter, taking apart sheathing on my engine wiring harness to look for shorts, cleaning up corrosion around my ECU pins and Unichip harness (and applying some dielectric grease to prevent said corrosion from happening again), taking my SprintBooster on/off, and missing an autocross (one of five remaining this year with my favorite local sanctioning body - NOT happy), nothing initially worked. I still got P1125/1126.

That is, until I went back to my stock injectors and a Unichip base map for a car with intake/exhaust. Car is leaning out on the top end like it was before, but at least it's running.

But at least I'm no longer getting P0108s.

Steve, I only installed the 450s this past weekend. The car was SO MUCH FASTER with the 450s! If I had to guess, I'd say I gained at least 20WHP ... That is, until limp mode cuts in with the P1125/1126 faults. It's so frustrating! The Unichip map I was provided seems to be the culprit.

I asked Tony Woest from minituningusa.com, who provided me with my maps if he could help me out, and he basically told me to take the car to a dyno. I'm going to try and contact Unichip USA to see if they can help me out. It seems like the throttle mapping on this tune is off, otherwise, wow. What a difference.

 

To bad you don't live up the street............

I tested a "Q" chip soon after the release. It was a good mod for the average "bolt on" daily driver - very reliable.

After many hours of data logging & trying "that won't work without a tune" - the OE ECU will adapt to many hardware changes. Each ECU is different, in that, some are more liberal than others, this 1 is very liberal. After installing 440s I got a 0101, 400 worked & had the duty cycle but not the gas mileage, 380 works for me - good power & mileage. The AF, under heavy load, is never lower than 12.6, if this was a race car 11.6 would be the right number ( for me ).
There are MAF adjusters that work & integrate well with the OE. These will not scale the injectors but adjust MAP/MAF for large injectors.
There are some very sofistacated piggys available today - the best result IS on a dyno. "tune in a can" is good for most. Bottom line: Given time our Siemens will do a pretty good job adapting & there will never be a conflict with the piggy.
Give it hell on the dyno..... AND post the fun factor

 

I found this basic OBD reference on symptoms and causes: http://www.obd-codes.com/p0108. Under causes, two listings reference shorts on the PCM. Since the Unichip is a piggyback system, I would guess you are dealing with the stock ECU not getting the proper signals when it communicates to the various components on the engine. Your P1125/1126 codes are probably caused the same issue: http://engine-codes.com/p1125.html. Removing the Unichip was probably the right decision.

Beyond that... from everything I have learned and read on tuning MINIs, the stock ECU will eventually relearn and adjust accordingly to any piggyback unit. The only effective way to get your tune correct is to have the factory ECU tuned. I don't know what your setup is, but 450s would be needed if you have done more mods than a Stage I setup (i.e. 15% pulley, CAI, exhaust), such as an upgraded head and/or cam. The stock ECU can work with up to 380cc JCW injectors with a stock ECU tune, but you will have to get a tune put in if you go larger than that.

Having said that, if you have a Stage I setup, you can probably get a canned tune put into your stock ECU from Way, Helix, etc. If you do need the 450s, you're probably going to have to get a professional tune while on the dyno. The closest shop to you is Detroit Tuned. You can also opt to get remote tuning done, which will require purchasing the appropriate tool for uploading/downloading to the ECU. You can go with RMW, WMW, or Mynes for that.

 

P1125 Throttle - valve potentiometers 1 and 2 - measuring-range or poewr-output problem, with MINI built Before 04/02 the throttle body should be replaced.

P1226 Throttle - malfunction (flap malfunction) MINI built after 04/02 the engine's wiring harness is the problem and must be replaced.

 

Try this on those two codes: unplug the ECU from the car, leave it off for 5 minutes.

Then try to find someone who has the BMW Factory tool and "Clear adaptations". If you can find someone who has FA in your area, they can clear Adaptations on your MINI as well...

 

After speaking to Unichip's North American distributor, it appears there's nothing they can do about the map for the 450cc injectors. What I was advised to do was find a map that was "close enough" to my modifications and run that on the car.

On the bright side, it looks like I have a good base tune for the Unichip which needs some adjustment. The only shop that tunes Unichip systems in the Chicago area isn't too far away (GRD Tuning in Villa Park). I was quoted $150/hr ($100 per successive hour after the first hour) for dyno time with wideband rental and tuning service, which is pretty good value. I was told to expect to be billed approximately one hour if I had a canned base map to build a custom tune on.

In the mean time, I followed the Unichip rep's advice about running a "good enough" tune. I updated the firmware on the Unichip and uploaded map #18010205+, described as being for "Alta CAI, Miltek (sic) Cat/B, 15% UDP, All Headers, heads. 93 Octane." I was a bit surprised you could run the stock injectors with these many power-adders. I felt this was the closest I could get to my setup (MINI Madness CAI + Samco intake hose, custom 2.5" header-back exhaust, OBX Headers, 17% pulley).

I still lose some power on the top end, but I'm no longer getting any light knock or light pinging there, which is good. I've also noticed less soot on my tailpipe.

Anyhow, the car is running fine now. No codes, pending, or otherwise, for once in a long time (since I bought the car in stock form ). Hopefully GRD can squeeze me into their supposedly backed-up dyno tuning waitlist.

 

Glad you now have reliability.

Just so you know, none of the hardware you have on the engine, now, would require a tune, UniChip or OE ECU to run as a DD. The Unichip does improve drivability with a good boost mid range with your mods.
UniChip has a map for 380s & might be what you're looking for.

 

Thanks.

Like I said before, I had big plans for the car when I decided to buy my Unichip ... Plans have changed, (somewhat) as the lady is throwing not-so-subtle hints about a piece of jewelry. Something about 5 years, blah, blah, blah.

Maybe I can find someone who is interested in trading my Helix/Siemens 450s for their 380cc JCW injectors ...

 

Hey, 41 years later..........

Like I said, if you lived up the street....

This is not for our cars, however - it solved problems that we had with a turbo project, every FIC, piggy, we had had issues ( most would put up with the issues, not here! ) http://www.urdusa.com/product_info.p..._id=1230100028 should make some good reading

 

Had this same issue of throwing a P0108. I replaced both the T-MAP and MAP sensors and the problem wasn't fixed. Turned out my CAT is bad.

 

When I had my JCW CAI replaced with another hi-performance style, mechanic forgot about the vacuum line to the air flap. Something to remember.