While in 4th gear, WOT, i have somehow induced the safe mode, or limp home mode in my 2003 MCS. I'm not sure if this is only in 4th gear, but that's the gear it's been happening in.

the first time was going downhill, 4th gear, probably near 100mph, WOT.
second time was a couple weeks later, flat, WOT, 4th gear. near 90mph
the third time was within 20min of 2nd time, flat, 1/2-3/4 throttle, 4th gear, ~70mph.

In all instances, service engine soon light (apparently entirely emissions related), emergency maintenence light came on. EML off after restart, SES off after a couple start ups.

What i mean by "safe" or "limp home" mode is that the car suddenly refuses accelerate, hardly revs at all, and idles very rough. Upon shut down and start of the car, everything is back to "normal" (as far as i can tell).

i am very concerned. A bimmer service person told me i shouldnt worry, as the SES light went off by itself after a couple days on the first instance.

Mod is alta intake. I use 93 premium, synthetic oil, etc etc. any ideas as to what might be happening? and/or why?

This happened with the stock intake also.

UPDATE:

Dropped heyzeus off at classic mini, and when i called them to check on the car, they said they will be holding onto him for another day. They said they were communicating with BMW/MINI to see what to do with the car. Will update when i get more info.

Sounds serious.

well... maybe not.

 

I have had the same issue.... It seems that it happens near redline. Though it does not happen very often for me. I think only once or twice... but i believe that it may be sensor related.. you should get your codes pulled to see what is going on.

 

I have had it happen a couple of times the error code is P1689 "Electronic Trottle Control Monitor level 2/3 Torque Calculation Error" , have not taken it in for service yet.

 

5th gear - 126mph- on the way to Vegas


foot to the floor= WOT

SES & EML!!! car got real slow.. kinda bothersome at that speed...

pulled off.. rebooted the car..

went on..

SES light went off after a couple of trips in the car..

downloaded code P1698..

sensor on throttle figured I was on it for too long.. has to do with "test cycles" for the ECU



Its all good now!

 

is it fixable?

also, the third time it happened to me, it did it at about 4k rpms. not even WOT.

hope it's fixable...

 

It happened to me once too. After the third engine start, the SES light went off. You can take the car to Autozone and have the code read and cleared.

FWIW, it hasn't reoccurred since that one time for me.

 

Is your car chiptuned? I know of 4 different Chiptuning vendors were the same thing happened. If your car is not chiptuned....it is not listed in your mod list....then I believe it has to be completely sensor related.
The other problem is that even for those that had the problem with chiptuning it is sporadic. Not everybody has the problem. Some got it when they hit the rev limter others got it before the enigne was cut back.
It is very strange...

Alex

 

the only chiptuning i got was from mini (i believe version 38.x-whatever-we-are-on-now). Which is strange cause this never happened before i got the ecu flashed in mid-october. And i have definitely WOT in all gears near redline except 5th and 6th with no trouble.

At first i thought it was because the car was bouncing off the revlimiter before the tach showed that i was at the end of the line (some people had been reporting that the tach was higher than it was showing.. i believe so anyway). So i figured it was just the car saying "stop bouncing me off the revlimiter, you bastid!". But then when the third time it happened, i was nowhere near redline, and nowhere near WOT. Utterly confused. Of course, the 3rd time was within 20min of the 2nd time, so that may have something to do with it, but i have no idea.

I wish the damnable ecu wouldnt keep messing with how the car behaves. maybe it'll drive like it's supposed to one day (for me, anyway).

 

cheap solution: 19% pulley, and shift by 6000?

expensive solution: ditch the stock DME for this:
http://www.electromotive-inc.com/products/tec3.html

 

I have the stock software, but have 19% pulley. I get a P109 Error when in High PRM and High Boost (6600+ RPM & 16-17 boost)

It trips the sensor code, then goes away after 3 restarts. NO performance loss, no issues. I have replaced one MAF sensor, and am going to replace the other.... not sure what the exact issue is though.... it may be that the boost is to high..

 

Ha! I'll sell you as many MAF sensors as you want. Where will you be installing them?

 

There is the intake manifold MAF/Temperature sensor, then there is the intake runner MAF sensor... you should look it up before you make sly comments!

 

Actually, you should pop the hood of your car and look under there for a while. There is no MAF sensor in the MINI. There is a TMAP in the intake manifold and a MAP connected to the supercharger inlet. Email me if you need help getting the hood open.

 

Opps.. I know what it is, and what it does... just can't type the right one.. If you want to watch when I am changing the pistons.. your welcome to come over and see the inside of the engine.... not just open the hood.

 

Sure, I'd love to watch you drop some pistons right in.

 

My understanding about Limp-Home mode is that wiring insulation in a harness becomes abraded and briefly allow wire-to-wire contact. I believe this is from engine rocking under accel/decel. I'm told certain '03s [like mine] suffer from this.

Only happened once to me.

 

Sorry for this dumb question, but what the heck is WOT??? I know WTF, but WOT??

 

Wide Open Throttle.

 

harness eh?

i'll remember to ask about that. That might explain why it did it when i wasnt near redline or WOT. But then again, the car would rock a lot more during lower gears, but i never had/have it happen during 1-3, 5-6 gears... Though, i have also been much more careful.

 

I have the same issue even after replacing the wiring harness... so that is not the issue for me at least..

 

~2 months back i took my mini in for servicing due to the same ses and emg light problem. basically, one weekend while accelerating thru some side streets ~30 mph, the lights came on and i lost pretty much all boost, barely chugging along on level street. restarted and one of the lights went off (i think ses) and things seemed normal. then the next day same thing happened while accelerating. and again restart, and all's ok.

took'em in to mini service dept and they said the gas sensor basically was faulty and had to be replaced. under warranty, of course. and the service advisor said luckily it didn't happen on the freeway, as i'd suddenly decelerate w/o warning while shooting along @50+ mph.

no limp home mode problems since.

 

No hood to open on a tin-top. Now, OTOH, if you were referring to the bonnet, the release is on the curbside front footwell kick panel.

 

So.

Got heyzeus back from the dealer (classic mini: excellent job) a couple days ago.

WOW. I had no idea I had lost so much power. The mcs all of a sudden seemed to have gained a supercharger!

They had to keep it overnight while they and BMW/MINI tried to figure out what the dilly was going on didly.

Apparently, the S/C by-pass valve was defective... something about it preventing the S/C to be run at WOT. It is hard to imagine that little rubber hose thing going bad. I did not have the m7 device in (which is a S/C by-pass valve, btw).

I didnt get a chance to get the exact error code, however, replacing that valve did wonders. Also did ECU reset, but that's a different story.

story short=car good now!