The dealer says the pulley broke my car.

I have a 2003 MCS with Milltek cat-back, Alta intake and pulley. About a week ago my check engine light came on. I checked the gas cap to make sure it was on securely. This wasn't the problem as the light stayed on. I scheduled an appointment at Mini of Mountain View to check the light and garaged the car for the week. Yesterday I started the car and drove it around some more and the light remained on. This morning I drove to the dealership and the light was still on.
About an hour after droping the car off, I get a call from the dealer saying that the light is no longer on. They held on to it to check it out and now they're saying their diagnostics are pointing to the mods as the cause of the problem and that I need an aftermarket ECU to fix it. The explanation that was given to me is that the knock sensor is being triggered because the mixture is too lean. I think there are a lot of people with this level of modification and no ECU upgrade that aren't having any problems? What do I tell the dealer? What else could trigger the knock sensor? What could the problem be?

A few months back I lent someone the car and they thought they were doing me a favor by refilling the tank with regular unleaded. Could this have caused a problem that's just showing up now? Thanks for any suggestions.

-Marc

 

Search for forums for this. Someone else ran into a similar thing and all they needed was a sensor. I don't remember the details, you'll have to search.

Brad

Edit: Here it is. https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ht=replace+ecu

 

That's awesome. You should ask them for that diagnosis in writing and send it to MINI USA.

The mods you have should cause no problems at all and one tank of regular doesn't permanently damage your car. Take it to another dealer.

 

Your engine can "knock" with too aggressive ignition timing (obviously not your case) or too low fuel octane. That said, whether the engine is knocking plays no part with the A/F ratio - so the dealership is blowing smoke up your @$$. Like Andy said, take it to another dealership that has a clue.

My question is: what's the actual problem? Does the engine run correct? What code is the CEL?

 

Well I got the car back, with neither of my problems fixed or any clear resolution. To the dealers credit they did waive the $135 dollars they were going to charge me for the diagnostic. My car also got a new set of windshield wipers and a half-assed car wash. The SES light is no longer on, but it leaves me wondering when it will come back on again and if I'm doing irreparable damage to the engine by driving it around.

The invoice has the following tech notes:

"Customer reports check engine light on has been on for one week. Approx 100 miles. when advisor checked in car, light was no longer on. Please check and report."

"Checked DME for faults - found fault P0326 Knock sensor 1 measuring - range or power - output problem. Vehicle has aftermarket components installed (pulley and other parts) recommend check for possible aftermarket programming issue for fault. nonwarranty issue at this time."

"cust reports humming type of noise, when traking off in first gear, only when car is cold. check and report. we tried to hear noise at last visit, could not hear noise as car could not stay overnight. customer is able this time to leave car overnight if necessary let vehivle sit overnight."

"Road tested and did not note humming noise on initial startoff in 1st geat. Vehicle is missing shift boot. Has aftermarket pulley, intake and exaust. recommend customer retutrn car when symptom is more duplicable, maybe when weather is colder."

Anyone have any ideas? Thanks

 

Ryphile, to answer your questions, yes the engine does run correctly. There is the (unrelated?) high pitched humming noise that happens when giving the car gas and letting the clutch out into first, but that's been happening for months and only when the car is very cold. The check engine light is no longer on after getting it back from the dealership but they said they got a P0326 knock sensor 1 error when they checked the DME. Thanks

 

Thanks for the suggestion Nerd, but the dealer wasn't saying the ECU was broken, they were saying I need an ECU with aftermarket programming to handle the mods, which is contrary to everything I've heard about the stock MCS ECU and the standard intake/pulley/exhaust combo.

 

What kind of gas r u using? After installing my pulley I was getting detonation but it turns out it was the bad gas we get in Cali.

 

While the aftermarket ECU tune is not a must , you may from time to time get a CEL, this being said did you perform an ecu reset to let the ecu tune itself to your mods? Are you running 91 or 93 octane? All of these play a role in the knock sensor throwing a CEL.

 

As weird as this sounds, it sounds like the dealership is saying, the vehicle has aftermarket components installed, check if any aftermarket ECU has been installed to put the blame on that.

It's just weird because the dealership sounds like they want to ask you if you have an aftermarket ECU installed to pu thte blame on it, rather than using their own tools to check if it's the stock computer programming. I guess they don't have the tools to check such a thing??? Well, maybe I just interpreted wrong.

 

I'm running 91 octane from either Arco or Chevron depending on what's closer. The ECU was reset after each mod, and the tech notes are a little puzzling because my service advisor told me I should be running an aftermarket ECU with the mods I have.