Yup. Humming along just fine on the way home from work. Out of the blue the engine just quit, I saw a quick flash of the engine icon on the speedo and it went out.

Fortunately, despite it being rush hour, I was able to make my way 3 lanes over, to the shoulder, without incident. While decelerating I tried restarting by popping the clutch in 3rd gear but no dice.

When I pulled over, I simply depressed the clutch and hit the starter. It came right back to life. I happened to have my code reader in the car and checked for faults (nothing was illuminated on the dash and no alerts in the center console vehicle status page). I received a U0100 "Lost connection to ECM" code.

I've read elsewhere (Minif56?) that some ppl with automatics were having their cars spontaneously stop, and it was attributed to the Auto Start/Stop function. They took their cars in and part of the fix was to adjust the idle.

I should point out that Auto Start/Stop was DISABLED on my car via the rocker switch. So I guess it's my 2nd trip to MINI in 3500 miles. This is getting to be more and more like my BMW

 

This is a 2014 model, right? Did you get a software update yet? I don't understand why a little higher idle and disabling glide mode for automatics would fix anything.

Man, I'm getting worried about all these dead MINI horror stories. One of the reason I'm leasing a 2015 MINI is because I don't know how bad the reliability is. I read from lot of places these are not reliable cars. If their reliability improved, I'm going to buy it at the end of my lease.

 

Dunno. Worries me a bit. I've been conditioned for this kind of crap for the past few years.

I searched around a bit and it may be a faulty ECU and may require replacement. At leas that's the required fix for that error code on other cars (I'm talking to you, Jetta owners).

 

And yes it's a '14 MCS.

 

Be careful about your "buy it at the end" plan. Mini's residuals are very high which is great for the lease payment but not so great at the end. My lease is ending in about six weeks and my residual is about $2,000 more than the KBB value of the car. There's no way I can (I guess "would' is a better word) buy it at that price.

 

Yeah, that is another thing I learned from you I think, from another post. My residual is 61% (=$14670) after 3 years, and I'm guessing it'll still be a good deal to buy it at the end. I see three year old MINI Coopers selling for much more than this in Portland area, so I guess it also depends on where you live too.

If KBB value is that much lower, can't you negotiate with BMW finance? If I really like the car, and was lucky enough to get a trouble free one, I would probably still try to buy it because I will know it's been driven and maintained with care.

I think I paid fair price for the basic F56 + Auto + SportsPackage. I got $500 driversed.com discount and $250 discount from the dealer, removed $395 bogus dealer prep fee. So it was MSRP - $750 total discount + lease acquisition fee $725.

 

Sounds like a possible ECM issue, could be several things... need to see if you can replicate the issue.

Possible causes: ECM got hot and faulted, vibration caused a connection fault faulting the ECM, ECM has internal issues, just as example.

I would start with re-seating the ECM connector and waiting for it to happen again. I would also contact service department to get the issue documented. Checking for TSBs for this issue.

Best of luck.

Motor on!

 

Thank you for the info James. I'll take a look before I drop it off - the dealership should take a peek as it's so new. They have to fix my rattling dash speaker (again) anyway. I'll make sure it's seated properly before I take off. Assuming I can find it...

 

BMW product engine quits suddenly=ECM replacement. I took one in for the same thing, they checked it out said it was fine and it quit before I could even drive it off the lot lol. $600. It was 1,000 miles out of warranty and I'd had it in there several months prior for the same thing. Did they cover it...........NO!

 

WOW!

That's a very POOR "standing behind their product" attitude. Not acceptable!

Did the dealership or MINI/BMW corp deny the warranty coverage, or by both?

 

While we are sharing BMW horror stories:

I had an '09 535i. Purchased in early 2011 with 25k on the odometer. Around 39k miles I was driving from LA to Phoenix and a check engine light goes on, and car feels like it's running on 3 cylinders. Even the slightest touch on the gas would cause the engine to shudder like mad.

I limped 70 miles back to Phoenix and drove straight to the nearest dealership. At the first light I came to the engine warning went off. The dealership couldn't isolate the problem, swapped coil packs in hopes of figuring it out and told me to let them know if it happens again.

It happened again at 49k. Keep in mind the warranty/maintenance program expires at 50k. They replaced some part that sounded irrelevant to my issues, especially as a guy on bimmerforums had the same problem and fixed it by replacing the fuel injectors. This was ignored by the service techs. Of course, the problem cropped up at 80k miles, whereupon they replaced a bank of fuel injectors and charged me a grand for the fun! I tried to argue that they did it wrong the last time but they insisted it was a "different" problem this time. Right.

I told the service rep that I guaranteed I would be back with the same problem within 6 months. Of course it happened again, 6 months to the day ;-)

That N54 engine is amazing for performance, but is about the most unreliable engine out there.

I am praying now that this car doesn't provide a repeat performance.

 

Ok. Spoke to the service rep at Mini. This is the first time they've heard of the engine stopping at highway speed. They don't have a loaner for me until Friday so we will find out in a couple days.

 

Well they should READ THIS FORUM and they won't be able to use that excuse. I would say that an engine cut out at 70 mph is terrifying. It makes me want to drive at 69 mph instead
Hope all is sorted soon!

 

Heh. I agree and if I had more sense I would have just left it there today and taken whatever rental they could give me. But I've driven some downright dangerous cars in my day (a Spitfire that had rust holes in the floorboards so you could litter more easily comes to mind) that I'm not losing too much sleep. Just gonna drop it off on the way home from the office and see what happens.

 

Call from the SA a couple minutes ago. They're just doing a software update. Somehow this takes 4 hours so I won't get it back until Monday.

My gut tells me this is the auto start/stop update that has been mentioned elsewhere, and I have a feeling it won't solve my problem.

 

It's ridiculous that a software update takes 4 hours. I can wipe my HDD, clean install Windows 7, and even install all the drivers and softwares in 1 hour.
It's even worse because we or even the technicians don't know any details about the update.

Edmonds.com longterm road test experienced a problem on a 2014 F56 too on 1300 miles, and they also have no idea what the update is about.

 

I agree. Four hours is a bit extreme.

I try to look on the bright side. Last time it was in I got an extended road test of the Clubman. Now I have a Coupe ;-)

I may have to drop back there to get something with four seats as my kids will have to do a lot of walking otherwise.

 

I once had to get my electric window software updated but when I arrived at the dealer 50 miles from home I was told that the computer that does the updating was being updated and couldn't be done that day.

 

These tales of MINI electronic gremlins is disturbing. I owned a `85 325 that must have been built in the twilight zone. I drove across LA in LimpMode only to see a BMW tech use the handle end of a screwdriver tapping on the ECM to "fix" my car and charge me $250.00!

 

Shades of Lucas Electric-"The Prince Of Darkness" Must be an England thing!

 

I thought Siemens has been the supplier for MINI ECM since BMW took over.

Or is it 's.e.m.e.n' ???

Anyhow, engines cuts out at 70 MPH is a sort of thing you should report to NHTSA.

 

I kept camshaft position sensors in stock for every BMW post 1995. I replaced every one at least once, and one three times. The failure mode: engine dies unexpectedly and/or runs fitfully until it cools off. Repeat as required. May throw a code, but usually not.

I sound like a broken record (remember those?) but BMW's notion of quality assurance has lagged about a decade behind the equipment in their cars. I think the fundamental problem is that electronics can do amazing things surprisingly easily. However, the trick is to keep it doing the amazing things in the presence of an array of typical hazards encountered in an automotive environment. I'll give you one easy example: electrolytic caps. For years they used junk (and I mean JUNK) electrolytics (instead of the slightly more expensive and FAR more reliable dipped or hermetic tantalums) in instrument clusters. So what happened? Instrument clusters failed, predictably, at around the 8-10 year mark. 100%. Every. Damn. One. I repaired about 20 of them using hermetic solid polymer caps (which, admittedly weren't around when the clusters were designed) which not only fixed the clusters, but in almost all cases magically made some other elusive gremlins disappear.

 

Got car back. I will sorta/kinda miss the coupe, but not much (I may post a comparo after having it for 4 1/2 days). Here's what the fine folks at MINI wrote about my car. . .

"Customer states engine stopped/died while on freeway at approx. 70mph.
Connected charger. 12.2v. Ran vehicle test and found fault C95461. Speed Communication Fault and 8040A9. Start-Stop switch malfunction. Ran test plans and everything working as designed. Submitted PUMA case
Programmed vehicle to latest software level as per PUMA. Test drove vehicle with no issues."

Make of it what you will.

I should also point out that, for the second time, I've had the speaker on the dash services for rattling. They state they removed speaker cover and found insulation had slipped down and reinsulated. "Noise is no longer present at this time." Well . . . took me one phone call to see that was simply not true. I don't keep it maxed out on volume, but it rattles/vibrates like crazy when people are on speakerphone. I'm not sure what to tell these guys...

 

Interesting comments!

Yes, I wonder about the British connection, ala Lucas. I'm a member of a British classic car club also, and it's true what they say about the Prince. We watched the members leave a meeting one evening, and just about all of them had at least one tail light that didn't work.

I agree with Cadenza's advice about reporting it to NHTSA. That's the fastest way to get meaningful class action, and it's obviously a safety defect.

I'm not a prepper, but a lot of them are worried about electronic cars being disabled by sun spots, EMPs, and hacking for nefarious purposes. The answer, of course, is to drive a pre-electronic car. Um, sort of like the '64 Porsche 356 that also shares our garage. No electronics, no power anything! We did convert to a Pertronix ignition system, but it's an easy switch back to points for (rolling eyes) End Times...

 

We're all screwed if there's an EMP. On nuke at about 100 miles over the U.S. would disable just about every electronic gizmo in the country.

I don't think MIni warrants against such an event ;-)