Completed Mini's free Car Care Clinic today where they discovered oil on the solenoid loom which in rare cases (3-4) has led to blown ECUs. It'll be $650 & half a day repair at the dealer but glad they found it as I wouldn't have noticed it.

Anyone else experience this? FWIW the car has 42K on it.

Just a heads up if you haven't taken Mini up on this free service that it might be worth an hour of your time.

 

Common problem as I recall on N18's. I know my Countryman had it repaired under warranty early on.

 

Yup, a common warranty issue on N18s. Talk with the service manager, they should cover it.

 

This is my first time hearing about this. What solenoid? Where is it?

 

Well that'd be great but when I asked they said it wasn't covered. I have 42,000 miles, the standard factory warranty is 4 years/50,000 so they would have had to have caught it last year?

 

google search of "bmw TIS MINI oil solenoid wiring harness" turned up everything you need to know about this, including links to the repair kit from ECS ($31.23), pictures, and the official TSB. pdf attached.

IMHO since this is such a common problem that there's a TSB, MINI ought to cover it even if you're past the warranty date. You could ask the dealer to advocate for you with MINI/BMW. If that doesn't get anywhere or if it's too much hassle, it looks like a straightforward DIY for low cost. You should also show the TSB to the service manager and ask how this turns into $650. I'm not sure what 52 FRUs means in terms of time, but it looks like $30 in parts and less than an hour of labor to me.

 

Thanks squawSkibum

 

bmw FRU's are 5 minutes so 52 FRU's would be 4.3 billable hours.