Does anyone know what version EWS is implemented on R56 MINIs?

 

Arbeitn mein Deutscher ist nicht gut aus.

 

EWS is BMW's drive-away protection/immobilizer/theft-deterrent mechanism. It is the reason it costs $400 to replace a key/get a new key. Because I think that's highway robbery, I'm looking into the feasibility of programming my own keys for use with my remote start. I haven't seen anyone do this yet on the forum, probably because of the cost and difficulty, but I think it's possible... first I need to figure out what EWS we're running.

Just based on the timing of releases, the first gen Coopers are probably running EWS 3.3 or less. There are quite a few tools out there that supposedly handle EWS 3. I've narrowed down my guess for the R56 to EWS 3.3 or maybe EWS 4.3. I believe EWS 4.3 went into BMWs around MY2007 with the E90/E91/E92 series, so highly possible that it went into the 2nd gen Coopers as well.

I would like to verify/confirm this with a credible source, though, so I'm not just guessing.

 

Talked to the stealership yet?

 

They weren't very helpful, but maybe I just got the wrong service advisor. They did say, however, that a lot of the technology that went into the E90/E91/E92 made it into the 2nd gen MINI. Nothing concrete, though.