Hello all. So over the last year or so I've been victim of the whole P2885 devil-code. It all came down to my turbo being on it's way out, and my whole system so f*ed from carbon buildup I couldn't believe it. I'd had to continue driving the car for several months due to lack of other transportation, and today the car decided it was time to go to the doctor, for real.

This morning I had 3 misfires in a row. The car had been getting more and more jerky in acceleration, the turbo had been burning oil and coolant, and I was just been going day by day refilling oil and coolant as it went, until I could afford to fix the turbo. But after the misfires, I've decided it's time to bite the bullet.

I'm having a new OEM turbo built by GPop-Shop, $950 with a $200 rebate when I send my old core in. I'm replacing most of the piping and tubing to eliminate the possibility of a leak in my existing beat to sh*t stock piping. I'm replacing the DV, and adding the BSH OCC system. Once we get the turbo off, we're going to look into the severity of the carbon buildup, and proceed accordingly from there. Most likely going to end up cleaning the whole system extensively. Going to check the sparks, coils, and injectors to check for issues there, though they've been serviced pretty recently.

The car has 103k miles on it. I'm really hoping these replacement procedures cover all of the issues, and that I can kind of 'start over with a clean slate' and do it right this time. I know most people would have given up by now and sold the car, but I'm really connected to it and want to keep it forever, if possible. Of course, eventually I'll be doing a full drivetrain rebuild, but for now, I just want to get it back on the road, and solid.

Overall I'll be spending about $2250, ironically the cost of one (to remain unnamed) company's uprated turbocharger alone--to this effect I feel like I'm making out pretty well. I'll be posting up as the process unfolds, everything was just ordered today. If anyone has any suggestions of other areas to address while in this process, please let me know.

 

Thanks for taking the time to let us "go along for the ride" on your rebuild.

I have an '12 11,000-mile MCS that I hope will be with me quite a while. I know MINI has incorporated some lessons-learned on the later R56's, but it's still very informative to see what high-miles ones are experiencing.

Best wishes for a great outcome!

 

good luck with the build and hopefully the carbon isnt as bad as it seems for you.

 

turbo upgrade sounds great! who is taking care of the ECU tune for it ?

 

Hmm advice?

Get a cheap daily driver!

You're going to spend all this money on a custom turbo, custom tune, dyno time, and labor for looking for as many potential gremlins as possible so you can go faster during daily driving & traffic? After labor and the inevitable fact that there will be more worn out parts to replace it might even be as high as $3000+. It would also be wise to upgrade the bottom-end of the engine if you're going the K03/K04 & custom tune route. The stock Mahle pistons aren't the strongest pistons out there. I hate to sound like a dad giving his kid a lecture, but this is just the way I see it after modding my MINI throughout the years. Why not just rebuild the old turbo? It would be a hell of a lot cheaper and you won't need to deal with custom ECU tunes. Maybe I'm being overly conservative. If there is one lesson I've learned from my MINI is to plan things out. A bigger turbo and tune is going to drag reliability down the toilet and you need to compensate in other areas to make the engine reliable again.

If you're going to do all this work on the car you might as well get a cheap different daily driver. It makes the most sense when you start modding a car to a point where you're going to spend thousands and have the car on jackstands for many many hours. With how many miles you already have on the engine you're taking a gamble that might now work out in favor after you crank the boost on your hybrid K03/K04 turbo. Then, you'll be out of thousands of more dollars.

 

The turbo I'm getting is essentially identical to the OEM, just with stronger internals. Not much of any difference in size or output. This whole step I'm taking isn't as much a performance-oriented step as it is getting my car back on the road safely, but I definitely understand what you're saying. I'll be doing the whole daily driver switch pretty soon, but at the moment I don't have space for two cars, and don't have time to arrange a storage unit or something of that essence to put the MINI away.

I know these steps aren't going to fix everything, and I know there will be many more problems down the road. As I had mentioned, once I have the money and the resources, I plan on taking the MINI off the road for a while and doing a full engine & drivetrain rebuild. Until then, I just need to get it back on the road and working properly, and with a dealership quoted $4000 for the whole process, I'm just trying to find the best way available to me at the moment. If I had access to a garage in which to have my car sit for a while, and if I weren't in school and in need of my car on a daily basis, I would sit it up, do all of this work myself, and not stress about it.

I definitely agree with you that the planning is a crucial aspect with these cars, but this is one of those things that kind of snuck up on me. I guess I just wanted to pretend it wasn't happening, until it got to the point that I had no choice but to fix it. My first thought, as horribly painful as it was, was just to get rid of the car. But, as I mentioned, my sentimental connection to the car way outweighs practicality in this case .

Thanks for the input though.

 

Ha, I was expecting a scathing backlash after keeping it real Whatever you do, good luck and keep motoring!

 

+1^.
I dont own a R56 but advise above makes sense. good luck with your project and hope it will solve your issues.

 

103k!! good job keep going im only at 80k but im hoping on keeping mine forever too!! just make sure your fuel pump is doing good as well before you get that new turbo in and kicking

 

So, it's all almost done with. The turbo is in; I went with GPop Shop's k03, as well as new air charge & intake piping, Way Motor Works' Diverter Valve, new spark plugs and coilpacks, and got it carbon cleaned and replaced the oil feed & return lines for the turbo.

Now the issue is that the WMW diverter valve seems like it can't handle the uprated boost of the RMW tune. I'm hearing very faint compressor surge/turbo flutter type noises between full overboost shifts. I'm trying to figure out if I just need to re-dyno and cut the boost a bit or if there's a viable diverter valve option out there. My VEI boost gauge isn't connected right now, and the highest registered on the ScanGauge (when I had half a second to look down) was 17.6psi. Not sure if this is too high...

I've purchased in the past and tried the Forge diverter valve; I don't know if I just got a faulty one or what but it didn't work at all. Unless it was meant to be completely silent, it literally wasn't actuating at all, and my car was having serious issues with it. Anyway, just wanted to update anyone following the thread, and reopen it to any comments if you have experience with these situations. Thanks everyone, and happy 100k+ boosting!!

 

Always keep it real, Shane!

Kal, are you at SCAD? We should get beer sometime. My place of choice is usually McDonough's.

 

Yup, I'm here. Just started Grad school. I live in Drayton Tower, so McDonoughs has naturally been my main place for a long time as well. Definitely be down to meet up for some beers and R56 talk!

 

Gonna be at McDonoughs tomorrow (Sunday) at 1 o'clock for football. I have longer hair now so if you show up, look for the middle aged guy with distinctive silver streaks.

 

Just an update for anyone who followed this thread and/or has been dealing with P2885 themselves. The code was gone for quite a while, just showed up again last month. After going through all the possibilities again, I figured out this time it was being caused by excess carbon buildup on the Intake valves. Getting the walnut blasting done, hopefully that'll be the next temporary fix haha. There's always something with these cars...

 

Have you considered a water-meth injection system such as the Aquamist? Should keep things clean much better than an OCC after you get all the carbon buildup removed.

 

Yeah, I definitely want to go that route eventually. I'm tight on money right now, so I'm having to prioritize. Since I can't get any support or updates on my tune, I'm focusing on who to go through for that next. Once that's all figured out and I have a steady place to work with for tuning, I'll go the w/m route.

 

Yea, I know what you mean. It isn't cheap being addicted to highly modified and tuned MINIs...

I have the HFS-3 and an OCC on my car but neither was installed from day one so I'm sure I'll need a cleaning eventually as well.

Did you have any luck with Way regarding custom tuning using the Dimsport?
I'm in the same situation with the Alta AP since it's been discontinued. I may look into Evolve.

 

Haha indeed it is. I haven't contacted Way yet, but I'm going to Helenblitz tomorrow so maybe I'll run into him there. If that's a no-go, I've been looking at Evolve too...That or the NM deal where you overnight your ECU to them. We'll see...

 

Helenblitz!!!!

 

Damn dude I wish I was still in Jacksonville to help you out. I am still getting mine trouble shooted to see why I am still boost cutting.

Some advice I can offer you since I just recently decided to do something similar is get this from detroituned, http://www.detroittuned.com/detroit-...urbo-oil-line/ also get this minus the hard skinny pipe, http://www.detroittuned.com/detroit-...-oil-line-kit/ . I didn not get the flexible pipe and regret it because I will be back in there again. Gpop will send you a new turbo crush washer that goes in between the turbo and manifold so don't worry about that. Also it can be done without putting the car in service mode but, it will be easier to work on if you do put it in that position.

Let us know and PM me if you need help.

 

Another thought on OCC's --- after installing the OCC only on the turbo inlet PCV hose, I found very little fluid being caught, probably because of my driving habits. Eventually, I installed plugs on the intake manifold PCV line, so all vapors would go thru the OCC. Now the OCC needs to be emptied periodically.

So, once you get the valves cleaned, you should consider the plug sold by BSH and others. More expensive than caps but easier to install. And when you find the dollars, consider the HFS4 WMI system --- they're AWESUM!

Best of luck with the Mini, and finish your formal education ---

 

Okay cool thanks for the help. I did replace all the turbo lines when I got the new turbo put in, I don't know if they were the Detroit Tuned ones or not though. The car seems to be running fine since the Walnut Blasting, just keeping an eye on my OCC now. Gotta get the piece to block off the other side of the pcv though. The car went into Limp Mode again one time while I was at Helenblitz, but hasn't come back since. And it only came after 2 hours of hauling a$$ in the mountains , this time in 4th gear on an uphill. Maybe just a straggler misfire.


And thanks oldbrokenwind, I'm looking into that piece to block off the PCV. I just wish I could afford the W/M now!

And a note to anyone wondering about the DimSport issue, I talked to Way at Helenblitz, and he stated pretty adamantly that he will not touch ANYTHING that's been touched by Jan at RMW, ever. So my Dimsport is now useless lol. Time to look into a whole new tuning option. I just wish there was a good dyno tuning shop here...

Thanks again for the help everyone!

 

Hey Kalibdor

I know you've gone cleaned up the carbon build up and it seemed to help you with that dreaded code.

I also have the BSH catch can, and it seems to have a kink in the tube that goes to the catch can. Do you guys think that could be causing the code as well? When there isn't enough oil being driven to the can? I'm one step closer to just replacing the turbo. There definitely is a lot of carbon build up.

 

Anybody try seafoam?

 

Seafoamed several times, just always too late. Seafoam will help, but won't prevent carbon buildup in the long run. Unless you enjoy doing it twice every month for the entire time you own the car.