Situation- Car was overheating constantly, so I did what I could do (which I learned here on this forum) which was replace the thermostat and thermostat gasket, replaced the coolant, got the air out of the system (gurgling noise behind firewall), but still the car overheated. So it was the fan or the fan relay. Either way I wasn't confident in my ability to replace it. So I took it to my handy local repair guy.

So they replaced the entire fan assembly and the relay as well. Cleaned it all nice and pretty, and I was stoked to finally get to drive the Mini again, as it's been sitting for about 4 months. (busy and it's a spare car) So I get there, pay 454.00 (got an oil change, a car wash, and a rotate and balance on the tires while it was there) and go jump in the Mini.

Immediately I realized something was amiss. As I put it into reverse, the car clunked into gear. Then as I put it in drive it clunked into gear hard again. This is NOT how she normally reacts to being put into gear.

So I pull out to drive it around the parking lot, and the car will not shift into another gear, AND even at full throttle the engine would not rev over 2K rpms. So I drive back into the garage, tell the guy what is happening, and he pulls it back into the garage. they prod around for about 30 minutes, then take it out into the parking lot to see if it was fixed, but it was still doing the same thing for them.

So they think that the service interval- oil change thing needs to be reset. They dont know how to do it, so I looked it up here and reset it.

THEN, I noticed that in park the oil light was on, but went off when I revved the engine a bit.

So since I had no transmission issues prior, and they just changed the oil, rotated the tires, and replaced the fan assembly I think this is just some sort of computer issue, that the engine and the transmission is being told there is something wrong.

Anyone have something I might be able to suggest to the mechanic?

 

Do the obvious things first. Oil light means low oil pressure. Check the oil level to prevent potential headache. They may not have put in proper amount.

I have seen bad mechanics induce damages to a fine vehicle. I don't ever leave a vehicle to be fixed.

I am assuming that the vehicle has automatic transmission? Check the oil level on that.

 

Yes. Automatic transmission. And the oil levels are fine after the change with synthetic Mobil One.

Anyone know how to reset the whole computer? Something in the computer is telling the engine and transmission that something is wrong.

Is there another relay or fuse that may be bad?

 

Inside of the oil filter housing (the canister) is a spring assembly that sits under the oil filter itself. If that sticks in the filter (and it commonly does) it will get tossed with the filter and the result is low oil pressure- you're not losing oil but you are losing pressure in the filter canister. If they haven't tossed their trash as of yet ask them to dig out your filter. It likely has that spring assembly inside of it.

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...98&hg=11&fg=30

It's the spring thing you see inside of #4 on the chart- it is actually smaller than this drawing. If they find it in the trash or don't they need to drain the oil and pull the housing. You shouldn't be driving it with the oil pressure light flickering.

If they refuse they should at least pay to flatbed it to a qualified MINI specialist so they can see what is going on. The not revving and not shifting thing I'm not sure of, but I'm pretty sure about the oil filter housing spring.

Val

 

UPDATE:

Ok. I used a OBD computer to rest 2 codes that were showing even though the check engine light was not on. One was a P1229, which did not have a definition, and the other was a P0500 which was Vehicle speed sensor. Anyway. I cleared those codes and POOF! car worked fine.

thanks for the help though. Maybe this will help others in the future. Hopefully it was just knocked or something when they installed the fan and fan relay.

 

If your oil light is on when the car is idling that still means that there is low oil pressure. Regardless of what the OBD tool reset, you should have this looked at. I would advise having a qualified independent MINI specialist drain the new oil (they can re-use it) and check to see what the situation in the oil canister is.

Val

 

Serious +1 on what Val said. I really suspect the oil changer lost that spring. Don't ever drive w/ low oil pressure. & it's highly recommended to change your CVT fluid.