Looking for some troubleshooting assistance. By the way Jeff from Howerton Engineering has been awesome to work with(very fast response time) as well as Richard Lin from Aquamist(UK forum). However, the weekend is the only real time I have to work on the MINI and both are obviously unable to reply before my weekend is up.

I've gotten the kit installed, plumbed all the wires and paid a speed shop to tap the ECU(so that part is done right). Now, I'm at the point of testing and some hiccups:

1. Placed a jumper on SYS to purge and free flow the system. Successful at this step.

2. Threshold at 7 o clock and blipping throttle sprays a cone pattern on windshield. Successful at this step.

At this point, I left the speed shop thinking I'm home free. However, immediately the MINI goes into limp mode(no boost). Continued driving home anyways. (speed shop was closing) This is problem 1.

3. Contacted Jeff and he said to continue with setting up failsafe step(duh forgot that step). Placed the jumper again to SYS for full spray with WL fully CCW and WH fully CW. Fired system up and no bar(on gauge) lights up. This is problem 2. I remembered the bars lighting up randomly on the way home. Hm, weird. Tried turning the SC trimmer and still nothing lights up. (limp mode still active) Both yellow LED on gauge is on showing fail safe activated.

Once again contacted Jeff(and Richard) and they said my flow sensor probably needs to be cleaned. Took it apart, and cleaned it out(it didn't seem clogged nor did I find debris). Blew into it before I put it back in and heard the whirring sound. Tried the test again and still no bar lighting up on the gauge. Richard requested I remove the flow sensor while the C clamped harness still attached and try blowing into it to simulate flow(this should trigger the bars to light up) but still no luck. (limp mode still active) 2 yellow LEDS still lit up.

So at this point, I decided to not screw with the fail safe since it's still spraying and just try to solve limp mode problem. I tried deactivating fail safe by placing a jumper on the far right spot(DFS I think- I don't have the diagram in front of me). Fired up system and the 2 LEDs are off! Woot! That means fail safe not trigger. HOWEVER, limp mode still active. Argh! Is the limp mode caused by something other than the meth kit? Ideas?

 

Are you tuned? I am running into that problem with mine at the moment being tuned and causing some problems.

 

Not tuned but I should be able to run the kit without a tune(without boost cutting), right? I guess it's not a big deal if a tune would fix it but I wanna make sure it's not something else(like a bad flow sensor or flow sensor harness)

 

you need to get a code scanner and see what shows up. go to autozone or someplace like that, they will read it for free. It could be a wiring error with the failsafe wiring at the ecu. If you are not tuned for the meth then the failsafe wiring isn't important. basically if your not tuned for meth then running the car without meth will not harm it.

FYI, Jeff always got back to me, weekend or not so don't be afraid to call him.

 

Yeah, Calling someone on a Sunday.... Don't do that.
Did you or did you not cut your wastegate wire for the fail safe?

 

This makes me wish I tapped the ECU myself cause I don't know. Speed shop did it and speaking to them before leaving, they stated they followed the instructions. I guess I'll have to wait till Monday to ask them.

 

Why did you not tap it yourself.
Its not rocket surgery. This is why i charge to install these.
450 thats worth it to a owner to not have to deal with all of these little issues.
Go look at what they did. its likely its not the kit but, they managed to butcher your wiring.
good luck with that.

 

Well I'm looking at it right now and the waste gate was cut. ECU waste gate to white wire from controller and orange wire connected to cut off white wire to waste gate valve. All other wires look right

 

the rest are supposed to be post tapped, sometimes if you are not careful or know how to use them the post taps can give a intermittent connection.
however ill just stick to replying to this on rmw. Its too much work to go back and forth between forums.

 

For those keeping an eye on this thread for your own info, problem 1(boost cut) is fixed. The speed shop had connected everything in the diagram including the optional wastegate wire and that had caused a boost cut.

Problem 2 still persists(bars on gauge not picking up flow) and until I fix that, I can't set the safety window and will continue to trip the fail safe. Troubleshooting continues!

 

Check to see where your gain trim is set at. You may have to scale down the Flow sensor trim to get it to show. When you test the SYS jumper do all the bars light up? Try turning the SC trim all the way CCW and see if that helps. Right now my gain is set to about 1 o'clock and my SC trim is set to about 11 o'clock this results in 6-7 bars under full flow.

 

Diagnosis is in: Bad flow sensor harness. :/ $69 to replace. Whatever I saved for buying it used just went out the door this past week :P

 

glad you got it all sorted out

 

I'll breathe a sigh of relief once I install the system and it works. ;p

 

Update: Got parts back and installed. Severed the wastegate wire and connected the fail safes again. Bars now light up with we harness but limp mode still active. After messing around all afternoon and still no dice. Disconnected the fail safes and rejoined the wastegate wire back and voila, no limp mode. Decided to leave it alone for now. I'm tired of the troubleshooting. That and the wastegate wire is getting too short with all the trimming from disconnecting and reconnecting. ;/

 

Since the upper and lower thresholds of the failsafe are set via the gauge could something be wonky there causing the system to always trigger limp mode?

 

Sorry to bring back old thread but wanted to clarify something for anyone coming across this. The brown wire is supposed to be hooked up instead of the orange. It seems to be a common mistake. You certainly would throw a cel if the orange was hooked up.

Chris

 

I installed my system but didn't have time to do the setup steps. Well if you don't have power on the system the failsafe will have an open contact and you will get the check engine / limp mode. I still have not had time due to work to finish my install but this all got me to thinking if the Aquamist fails for some reason or you blow a fuse ...etc then your in limp mode. I think I'm going to take that function out the loop before I set mine up.....
Anyone else not running the boost fail safe function ?
I had read about the orange and brown issues before I installed so I called Jeff before install......

 

Im not sure that the car will go into limp mode if power goes out and the wastegate wire is clipped. I'm almost sure the unit completes the circuit provided you have the high boost jumper pulled. I guess I could try it by pulling the fuse.