I have recently purchased an unwell 2007 mini cooper s auto. It has a bit of a back story so ill start from there. Below is what the previous owner told me.

They brought the car 3 years ago as a non runner and would not start. (no idea why)
They thought the ecu was faulty so had a second hand unit fitted and coded
The car still didn't run so the engine was replaced with a 60K unit (a new timing chain was fitted at the same time.)

The car ran but was always in limp home mode and didnt drive well.


I then purchased the car and I am now trying to fix it.

Firstly I checked that the car had indeed had a new timing chain,tensioner and guides fitted. It is also timed correctly.

I changed the oil and filter as i had no idea what grade oil was in it.

I had a fault code for the fuel rail sensor and vannos actuator so both these were replaced.

The car still runs just as badly and the fault codes remained after changing the parts. I have dis so i will list the fault codes i have below.

287D
287E
2B22
28AE
301E
2F42
2EE8
303E
2FD7


The other thing to add is the car will only start if the electrical connector is unplugged off of the high pressure fuel pump. When i brought the car there was a spare pump in the boot. i swapped it over and its the same.

Does anyone have any ideas what the problems could be. Could it be a main ecu fault.

 

Is there oil in the engine harness connector to the ECU? (serious question). If no, see if you can peel back the harness casing for oil traveling up the harness.

 

Do you mean to look for oil where the harness plugs into the ecu? I removed the plugs and all appears ok

 

No, I mean actually IN the harness itself. I remember having a car at the dealership, that had oil leak past a sensor internally and pump oil through the engine harness, deteriorating the insulation on the wires within the harness. If I recall correctly, it was an 08 (n12) automatic which is identical to what you have. I don't remember what the codes were, but it did have lots of running issues. Maybe it was the auto trans harness, but I can't remember. The fix was a new harness, and on that particular car, might have been a TCU. If you went around and unplugged sensors until you found one with oil inside of it, that could lead you down a path to investigate.

The shop foreman did say this was rare, however it was not the first one he saw and has repaired 2-3 of them in his career.

 

Cheers for that. Mine has the N14 engine in it. I have checked the connections and i am getting voltage at the connections and none have oil in the connections themselves.

The other thing i will say is i am unable to adjust the fuel pressure using dis as it says there is some kind of ecu fault. The vanos codes seem to have disappeared as well.

all seems very strange

 

Sorry for that, I did not see it was a Cooper S!

Do you know if the HPFP was changed (high pressure fuel pump)?

Also I know you mentioned the timing chains are new, but is it making compression on all 4 cylinders?

 

The compression on all four is fine. The car came with a spare (second hand ) pump in the boot, i fitted it but it has exactly the same problem as the other one. The car will not run when the electrical connector on the high pressure fuel pump is connected. this is the same for both pumps.

 

Do you know if the HPFP has to be bled or primed? I don't have any experience with this particular pump (coming from the VW/Audi, these do not have to be bled to function). However it may be possible. (I am doing my best to exhaust all efforts on a Monday morning!)

 

Hi no they are self priming. I really do appreciate your help.

 

Perhaps both pumps are bad ??? Are the pumps the same part # ???

 

They are both the same part number. But i have never heard of the car not starting with the connector plugged in and then starting when unplugged

 

Right the saga continues. Since i last posted i have fitted a full replacement engine loom (no difference)

Yesterday i fitted two replacement cams and a vanos (known good) and the problem still remains.

I have ordered a replacement high pressure pump but after this i have no idea where to look.

 

Just thought i would update and let you know thee fault turned out to be a dodgy rail sensor on the fuel rail and the inlet manifold was warped so not sealing correctly. car runs spot on now