I just replaced my thermostat housing, and after I got everything together and the air bled, I noticed the cel came on. I pulled the codes and they are P0073 and P0579. The car runs fine, but I'd like to fix the problem before it becomes a real problem. I assume I mixed up some wires somewhere. I noticed when I checked just now that the plugs seem to be color coded, but I have the green connector hooked up to the top of the thermostat, which is brown. Is that correct? I tried swapping the green connector with the brown one, but the green one wouldn't go into the turbo intake connector. I know this is going to be a stupid mistake, bu I could use some ideas. Thanks!

 

I don't have any solid suggestions, but did look up the codes -

P0073 Ambient Air Temperature Sensor Circuit High Input
P0579 Cruise Control Multi-Function Input "A" Circuit Range/Performance

They don't seem to be related, so wonder if you didn't connect something back correctly?

 

Were these codes the reason you decided to replace the thermostat housing? Ill have a look at my Bentley manual.

Why is it every time I look for P codes in my Bentley manual I always come across different but similar numbers, ie. P0597 instead of P0579?

I show P0597 being "Program map thermostat, control activation: Open circuit." As for P0073 "Ambient Temperature Sensor Circuit High."


Where you getting your codes? The code P0579 isn't anywhere in my Bentley manual, you must be getting them somewhere else.

 

The "ambient air sensor" and "cruise control multi-function input" descriptions are what autozone printed out for me too. I figured they were probably wrong, but at least it narrowed it down to an electrical problem.

I had to replace the housing because I had a bad leak. The housing ended up being broken on the small tube that connects to the turbo line. Could someone please remove the plug on the intake near the turbo and tell me what color the plug is? Thanks!

 

The plug that goes to the sensor on the turbo air intake is brown. I'm surprised one could mix this up. I also recently replaced my thermostat housing and got confused on reassembly between that one and the one for the coolant temp sensor on the housing. Coolant sensor itself is brown so you'd expect a brown plug to go to it, but that doesn't fit. Looks like it should, but it doesn't. So green plug goes to brown coolant sensor. Brown plug goes to black turbo intake sensor. If that's the ambient air temp sensor, then swapping those two plugs (which is impossible without breaking something on my car) could cause "Ambient Temperature Sensor Circuit High."

Did you forget to connect the cable to the thermostat itself? Leaving that off would definitely cause "Program map thermostat, control activation: Open circuit."

Hope that helps.

 

I wonder why Mini engineers are colorblind, wouldn't make more sense to have matching colored plugs to make it simple? I just don't get it...

 

Thanks for that, johne123! I had them hooked up correctly, after all. I pulled the air intake and the lower plug on the thermostat housing was not plugged in all the way. I could pull it out without popping the tab. I hooked that back up, but everything else seems okay. Do you think that both errors might have been from that one wire somehow?

@Systemlord: I thought the same thing! I noticed the grey connector and that the grey wire went to it and that's when I panicked. I was looking all over for the green plug and another wire for the intake. lol

 

Great so everything is solved no more issue with the codes? If codes still remain best thing you could do is drive it and let the ECU correct itself.

 

I didn't have a chance to clear the codes today, but while driving around the CEL went off! All good! Strange that the one plug threw two different codes, but I'm glad it's all fixed. Thanks for your help, everyone!

 

Your welcome, glad to lend a hand and learn something at the same time.

To anyone who finds this thread it would be a great idea to take pictures of the connectors before you pull them.