We have a 16 F55 (3 Cylinder) with 110,000 miles. Occasionally we would get the "Drivetrain Malfunction Warning" sometimes power would be reduced.

Took it to a specialist BMW / Mini repair shop and they put a scanner on it and found "Cam Timing not to Spec". They checked everything that could be checked without removing the engine and could not find anything out of spec, mechanical or ECU related. However since the scanner had been attached, it now has the "DT Malfunction warning" on all the time and the turbo is not spooling. (sort of limp mode I guess) They stated they completely reflashed the ecu and used another known good one and got the same result.

Car drives fine, just down a bit on power / torque. Question is, can this be bypassed somehow? Turbo run without use of the ECU maybe?

I do not wish to pay to have the engine removed or replaced at this time, and I believe whatever the real problem is will show up eventually and we will cross the bridge then.

Any thoughts??
Thanks.

 

Over a month and not one comment.