Hi Mini Community,

A few weeks ago, I decided to try to fix up a 2008 Mini Cooper S Convertible that’s been in the family for a long time and was sitting in the garage. I don’t have a ton of experience working on cars. I’m fairly handy, but my father-in-law has the tools, so we’ve been working on it together over the past few weekends.

The original issue was a blown head gasket. My father-in-law sourced a used but relatively new cylinder head, along with a head gasket replacement kit. With the help of some YouTube videos, we removed the old warped head and installed the new one. We replaced most of the gaskets, engine sensors, and all single-use bolts along the way. For the timing chain, we used a tool to lock the cam in place and took extra care to ensure everything was aligned correctly.

Now that the engine is fully reassembled, we are seeing the symptoms shown in the video attached.

The car idles erratically, and after plugging in a basic code reader, we are getting a fault code, which is shown in the photo. It feels like we are close, but we are a bit stuck. We checked for obvious leaks and did not find anything. I am wondering if this could be a vacuum leak, a bad sensor, or possibly a timing issue?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. If this is beyond our skill level, feel free to say so. We are open to taking it to a mechanic if needed.

Thanks,

 

Did you check the MAP sensor hose? Those sometimes crack.

 

No I have not! I'll look at that next!