This message has been deleted by owner

 

You may want to give Don at Precision Mini a call or E-mail him. He is based in the US in NJ and seems to be generally helpful with MTH tuning files. The general consensus is that MTH Europe isn't much help and hardly ever responds.

Not sure of his Phone Number, but his e-mail is mthpower@precision-mini.com. Check the rest of the MTH forum here to get the website.

 

oldsmar fl... you must know the dunkin donuts on tampa road... thats my family.. but anyway... pat has been unable to figure it out......

 

This has happened several times with users. I have seen some posts here in regards to cars not starting but it was easily resolved by reflashing the ECU with the regular software using cartunes. When I did mine it hung the first time (anti virus software was running). I never tried to start the car, just killed the AV and reflashed. Car started with no problems and is more aggresive. You are better off contacting someone like Don to help you as he is located here in the US and you are not hitting a possible language barrier.

Also, when doing ANY mods to a car, you take a risk. Flashing the ECU is much like flashing the BIOS of a computer. If you disrupt that process, you can effectivly destroy the chip. It is a risk... Just like a new pully, or CAI, or whatever.

My advice is much like the above. Contact Don and get some help and remember that Don sells MTH but isn't MTH. In other words, buy from him in the future... You won't regret it anyway.

 

Darren's an auzzie... he can speak english, language barrier shouldn't be an issue.

 

why deleted? got contacted by MTH?

 

Darren works in Offenbach?

 

I did get an email yesterday from Darren saying he wanted to call me to talk about the problem. Today he phoned me at work and we discussed the situation. He said he has never seen anything like it. The DME has been replaced with a new one and the problem remains. My dealer says that the DME will not wake up the motronics circuitry even though it is getting all the right power in the right places.

The dealer is unable to figure out what is wrong, and may end up having to bring a Mini field engineer in. They may even have to "Lemon Law" the car if they can't fix it. He said that had happened only once before in his memory.

 

no offence how can you lemon law a car that worked fine before you tried to install aftermarket stuff and now doesn't after?

 

I agree, lemon law a car that you destroyed? Hmmm... or is it possible that the car has other problems that don't really involve MTH. This sounds more like the case to me.

 

The latter.

 

Agreed.

 

so how about an update

 

Don't bet on it...

 

Well that would be a shame - leaves a MTH doubt for us all.

 

Not for me. The symptoms that he described sounded like the car had bigger issues than MTH. He had stated that they installed a totally new ECU and still couldn't get it to communicate. That leads me to believe that the harness or somthing is messed up.

 

Still an assumption (leads me to believe) .... an update would be nice. True, we may never know what caused the problem (electronic mystery ) but it would be nice to hear he got the car back on track and is moving forward with the MTH and if he is happy with the upgrade.

The original post took a position (right or wrong), a clarification would be more appropriate than just deleting it.

 

I see your point and agree.

 

Well here is the update you've been asking for. I've been waiting until I had something positive to report.

Darren phoned me from Germany last week and we discussed the problem. He had no idea what could be the problem and hoped I'd let him know what the dealer could accomplish if it ever got resolved.

A week later (this Wed, 9/20), I got a call from the dealer and the car was ready and running. Good news to be sure.

Here is what they discovered:
1- the ECU on my car would not accept any programming at all after I tried to run Cartune to install the MTH patch, or the original files. Neither upload was successful, as I said earlier. The dealer could also not re-program the ECU and so they got another unit from MINI. Apparently there is a choice between receiving a 'coded' DMI or an 'uncoded' unit. They got the uncoded unit and found that it would not accept their programming either. All the diagnostics checked out and all inputs were at the correct level, but the ECU would not wake up the motronics and could not communicate with itself.

So last week, at my suggestion, they swapped the new, uncoded ECU with a new one taken out of a brand new MCSa on the lot. They found that the ECU would not work in the new car either. However, the new car's ECU installed in my car accepted the programming and is now running just fine. The conclusion was that that the ECU taken out of the new car was already coded, and so would accept the new programming from the dealer, where the uncoded ECU was not codable from the dealer.

No defect in the car's wiring or other electronics was found culpable; just that they were unable to program an uncoded brand new ECU.

What caused the coding in my ECU to disappear or break is up for speculation, but I am understandably not anxious to risk another event such as this by attempting to re-install the MTH patch with Cartune. I do not think the dealer would be amused at a reccurrance, do you?

The good news is that the programming from the dealer that is now in my car is smoother, more responsive, and powerful than I ever remember my MTH tuned car to be. The dealer gave me a loaner 2006 MCa to drive while mine was being worked on and it was a sluggish pig compared to my MCSa now. I was very happy to get it back and running so well.

So you may, and undoubtedly will, draw your own conclusions as to the causes and dangers of using Cartune and MTH. I will readily admit that on my first MCa, the Cartune and MTH provided considerable benefit and I was glad I had it. This time the dealer tuning is so good I'm already happy, and while I'm as much a power junkie as anyone, and wouldn't mind finding that MTH gives me even better performance, I do not wish to risk what has happened to me again.

I realize that in my zeal to share all this with you folks, I put my situation at risk because if someone at MINI or my dealership found this thread and decided to void my warranty as has been suggested here, I'd be in deep doodoo. So that is why I deleted my post online, when I found I could not delete this entire thread, and kept getting followup posts proving that these threads have a life of their own after being abandoned by their parents.

I would probably have been smarter to keep my experience private until it had all been corrected. But at the time, I was not getting any correspondence from Darren, and nobody knew what to do and I was seeking whatever help I could find.

I will say that Darren's phone call to me and his explanation about backlogged emails and a slew of new MTH requests all contributed to my emails to him being lost in the stack and he appologized. I feel better about his committment to service and support.

The dealer who shall go unidentified for reasons explained above, treated me exceptionally well given the frustration of not knowing what the problem was, and having spent countless hours of his top mechanic and service department manager trying to diagnose and fix the problem. The use of a loaner for 3-4 weeks was also a big gift that other dealers might not be so generous with. I'm very grateful.

Thanks for your interest

ezrider

 

I like beer.

 

"...they swapped the new, uncoded ECU with a new one taken out of a brand new MCSa on the lot. They found that the ECU would not work in the new car either. However, the new car's ECU installed in my car accepted the programming and is now running just fine. The conclusion was that that the ECU taken out of the new car was already coded, and so would accept the new programming from the dealer, where the uncoded ECU was not codable from the dealer."

Unfortunately, what you gave is not a conclusion as to what happened or why.
I had a similar problem with a Pacifica and its entertainment system. The problem was with the wiring harness. Chrysler gave us a new one. I suspect the same with your MCSa.

 

As DMH said, their inability to program a totally uncoded ECU sounds like there is a communication issue of some sort. I doubt that this is caused by Cartunes, but rather a fault in either the wiring harness or some connector. It is a computer and if you can't program it or "wake it up", then your signal is not making it there.

 

Thanks for the update.

I am glad to hear that the dealer not only got your MINI back on the road but treated you well.

I can appreciate that you want calm and will leave things alone (at least for a while ).

What are you going to do with the MTH Are you able to return it?

 

just a thought, but starting a thread titled ' Beware potential danger installing MTH software' ensured people would want an explanation, don't ya think? Kind of like walking into a room and tossing a grenade, then standing back to watch the drama.