The wife bumped her MINI (2006 MCS) and damaged the temp sensor. The computer was showing -40 F with it damaged. And the Service light came on. (I haven't had the codes pulled).

After replacing the outside temp sensor, the temp started slowly going up from -40 to where it is now, ~35ish. That took about 30 minutes of driving around. I read some other posts that indicate that it takes a while to recalibrate, so I suspect we're OK.

But what about the Service Engine light? Will it go out on it's own (assuming that the only problem she created was the busted temp sensor)?

 

Your check engine light isn't because of the outside temp sensor, you need to pull the codes.

As for the outside temp sensor being slow. That is perfectly normal. The outside temp function is dampened. Meaning slow to change. MINI does this so if you drove over a river or through a cold area the temp on the sensor wouldn't immediately change. Mainly because this sensor is an input to the car to use for many things such as cold start and all the heating and A/C functions. When it reads that -40 it won't let the A/C compressor even engage. The MINI manual states it will take 2 min. for the temp to correct or you can drive it, driving it is fast usually.
The pass seat mat is also dampened so if you get out of the seat it will tell the airbag module to keep the airbag active for 2 min. This is in case you hit a bump and bounce off the seat, your airbag will stay active.

 

Thanks for the info MiniGuru. I'll take her over to the Autozone & get them to pull the codes.

 

When I woke up this morning, I remembered that you can get a variety of info from the computer via the speedo. So I went and found an old post in our local club stuff on how to reset the instrument cluster and it had the how-to on what's available.

I found in slot 14 - which is supposed to be the codes - the following:

14.0 - 922800
14.1 - 122126

Are these the OBD codes or something else? I thought OBD's all started with a P (Pxxxx).

 

Sorry but those codes mean nothing to me. Have them read with a scan tool and you'll get something useful.

 

OK folks, here's the update. On Wed (12/31) the CEL shutoff. I made it by Autozone yesterday afternoon and pulled the code(s). The only code was a P0070. The description I found was Ambient Air Temp Circuit, but I thought that was like an air intake temp. Does the MINI use the sensor that is behind the lower grill, mounted to the grill, left side as the ambient temp?

And another thought - We toss around a couple of terms and I think of them as interchangeable, but are they?

CEL (Check Engine Light)
SES (Service Engine Soon) - the light we actually had light up in this case.