My "service engine soon" light came on for the first time after fueling. I'm in OR where required by law that all the gas stations have an attendant to pump the gas. I assummed that he closed the lid until it clicked, but I didn't check. Now the Service light is on. :smile:

 

1st - check to ensure gas-dude clicked your fuel cap correctly

Then - your SES light will go out only after three (3) consequtive error-free ignition cycles. That means not until the 4th cycle will the light stay off. If not, then you have a real issue; get out the code reader, or get to the dealership ASAP.

Hope that helps,
Ryan

 

Thanks, Ryan! I checked and rechecked the fuel cap more times than I can remember. I'll wait a few days and see. Hopefully, everything will be ok; otherwise,.............. :evil:

 

My issue took more like 6 or more cycles before it went off. But the dealer assured me that if the car seems to be running fine, there is no problem. And there was none.

I am just very careful fastening the cap now.

Regards,
Red

 

Three drive cycles should take care of your SES light. If you're still experiencing a problem please contact us at 866 ASK.MINI and mention Reference # 200408400436 so that we can help you more efficiently. We're here to help.

 

I'm in Oregon as well, and after 2 rounds of the "Check Engine Soon" light after gassing up, now I close up myself every time once the pump jockey finishes. No more light, and peace of mind after each fill-up. Mine took considerably more than 3 ignition cycles to fix itself each time. One session was close to 2 weeks, and my MINI is my daily driver.

 

Just recently I had the same problem. My "service engine soon" light came on. Car was running fine, and it's a daily driver there was no difference in the way the car was running. I hoped the light would go off by itself. So 2 weeks pass light is still on, so I decided to bring my car in.
AND wouldn't you frickin believe the night before the appointment the light finally goes off. I still bring it in though just to check up, but the service rep said no need as long as the light goes off by itself no need to check the car.

But he was telling me the car does a cycle of test, where you have to drive a certain way, speed, etc for it to run the test. I think he said it does this 3 times, if all 3 times the test is good then it turns off the light. My drive is so short the computer couldn't run the test completely it took little over 2 weeks.

If the light goes on and there's was difference in the way the car is running, I would have brought it in asap.

 

--->Miniphyter; It seems plausible that there is a distance versus ignition cycle algorithm that determines an error-free cycle, and that your commute wasn't long enough to reach that distance. It doesn't seem all too reasonable, however, since the SES system check only takes a few seconds upon startup. MINIDivision should theoretically know, but frankly I'm impressed they actually knew about the 3-cycles rule.

 

The way I was explained it was that upon starting the car, the computer does a full check of the car which may take a minute. But being that a lot of people don't exactly wait that long or longer running idle in the driveway, they end the test by taking off. The test will then end after 3000 rpm. Now if after all three checks/tests, everything checks out good and you've taken the time to allow the tests to complete themselves, then the light goes out. But those 3 positive checks have to be consistant. If you have 2 good checks, and then one bad check, or one good then one bad then one good again, the process repeats from the beginning.
I've had the light on for a couple weeks. When I went tot he dealer, there was nothing wrong even though the light was on at the time of the diagnosis. I was told that if you don't experience driving malfunctions or problems running, than it's most likely VERY a miniscule issue. All it is, is an exhaust/emissions light ( check engine ). But if there's drivability problems or the EML light comes on, than it's something different.
I had a vapour lock occur just after 100km's on my car. The light didn't come on until after my break-in period,...thousands of km's after the so-called fault of mine (gas cap not totally tight)happened. It tried to correct it for that long, and then finally gave in. Also another example, was that a tech at my dealer said he purposely left his gas cap on his MCS, NOT properly tightened. It took a couple weeks for the light to come on, by the time the computer ran the entirity of those tests, and finally picked it up. And then of course you have to run those tests completely again after that to correct it.
I was told not to go out of my way to go to my dealer if the check engine light comes on again.........without drivability problems, and just let the car run its course. 95% of the time, the car will shut if off by itself.
Cheers,