Hello all,

Situation- Wife drive 2003 R50 mini to work. Coming to a downhill stop sign car stalls. Car will then not restart. No check engine light. Temp gauge goes all the way to red with light. Car is not overheating though. I get there 3 hours later. Turn key to see what's up. Temp gauge does to red with light, will turn over well, but will not fire. There is no check engine light on.

Attempted fixes-
1) tried to connect an OBD code reader. Get error message that it will not link to car.
2) disconnected battery for about 10 minutes. Tried the car again. Same result with the temp guage going to red and staying there.
3)attempted a reset for the ECU going through the menu to #21 and reset. Still does the same thing with the temp gauge to red with light. No Check engine or any other warning lights are on.
4) towed home.
5) been sitting here for 3 days now. When turning the key to position 1 ALL lights should be on. However a mechanic friend noticed that the check engine light was not lit.

Recent work done on the car-
1) fan relay replacement about 3000 miles ago.
2) Those yahoos that did that work changed the oil and lost the spring in the canister, so I had to replace the entire oil canister assembly.-1500 miles ago
3) power steering hose was leaking- replaced.-1500 miles
4) hose going to the thermostat came off- replaced-1000
5) thermostat went bad, and was replaced- 500 miles.

Solutions? Suggestions?

And yes I searched the forums but since it discounts the "not" and "wont" for check engine or code I got over 2000 entries.

 

How old is the battery? MINI's can act real funny if the battery is starting to go bad even if put on a charger.

 

Two questions that come to mind...

Does your car have a sunroof?

Is your MINI automatic transmission?

-- check for water from sunroof drains.. especially on driver side floor by fuse box. and the 3 connectors over there.

 

Have you checked fuses 5 and 36 in the fusebox on the left front kick panel? Next, disconnect the battery cables and touch them together to discharge any residual electricity in the system, then reconnect and retry the OBD. (Don't short the battery in any way- just connect the positive and negative cables to each other for a moment AFTER removing them from the battery).
Also, the temp gauge/sender system is reverse thermistor, so if there is a break in the wiring or the sender goes kaput it goes to the top of the meter and the light comes on. To start simple, find the connector to the sender on the cyl. head and make sure it is pushed all the way on.

 

After you tried all the resets, fuses, and battery test like above:

What OBD reader do you have , I have had problems in the past with the code reader reading a code on both First gen and Second generations. Actron readers can sometimes do this.

Last time I hooked one up and tried to receive a signal , I got the error , tried it 5 times , 5th time then it worked. Make sure when installing the reader cable into the OBD port all the way in.

We do carry the Peake Scan Tool if you need one.

http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/Peake_Mini/ES1905473/

Good luck and I hope you can get things to work.

 

Hi Everyone. thanks for the replies. I would have been back sooner, but the following day my Volvo S80 serpentine belt broke, whacking out the tensioner pulley and the alternator, so I went from having an extra car to renting a car. It seemed the easier fix, so I had to get it moving before coming back to the mini. When it rains it pours.


1) Yes on the sunroof, and auto transmission.

I will check out the fuses today, and report back.

The code reade3r is a Cen-Tech 99722. It has worked before on the car for pulling codes, resetting codes.

http://www.harborfreight.com/obd-ii-...ner-99722.html

Battery is about 12 months old, but the car has only been used about 6 months out of that.


I will report back in on the fuses. That would be like the old type clear plastic types that one can just look to see if the little "U" shape is broken? Not the big black square block things that look like relays?

 

It could still be your code reader. I have seen funny things happen with the cheaper ones. Fuses look like this

 

Okay.
1) Checked all the fuses.They all check out unfortunately since I was hoping it was an easy fix.
2) Did the battery terminal together thing. That didn't work.

So for today I will try finding the temp gauge sensor thing to make sure it is secure.

About the sunroof thing. I didn't notice any water there at the kick panel. Anything else that would indicate that is a problem?

Anything else to try?

Thanks

 

Happened to me aside from the temp gauge thing on my r53.. disconnected the battery while I was doing my PS pump. Held the 2 terminals together while off the battery for 10 seconds.. reconnected the battery and the obd2 port worked

 

naww...that code reader is fine...I actually use a
http://www.harborfreight.com/can-obd...enu-98568.html
The $59 one when I don't want to pull out the big $$ one....
IMO try UROMINI's idea...hopefully it will discharge the computer enough to reboot/reload and all will be fine.....

 

He said he'd tried the battery terminal trick with no success. Do you have a wiring diagram or a Bentley manual? Sounds like a relay from the box in the engine bay. I'll get my manual tomorrow and find out which one.

 

Had this issue with my 02 MCS I just bought at 66k miles. Had Mini dealer diagnose. PS pump and fan malfunction caused error and interruption to DME and shut out the OBD2. Weirdest thing I ever heard but had the place I bought it from do the repair (dealer wanted $1800). So the place I bought it from did the swap. It's all good now. Never woulda guessed PS pump would cause that. Sometimes the $100+ diagnostic is worth it. Good luck.

 

Densmini gave me the advice when I posted about it a couple weeks back

 

[QUOTE=Rags Danneskjold;3701830]Hello all,

Situation- Wife drive 2003 R50 mini to work. Coming to a downhill stop sign car stalls. Car will then not restart. No check engine light. Temp gauge goes all the way to red with light. Car is not overheating though. I get there 3 hours later. Turn key to see what's up. Temp gauge does to red with light, will turn over well, but will not fire. There is no check engine light on.

Attempted fixes-
1) tried to connect an OBD code reader. Get error message that it will not link to car.
2) disconnected battery for about 10 minutes. Tried the car again. Same result with the temp guage going to red and staying there.
3)attempted a reset for the ECU going through the menu to #21 and reset. Still does the same thing with the temp gauge to red with light. No Check engine or any other warning lights are on.
4) towed home.
5) been sitting here for 3 days now. When turning the key to position 1 ALL lights should be on. However a mechanic friend noticed that the check engine light was not lit.

Recent work done on the car-
1) fan relay replacement about 3000 miles ago.
2) Those yahoos that did that work changed the oil and lost the spring in the canister, so I had to replace the entire oil canister assembly.-1500 miles ago
3) power steering hose was leaking- replaced.-1500 miles
4) hose going to the thermostat came off- replaced-1000
5) thermostat went bad, and was replaced- 500 miles.

Did you ever resolve this? Same thing happening to my 2006 MINI.

 

[QUOTE=SharksPizza;4468721] Make triple sure that the electrical connector to the temp sensor on the cylinder head is pushed on completely. It's easy to think it's pushed on, but it is a surprisingly deep socket. Perhaps someone doing some of the work you describe didn't get it seated, and it is making intermittent contact.
The reason it's important is that the sensor system is reverse thermistor, meaning that if it is disconnected, the computer assumes the engine is overheated and disables it to prevent permanent damage. Sure sounds like that's what you are dealing with. While you're at it, check your connections all the way back to the ECU. Good luck.

 

Sounds like water ingress to the ECU or BCM or a short to ground on the ignition and the wires going to your ODB2 port.. they run from the ECU around the thermostat and under the engine exhuast heat shield area behind the motor. Primarily I would focus on fixing the ground short to get your ODB2 reader working. It's a very complicated process to test the wires and find the short and the best way to bypass this is to look at the wires going in the area I stated and see if any look rubbed or damaged and then fix them and try your reader again.

Pj