Alright, so I had a couple issues with the SES light going on last week, but if I restarted the car a couple of times, it would go away. So, I assumed that it was nothing important and that my Unichip must be playing tricks on me.

Now, I am not sure if this is related, but here is my recollection of what happened the other night. I was taking a drive up into the Sierras to go spend a few nights at a cabin. I got stuck behind some douchebag trucker driving a good 35 in a 55 and had my fun with the highbeams trying to get this jerkoff to let me pass. Eventually, the road divided and I shifted from 5th to 3rd gear and punched it. I got about halfway around the truck when all of a sudden my DSC light started flashing along with my SES light! Everythime hit the gas the DSC would cut the revs and slow me down..... so now not only did I not get around the truck... not only did I look like a ******* cuz my car broke as I tried to fly past him, but I had to pull off of the road and see what the hell is going on. I pulled into a parking lot with sufficient light to see if I could see any hardware issues at all..... NOTHING my untrained eye could see. All of my engine appeared to be there and intact. I restarted the car and the SES light stayed on so I tried my old trick of restarting a few times to see if it went off.... no such luck this time.

3 days later and the light is still on. I tried unplugging the unichip and restarting a few times and that did nothing. ANYONE have any problems similar to this? If so, what is wrong and whats the cure?

 

Are you using the "M7 device" map for the Unichip? This could be the problem.

Just joking. I had the same problem, and MiniUSA could not fix the problem. I have since had the car bought back by Mini because of this problem. Actually Mini could not diagnose what was causing the problem, although the thrown code was "one or more misfires detected in cylinders 1 through 4". It is a pain and would occur about once a month for me. I have seen many explanations for this from everything to a bad sparkplug to a wiring harness problem. Mini spent about $9,000 trying to diagnose my problem and still no correction.

What is interesting is the number of times this type of problem has been posted on this board. Many more than the windshield problem.

 

So is my best bet to buy the $130 tool for reading and resetting codes? This seems to be nothing to worry about then.

 

Was it just your SES and DSC light or did EML, Stability, Tire Pressure, and SES light come on? If so it could be a wiring harness problem. See the link below.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ight=ses+light

 

You shouldn't get too worried about the light coming on. You also shouldn't worry about buying a scanner to draw and reset the code unless you just want to do that.

If the car is under warranty, the dealer will draw the code for free. If it is not under warranty, they will draw the code for free at any AutoZone. That said, just get them to draw the code at Auto Zone, write down the code and post it here. Don't put too much stock in what the Auto Zone guy says about the code. He will want to sell you whatever sensor the code relates to. The problem is not always the sensor or whatever is in the title of the code.

Posting the code(s) here will probably turn up enough info to troubleshoot the problem.