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I’ve had intermittent no cranking issues. I’ve already replaced the clutch safety switch, checked the alternator, swapped the starter relay and have a new ignition switch coming tomorrow. The car will not bump start, even through I hear the fuel pump going. The starter solenoid was checked and is working. I’m thinking the immobilized might not be working right and have already tried several keys with the same intermittent no crank results; even though all lights windows and interior chimes work.
I’m running out of things to try but can’t trust the car.
Any help or suggestions would be awesome. I’m fairly handy and would rather bypass the immobilized than taking the car to the dealer.
The ignition switch is a reasonably common failure point in the gen 1 vehicles. Although it has not happened to me yet, I've considered replacing the switch as a preventative maintenance item.
After I replaced the ignition switch I thought this has resolved my problems. The mini started for 5 days straight, in the driveway. I still didn’t trust the car for errands. Anyway on the 6th or 7th day it was back to its intermittent starter disabling. I hooked up my new code reader and found a 1661 timeout, EWS telegram error code in the ECU.
Please help as as I don’t want to keep dumping money into this car.
Have you checked the ground strap on the left side of the engine? (Left side if you're standing at the front of the vehicle looking at the engine.) It can corrode and cause odd issues. Also, disconnect the battery and unplug the ECU. Verify there is no corrosion on the connectors which plug into the ECU. The ECU is located in the battery box on the R50. Be careful as you do not want to bend any of the pins. It may be worthwhile to look at the immobilizer module connector for corrosion too. I'm not sure where the immobilizer module is located, though.
I’ve done as jfrantz suggested today and didn’t find any corrosion or bent puns on the ECU. I also cleaned the ground strap on the left side of the motor, this area was sanded to ensure a good connection. The Mini fired right up after this so we will see if it continues; fingers crossed. The immobilized unit is installed in the drivers side footwell. This has been checked for corrosion as well and all is good.
I also had a suggestion to try a different key. So I’m going to continue to use the non remote key to see if this makes a difference. If this doesn’t work I’m going to try to reset the ECU per the procedure that Mini Mania posted. I’ll keep this thread updated Incase someone else has a similar problem.
Ground strap, then check the cables going from the alternator to the starter, Then check the stater copper strap. There is a copper braided wire between the two that rusted out on mine.
I want to thank everyone that assisted me with this weird problem. The culprit was a bad EWS module which is also referred to as the Immobilizer. Unfortunately, this unit needs to be programmed so it’s not a DIY unit. The good news is I found a great local shop in Plainfield, Illinois named PKW motorwerks. Even prior to me bringing him the car he made suggestions to avoid the visit. Plus the shop is super clean and he is extremely knowledgeable.They have all the modern equipment and very fair prices. If you live in Illinois; I would highly recommend them for any of your BMW, Mini, Porsche or Audi needs. You can find them on Facebook as
well. T
Last edited by Bardum; Dec 16, 2018 at 04:12 PM.
Reason: Fix spelling error
