R55 Things going haywire!
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1st Gear
Joined: May 2019
Posts: 15
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Things going haywire!
We have a 2011 Clubman, non-turbo 1.6, 6 speed manual with only 47,000 miles on it. My wife bought it this past spring because she wanted a fun car to drive, which it is, when it's running....
The problems started within days of her bringing it home. 2 days after she bought it, CEL came on. Took it back to dealer ( who then sent it to a local 'mini shop', which we learned much later was a BMW dealer). Car came back a week later with the explanation that a faulty cooling fan temperature sensor was the cause.
Less than a week later CEL came back on. Back to dealer, then to BMW shop, where they said the wrong type spark plugs were in the car and the coil packs were replaced. Get the car back with allegedly new, correct spark plugs and new coil packs.
Bring car home, 2 weeks later CEL comes back on. By this time I had purchased a Bosch OBD code reader. Plugged it in and got the following codes:
P0300, 301, 302, 303 and 304 which are ' multiple misfires detected all cylinders', and a misfire code for each cylinder.
We decided to then take the car to a known, reputable ( or so we thought) European car service center about an hour drive from our home.
Two months later here is what they did ( keep in mind all we wanted were the misfire codes diagnosed and repaired):
Replaced crankshaft oil seal.
Replaced timing chain guides
Replaced the spark plugs and coil packs ( which this shop claims that the BMW dealer the car went to previous had installed incorrect parts).
After all of this still had misfire codes popping for cylinders 1 & 4. At this point the owner of this shop said that he needed to pull the cylinder head and send it to a machine shop to have the valve seats replaced.... For a total cost of $6000! I asked him if he was certain that was the cause of the misfire codes and he said he wasn't. So at this point, after 2 months, I said no thank you, paid over $1000 for the work they had done to date and brought the Mini home.
It seemed to be running fine until the last few days when a completely different issue has popped up. Wife was driving the car when she said that all of a sudden all of the dash lights went out, all of the warning lights came on and she lost all electrical functions such as the radio, turn signals, all interior lights and the windows wouldn't operate, yet the car remained running. She found a place to pull over and she shut the car off, waited a couple of minutes and restarted the car and all was normal again, except the CEL was back on and a TPMS inactive warning.
When she got home I plugged in my code reader and the following codes were present:
P15FE, which has something to do with the ECM monitoring the Digital Motor Electronics and/or instrument cluster memory entries.
P110F which has to do with the Ambient Air Temperature Sensor
P1407 & P1408 which have to do with the EGR.
None of these codes, or the symptoms my wife described, had ever appeared prior to the car going to the alleged expert European car repair shop.
My question is does anyone on this forum have any idea what is going on with this car? Is the ECM going bad? We are frustrated and at our wits end! Please help!
The problems started within days of her bringing it home. 2 days after she bought it, CEL came on. Took it back to dealer ( who then sent it to a local 'mini shop', which we learned much later was a BMW dealer). Car came back a week later with the explanation that a faulty cooling fan temperature sensor was the cause.
Less than a week later CEL came back on. Back to dealer, then to BMW shop, where they said the wrong type spark plugs were in the car and the coil packs were replaced. Get the car back with allegedly new, correct spark plugs and new coil packs.
Bring car home, 2 weeks later CEL comes back on. By this time I had purchased a Bosch OBD code reader. Plugged it in and got the following codes:
P0300, 301, 302, 303 and 304 which are ' multiple misfires detected all cylinders', and a misfire code for each cylinder.
We decided to then take the car to a known, reputable ( or so we thought) European car service center about an hour drive from our home.
Two months later here is what they did ( keep in mind all we wanted were the misfire codes diagnosed and repaired):
Replaced crankshaft oil seal.
Replaced timing chain guides
Replaced the spark plugs and coil packs ( which this shop claims that the BMW dealer the car went to previous had installed incorrect parts).
After all of this still had misfire codes popping for cylinders 1 & 4. At this point the owner of this shop said that he needed to pull the cylinder head and send it to a machine shop to have the valve seats replaced.... For a total cost of $6000! I asked him if he was certain that was the cause of the misfire codes and he said he wasn't. So at this point, after 2 months, I said no thank you, paid over $1000 for the work they had done to date and brought the Mini home.
It seemed to be running fine until the last few days when a completely different issue has popped up. Wife was driving the car when she said that all of a sudden all of the dash lights went out, all of the warning lights came on and she lost all electrical functions such as the radio, turn signals, all interior lights and the windows wouldn't operate, yet the car remained running. She found a place to pull over and she shut the car off, waited a couple of minutes and restarted the car and all was normal again, except the CEL was back on and a TPMS inactive warning.
When she got home I plugged in my code reader and the following codes were present:
P15FE, which has something to do with the ECM monitoring the Digital Motor Electronics and/or instrument cluster memory entries.
P110F which has to do with the Ambient Air Temperature Sensor
P1407 & P1408 which have to do with the EGR.
None of these codes, or the symptoms my wife described, had ever appeared prior to the car going to the alleged expert European car repair shop.
My question is does anyone on this forum have any idea what is going on with this car? Is the ECM going bad? We are frustrated and at our wits end! Please help!
5th Gear
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 991
Likes: 224
We have a 2011 Clubman, non-turbo 1.6, 6 speed manual with only 47,000 miles on it. My wife bought it this past spring because she wanted a fun car to drive, which it is, when it's running....
The problems started within days of her bringing it home. 2 days after she bought it, CEL came on. Took it back to dealer ( who then sent it to a local 'mini shop', which we learned much later was a BMW dealer). Car came back a week later with the explanation that a faulty cooling fan temperature sensor was the cause.
Less than a week later CEL came back on. Back to dealer, then to BMW shop, where they said the wrong type spark plugs were in the car and the coil packs were replaced. Get the car back with allegedly new, correct spark plugs and new coil packs.
Bring car home, 2 weeks later CEL comes back on. By this time I had purchased a Bosch OBD code reader. Plugged it in and got the following codes:
P0300, 301, 302, 303 and 304 which are ' multiple misfires detected all cylinders', and a misfire code for each cylinder.
We decided to then take the car to a known, reputable ( or so we thought) European car service center about an hour drive from our home.
Two months later here is what they did ( keep in mind all we wanted were the misfire codes diagnosed and repaired):
Replaced crankshaft oil seal.
Replaced timing chain guides
Replaced the spark plugs and coil packs ( which this shop claims that the BMW dealer the car went to previous had installed incorrect parts).
After all of this still had misfire codes popping for cylinders 1 & 4. At this point the owner of this shop said that he needed to pull the cylinder head and send it to a machine shop to have the valve seats replaced.... For a total cost of $6000! I asked him if he was certain that was the cause of the misfire codes and he said he wasn't. So at this point, after 2 months, I said no thank you, paid over $1000 for the work they had done to date and brought the Mini home.
It seemed to be running fine until the last few days when a completely different issue has popped up. Wife was driving the car when she said that all of a sudden all of the dash lights went out, all of the warning lights came on and she lost all electrical functions such as the radio, turn signals, all interior lights and the windows wouldn't operate, yet the car remained running. She found a place to pull over and she shut the car off, waited a couple of minutes and restarted the car and all was normal again, except the CEL was back on and a TPMS inactive warning.
When she got home I plugged in my code reader and the following codes were present:
P15FE, which has something to do with the ECM monitoring the Digital Motor Electronics and/or instrument cluster memory entries.
P110F which has to do with the Ambient Air Temperature Sensor
P1407 & P1408 which have to do with the EGR.
None of these codes, or the symptoms my wife described, had ever appeared prior to the car going to the alleged expert European car repair shop.
My question is does anyone on this forum have any idea what is going on with this car? Is the ECM going bad? We are frustrated and at our wits end! Please help!
The problems started within days of her bringing it home. 2 days after she bought it, CEL came on. Took it back to dealer ( who then sent it to a local 'mini shop', which we learned much later was a BMW dealer). Car came back a week later with the explanation that a faulty cooling fan temperature sensor was the cause.
Less than a week later CEL came back on. Back to dealer, then to BMW shop, where they said the wrong type spark plugs were in the car and the coil packs were replaced. Get the car back with allegedly new, correct spark plugs and new coil packs.
Bring car home, 2 weeks later CEL comes back on. By this time I had purchased a Bosch OBD code reader. Plugged it in and got the following codes:
P0300, 301, 302, 303 and 304 which are ' multiple misfires detected all cylinders', and a misfire code for each cylinder.
We decided to then take the car to a known, reputable ( or so we thought) European car service center about an hour drive from our home.
Two months later here is what they did ( keep in mind all we wanted were the misfire codes diagnosed and repaired):
Replaced crankshaft oil seal.
Replaced timing chain guides
Replaced the spark plugs and coil packs ( which this shop claims that the BMW dealer the car went to previous had installed incorrect parts).
After all of this still had misfire codes popping for cylinders 1 & 4. At this point the owner of this shop said that he needed to pull the cylinder head and send it to a machine shop to have the valve seats replaced.... For a total cost of $6000! I asked him if he was certain that was the cause of the misfire codes and he said he wasn't. So at this point, after 2 months, I said no thank you, paid over $1000 for the work they had done to date and brought the Mini home.
It seemed to be running fine until the last few days when a completely different issue has popped up. Wife was driving the car when she said that all of a sudden all of the dash lights went out, all of the warning lights came on and she lost all electrical functions such as the radio, turn signals, all interior lights and the windows wouldn't operate, yet the car remained running. She found a place to pull over and she shut the car off, waited a couple of minutes and restarted the car and all was normal again, except the CEL was back on and a TPMS inactive warning.
When she got home I plugged in my code reader and the following codes were present:
P15FE, which has something to do with the ECM monitoring the Digital Motor Electronics and/or instrument cluster memory entries.
P110F which has to do with the Ambient Air Temperature Sensor
P1407 & P1408 which have to do with the EGR.
None of these codes, or the symptoms my wife described, had ever appeared prior to the car going to the alleged expert European car repair shop.
My question is does anyone on this forum have any idea what is going on with this car? Is the ECM going bad? We are frustrated and at our wits end! Please help!
It is important the battery be good and the charging system be up to snuff. I have observed at least one car with its engine idling just fine then a warning light appears, then another, then the CEL comes on then the engine runs rough and shortly after die. The tech walks over and turns off the ignition and waits 15 minutes. Then he turns the key on and starts the engine which fires right up and runs just fine for a few minutes then the symptoms appear. The problem was an alternator that after an engine start worked ok but after a few minutes its output fell and the battery had to supply the necessary electrical power to keep the engine running. The battery can't do this for long.
There are exceptions: My VW Golf TDi lost a V-belt and its alternator power. I drove around 15 miles into Albuquerque and got to a hotel near the VW dealer without any issues other than I really had to crank the steering wheel to turn the car. No power steering! A few years ago my Porsche 996 Turbo alternator did the intermittent fail and I managed to drive the car a few miles on what looked like based on the battery voltage gauge reading just battery power alone but there was probably a volt or two of alternator power still being produced.
Another source of seemingly random/not connected errors is mice. I would hope after all the work a tech would have noticed the presence of any mice damage but you can't be sure.
Last but not least is water in the car. While cars are pretty water tight all it takes is a leaking windshield seal or a door seal. Another possible source of water is a body water drain that has plugged up and when the car is out in the rain or just during washing water backs up and overflows the basin and runs inside the car. It can run down over the OBD2 connector or just down inside/behind the dash. It could get in the area of the engine controller.
Yet another source of problems can be water in the door. Some cars have a door membrane that separates the wet side of the door from the dry side. The dry side is where all the door lock/latch/window electronics is located. If the membrane fails -- and they can due to age -- and water gets on the dry side this can cause all sort of seemingly unrelated electrical issues not the least can be OBD2 errors.
Feel along the bottom of the doors for any signs of dampness.
I would not agree to a head "rebuild" without the results of a compression test and a leak down test to confirm the valve seats are bad.At $6000 for this that seems like a lot of money. Not current on parts prices for MINI engines but darn it I would hazard a guess one could pick up a new head for less.
With various techs of dubious expertise and skill and training having been at the car you need to double check the work. You want to be sure the right coils have been installed and the right plugs and they are properly gapped.
Next you need to look over the wiring associated with some other hardware for which the error codes are being logged and verify no broken/damaged wires. The connectors should be checked that all pins and sockets into which the pins fit are good and that the connectors are all properly connected.
At the same time run your hand along the wiring feeling for any signs of rodent gnawing. Look for mice sign on top of the engine -- under the engine cover -- and nest litter on top of any panels that are under the car.
Neutral
Joined: May 2024
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
From: Garden Grove, California
We have a 2011 Clubman, non-turbo 1.6, 6 speed manual with only 47,000 miles on it. My wife bought it this past spring because she wanted a fun car to drive, which it is, when it's running....
The problems started within days of her bringing it home. 2 days after she bought it, CEL came on. Took it back to dealer ( who then sent it to a local 'mini shop', which we learned much later was a BMW dealer). Car came back a week later with the explanation that a faulty cooling fan temperature sensor was the cause.
Less than a week later CEL came back on. Back to dealer, then to BMW shop, where they said the wrong type spark plugs were in the car and the coil packs were replaced. Get the car back with allegedly new, correct spark plugs and new coil packs.
Bring car home, 2 weeks later CEL comes back on. By this time I had purchased a Bosch OBD code reader. Plugged it in and got the following codes:
P0300, 301, 302, 303 and 304 which are ' multiple misfires detected all cylinders', and a misfire code for each cylinder.
We decided to then take the car to a known, reputable ( or so we thought) European car service center about an hour drive from our home.
Two months later here is what they did ( keep in mind all we wanted were the misfire codes diagnosed and repaired):
Replaced crankshaft oil seal.
Replaced timing chain guides
Replaced the spark plugs and coil packs ( which this shop claims that the BMW dealer the car went to previous had installed incorrect parts).
After all of this still had misfire codes popping for cylinders 1 & 4. At this point the owner of this shop said that he needed to pull the cylinder head and send it to a machine shop to have the valve seats replaced.... For a total cost of $6000! I asked him if he was certain that was the cause of the misfire codes and he said he wasn't. So at this point, after 2 months, I said no thank you, paid over $1000 for the work they had done to date and brought the Mini home.
It seemed to be running fine until the last few days when a completely different issue has popped up. Wife was driving the car when she said that all of a sudden all of the dash lights went out, all of the warning lights came on and she lost all electrical functions such as the radio, turn signals, all interior lights and the windows wouldn't operate, yet the car remained running. She found a place to pull over and she shut the car off, waited a couple of minutes and restarted the car and all was normal again, except the CEL was back on and a TPMS inactive warning.
When she got home I plugged in my code reader and the following codes were present:
P15FE, which has something to do with the ECM monitoring the Digital Motor Electronics and/or instrument cluster memory entries.
P110F which has to do with the Ambient Air Temperature Sensor
P1407 & P1408 which have to do with the EGR.
None of these codes, or the symptoms my wife described, had ever appeared prior to the car going to the alleged expert European car repair shop.
My question is does anyone on this forum have any idea what is going on with this car? Is the ECM going bad? We are frustrated and at our wits end! Please help!
The problems started within days of her bringing it home. 2 days after she bought it, CEL came on. Took it back to dealer ( who then sent it to a local 'mini shop', which we learned much later was a BMW dealer). Car came back a week later with the explanation that a faulty cooling fan temperature sensor was the cause.
Less than a week later CEL came back on. Back to dealer, then to BMW shop, where they said the wrong type spark plugs were in the car and the coil packs were replaced. Get the car back with allegedly new, correct spark plugs and new coil packs.
Bring car home, 2 weeks later CEL comes back on. By this time I had purchased a Bosch OBD code reader. Plugged it in and got the following codes:
P0300, 301, 302, 303 and 304 which are ' multiple misfires detected all cylinders', and a misfire code for each cylinder.
We decided to then take the car to a known, reputable ( or so we thought) European car service center about an hour drive from our home.
Two months later here is what they did ( keep in mind all we wanted were the misfire codes diagnosed and repaired):
Replaced crankshaft oil seal.
Replaced timing chain guides
Replaced the spark plugs and coil packs ( which this shop claims that the BMW dealer the car went to previous had installed incorrect parts).
After all of this still had misfire codes popping for cylinders 1 & 4. At this point the owner of this shop said that he needed to pull the cylinder head and send it to a machine shop to have the valve seats replaced.... For a total cost of $6000! I asked him if he was certain that was the cause of the misfire codes and he said he wasn't. So at this point, after 2 months, I said no thank you, paid over $1000 for the work they had done to date and brought the Mini home.
It seemed to be running fine until the last few days when a completely different issue has popped up. Wife was driving the car when she said that all of a sudden all of the dash lights went out, all of the warning lights came on and she lost all electrical functions such as the radio, turn signals, all interior lights and the windows wouldn't operate, yet the car remained running. She found a place to pull over and she shut the car off, waited a couple of minutes and restarted the car and all was normal again, except the CEL was back on and a TPMS inactive warning.
When she got home I plugged in my code reader and the following codes were present:
P15FE, which has something to do with the ECM monitoring the Digital Motor Electronics and/or instrument cluster memory entries.
P110F which has to do with the Ambient Air Temperature Sensor
P1407 & P1408 which have to do with the EGR.
None of these codes, or the symptoms my wife described, had ever appeared prior to the car going to the alleged expert European car repair shop.
My question is does anyone on this forum have any idea what is going on with this car? Is the ECM going bad? We are frustrated and at our wits end! Please help!
I got a new fuse box not long ago and my car is doing the same thing all the symptoms you just described is happening to me I just put new ignition coil packs in after mechanic only replaced one and left the originals in and put new spark plugs in. I have a 2012 Mini Cooper S clubmen
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Chris Nelson
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Jan 15, 2018 04:59 AM