Man, this MCS is one sensitive little car. I was driving home tonight and hit a pothole on the freeway now the yellow brake and dsc warning lights are on. If the stay on tomorrow that means another trip to the dealer for me. I just took it in the second time for a computer reset. Windows and Sun Roof were openning after I took my key fob out.

Luckily the dealer is close, and I can ride my bike to work from there. What next.

Vince

 

I drive my MINI really had and dont get anything like that, but i drive with DSC off always so idk if it is just that.

 

You slammed your car into a gaping hole at highway speeds and now something is wrong? What a hunk of junk!

 

How did you extract the extra detail info from the OP?

 

Oh, my bad. Hey OP, did you just happen to glide over a tiny little hole on the freeway in stop-and-go traffic?

 

Hope it's no big deal...and if it is that it's covered under warranty. Still sucks to have your car down for dumb stuff though...

 

Maybe the sensor got knocked out of place. If u really want to get all the lightbulbs on do donuts with the dsc on :p

 

While the dealership MAY cover it under warranty, pothole damage is not a warranty item.

 

To a rim, of course not...but if it knocked something out of whack, then it should be...

 

Not really. It should be a comprehensive claim on the insurance. Whether the rim is bent or the entire suspension needs to be replaced. Since the damage was not a cause of a manufacturing defect, but rather a road hazard.

 

I wish him luck @ the dealer...we have potholes here that will completely swallow a MINI so I'm well aware of the damage they can do. That being said, there is a limit to what road hazards a car should be able to deal with...

 

I wish him luck too. I wouldn't mention the pothole to the dealer.

 

Interestingly enough, the guy who sold me the Mini told me to be extra careful with potholes.... but I always thought he meant the tires were too delicate.

 

Yup, very fragile cars. I tipped mine over on its side and the dealer wouldn't fix it under warranty.

Seriously, I think it all depends on how sever the pothole hit was. If things start falling apart with small bumps, one would expect the warranty to cover it. A larger hit, causing actual impact damage, would be a different matter. Difficult to say what category the OP's hit would be. Now if he were running Vibration on an iPhone and posted the resuts...

 

Woah, really??

 

Yea, braked too late into a tight S-curve. Lost the tail, corrected (too much) lost it the other way, ran out of room. Nose hit a dirt bank (not very hard) and I was thinking, darn that will cause some damage...

Then I noticed that the car was slowly tipping. It still had some momentum, but the wheels were no longer sliding... Felt as though it had come to a dead stop, then decided to lay down on its side. Other than a bent control arm in the rear, damage was all cosmetic. Expensive, but cosmetic.

 

Warning lights are gone and everything is working fine. So no dealer trip tomorrow. I have two questions: if I turn off dsc does my car's power increase? And what's OP stand for.

 

OP= Original Poster

 

Yeah, try not to mention the pothole... You were just driving around and the light came on, yeah, that's the ticket!

 

No. DSC only comes into effect when the yaw sensors, wheel rotation counters, steering, etc. determine that the car is moving in a direction other than where the front wheels are pointed -- the car is sliding sideways. When that happens, the DSC computer will apply the brake slightly to one or more wheels to rotate the car to the direction the wheels are pointing. Turning of DSC reduces your safety margin in emergency situations. Unless you are track trained and have had a lot of "seat time" at the track, turning off DSC will probably reduce the cornering ability as well.

There are other systems that control drive wheel spin on acceleration. These systems have changed a bit since my 2007 MCS. If you have the DTC option, you have a fairly intelligent system that will apply the brake to the spinning drive wheel just enough to transfer more power to the other drive wheel and keep this one from spinning. It should improve acceleration on an MCS, not hurt it.

Other systems, such as the AST on my MCS will reduce engine power when a drive wheel starts to spin. This really sucks when you are turning left in front of oncoming traffic and punch it. Feels like the engine is going to die. LSD helps reduce this problem.

 

It seems that many have gotten a little carried away with defining the difference between normal driving conditions and inflected damage. I belive that if there is no physical damage to the suspension/undercarriage then you have stayed within the limits of the design and therefore any malfunction would be covered under warranty.

 

Glad you are OK.

So it went into oversteer. Now I know why you say 19 mm rear sway bar is enough.

 

Plain bad luck.

 

Turning the systems off do not increase the power, but it does make it more readily available.

With the DSC off, it "reinstates the power sooner" after it intervenes than it does with the DSC on.

If you also turn off the DTC, then you ONLY have the Electronic Differential Lock Control when needed to reduce wheel spin and "full engine power at all times." I guess this is MINI's version of a track mode.

This part of MINI's website gives a good explanation. Just scroll thru the performance features to see what everything does.
http://miniusa.com/?#/learn/FACTS_FE...nce_Features-m

 

Read this today and thought "I still don't think a 22mm should be too big". Sure enough I caught some water going over a hill that is also a turn. Car oversteered and hit the inside curb. Took the car up the grass and (after checking the road) across the street into the nearest cross-road. I think just the lip under the bumper and the radiator/windshield fluid were damaged. Might have bent a control arm. First thing in my mind as I was trying to recover it was "Damn sway bar!"