I figured I would post this up to see if anyone else has experience something similar. I put my 08' R56 into the dealer Friday afternoon to replace the faulty electric cooling fan and diagnose a "death rattle". The cooling fan was an easy one and the death rattle was, in fact, positive... so on goes the new timing chain tensioner.

Well, the service techs started the reprogramming process on Friday afternoon. I just spoke to one of the service reps and apparently the car refuses to reprogram. They've gone so far as to reset their internal network systems to see if that remedies the issue. No dice. Five attempts, no dice.

The fallback was to submit a "puma" ticket [eg, engineering trouble ticket] back to Mini core engineers. As such, it will likely be Monday before they hear back.

Has anyone else experienced such an event?

 

So, in essence the ECU would not take a new updated software?
Were the technicians able to connect and communicate with the ECU at all, or not?

- Erik

 

That is correct. According to the service rep, the reprogramming process would always hang. The techs were able to initially connect and communicate with the ecu. They reset all their computer equipment but no dice. The process would start, then hang about an hour into it.

 

Sit back and wait for MINIUSA to send a new ECU. MINI will not try and repair the ECU. It happened to me in 2009 at MOTD. Be glad it happened at the dealer.

Luckily a wrecker picked up the car (and me) drove back to Atlanta and I returned in another MINI rental while they worked on the car. I started my build up a few months after this incident.

It would be interesting to hear how many others have experienced this? I also had the cold start issue and the water cooling issue, BTW.

 

To be honest, I'm surprised they haven't already tried to replace it [or at least test a known working unit]. Most shops keep known working ecu units around for just such an occasion. Hopefully I'll get some more info today. As soon as I know what the actual issue is, I'll make sure and post it.

 

Quick update on the reprogramming SNAFU. The mini engineers sent the dealer techs some additional tidbits on info regarding a finicky ecu unit. They've tried twice today to reprogram the car and have yet to complete the process.

 

Another day and no dice... The dealer techs are again working with Mini engineering to diagnose the problem

 

OK, the car is back at home fixed and complete. The dealer finally got to the bottom of the issue. Drum roll please....

THE BLUETOOTH UNIT WAS FAULTY!

Apparently, the bluetooth unit was faulty and subsequently refused to accept any new firmware. Since _everything_ is connected to the central ecu in some form or fashion, this prevented the entire car from accepting new software.

Thanks to the folks at Sewell Plano for your diligence in tracking this down. My hat goes off to you.

 

Well, it appears I spoke a bit too soon. I went out to check on a sligh oil smell that I've had when the AC is blowing hard. [this started after the previous repair]. It appears that the dealer broke my hood release. I went under the car with a flash light and it appears that I do have a small oil leak from somewhere. Not enough to pool on the ground, but the down tube+manifold are certainly wet.

...not happy at the moment. My confidence in the dealer is waning.

 

ISTA/P (most likely the software the dealer is using) is very finicky and is an all-or-nothing effort as you have learned. The update must successfully update every module on the car to the same level otherwise the modules may not communicate properly with each other, and that opens up a huge liability and safety concerns (think if the DSC or airbag computers have issues). It's great they got it sorted out for you.

 

I had a similar ECU problem when they tried to install my JCW tuning kit last August, and it took 6 days to fix by the engineers you referenced.

I see that you are in the DFW area, as I am. I'm not sure which dealership you are using, but my experience at Sewell Plano has been nothing short of completely amazing, so if you are having trouble at one of the other 2 dealers, I cannot recommend highly enough going to Plano.

j

 

Sewell Mini of Plano would be glad to assist anyone with any help. Please visit our website at http://miniplano.sewell.com/ for further information.