Hey all. I recently purchased a 2012 MCS and have been loving every second of it. Everything has worked fine until a few days ago when the ignition system decided to have a "WTF" moment. When I went to turn off my car at the gym (I used the comfort access start with no fob in the slot), the button didn't turn off the engine and instead just gave a warning on the dash that said, "Attention engine start - Engine will start with the next press of the button, possibly without depressing the clutch or brake pedal". The only way I could turn my car off was to depress the clutch and push the ignition button. I have always just pressed the button to turn it off without pushing the clutch in, just a habit of mine I guess. Additionally, I cannot turn off the accessory mode (normally pressing the button once to kill the engine and pressing it twice turns off everything) without locking the car from the outside or taking the fob out if i started the car with the fob. Instead, if I go to press the button a second time, it starts the engine again (with/without clutch). A very weird issue, I know. Not the end of the world by any means, I can still start and stop the car, but it is annoying to have to press the clutch in to stop the engine and not be able to turn the car off completely until I lock it. The interesting part is that I CAN start the car without pressing the clutch in, just like the system message says. I have been looking for some sort of explanation for a few days and I've found absolutely nothing. In fact, most of the posts or guides I found say that the only way to start the car without pressing the clutch in is to remove the clutch switch, which I have not done. Like I said before, everything was fine before a few days ago, and the only idea of what I might have done to cause this is putting the fob in the slot after I started the car without it. I am still new to some of the MINI's baffling problems so any help on how to reverse this would be greatly appreciated.

I'd start with a full system scan of all the modules in the car to see what DTCs are stored in memory.

I've done a scan with a general OBD scanner (not a specific bmw one, idk if that would make a difference) and the only codes that were stored were related to the O2 sensor (I have a catless downpipe). Nothing new hasn't come up since I scanned maybe a month or two ago when it was still working. Cleared codes, made no difference.

Yes it (using a generic OBDII scanner) will make a difference; Typically, the generic OBDII scanner will only scan the engine computer. You need to see what's going on in the CAS module.

I'd recommend a Foxwell NT530; I have a brand new one in the box that I'll sell you for $130.00 It's set up for Ford, but I can reconfigure it for BMW/MINI. It will scan all the modules, has free lifetime updates, and it has bi-directional controls!

I think I have an amazon card lying around so I'll buy one from there, overnight shipping too. I was going to buy a bmw specific scanner because I see a lot of people mention them around here, but thank you for the recommendation. I'll see what codes it pulls when it gets here.

Alright so I got the scanner and did a full system scan. Most of the stuff was either just old codes that were never cleared (codes for headlights or AC controllers that showed up at like 10k miles, I've got 138k now lol). There were 3 codes that were sort of interesting though. The first two were related to the head unit and the GPS I believe, C519 and C5AE. However, the second code gave me some insight... Slightly. The code was A0B1 which showed that the transmission doesn't know what gear I'm in (6mt but still).

​​​​​​When I went to Google it I didn't find any ideas on how to fix this, but I did find a thread from a guy two years ago who had the exact same problem! But no one ever replied to it. And he never posted if he figured out how to fix it. Sad face.

I searched Mitchell1 and the A0B1 Hex doesn't display any results. I read the theory on the start/stop button, but it was no help for your situation. What happens when you clear the A0B1 code and then rescan? Does the fault come right back? What module was the A0B1 code in ... DME? Transmission?

When I clear the code, it comes right back. The code was in the CAS module.