2008 MIni S 79K miles. Intermittently I get the combination of an amber brake light, amber DSC warning light, and an amber DSC disengaged symbol. This ONLY happens when first starting the car. Everything else works fine, windows, windshield washers, air condition, etc. This NEVER occurs while the car is being driven, even at a stop sign. It occurs whether I use remote start or insert the key fob. When I scan, no DTC Codes or check engine light, but there are a variety of ABS codes, like 5FC. Can clear everything with the scanner and the indicators will not come back on for the duration of the drive. Sometimes the next time I start the car, they all come back, sometimes they do not. the only other symptoms are that either on the shutdown or next start up, I will hear a rapid irregular clicking that sounds like it is coming from the FRM and lasts about 3-4 seconds. Also, I have a usb charger plugged into my cigarette lighter, and the little light on that charger blinks with the rhythm. IF, on the other hand, the charger do not blin and the clicking does not occur, it is a normal start up with none of the lights.

This occurred about a year ago, and the only thing that worked was I did a hard reset of the ECU by disconnecting the battery overnight. The problem went away and stayed away for about 9 months but then came back about 3 months ago. After it recurred several times, I disconnected the battery overnight and again the problem went away, only to come back a couple of days ago. checked everything I could think of to no avail, right now I have ethe battery disconnected, and anticipate that the problem will once again go away for an undetermined period of time, only to recur.

I am not really in the mood to pay a mechanic to start swapping out various parts - ECU, FRM, ABS sensors, etc. trying to figure it out, all the while charging me for parts that are not needed, till he hits on the right one. As I said, everything else on the car works fine, drives totally fine, brakes work fine, and when the indicators are not illuminated the DSC disengage works fine. Doesn't make sense that it is a yaw sensor or something like that since it is entirely intermittent and only occurs at start-up with the car in park. I am inclined to think it is a sticking relay of some sort, likely between the ECU and the FRM, but really have no idea.

Looking for suggestions. I searched the forum and the internet but have found nothing that matches my issue, especially the clicking.

Thanks in advance.

 

Did you mean fault code 5DFC? If so, the code indicates a bad DSC control module.

This is likely a bad relay (cold solder) or a bad ground for the relay. Remove trim where the sound is located in an attempt to identify the clicking relay.