My yellow engine warning light in the center status panel came on today. The Mini CM S is running fine. Owner's Manual says this is for emissions issues. I last filled the gas tank 80 miles ago. I replaced the gas cap twice but felt no click. On the third try I felt a click - I'm hoping that fixes it. The manual says it may take a day or two. I called Mini service and they wanted me to tow it in - the manual clearly says it is OK to drive.

Not sure this is related, but I noticed the heater would not kick on for a good 10-15 minutes after start over the first 500 miles. Now I notice it kicks on almost immediately and the cooling fan remains on for a few minutes after shutting off the engine. Could this be thermostat related as opposed to the gas cap issue? Thanks.

 

Can't say for sure about the thermostat, but it sounds reasonable.

Sounds like you probably nailed it as to the gas cap, though, and would love to hear how it resolves.

 

There is a separate warning for the gas cap if you look in your manual. I thought the same thing with my wife's last week. Once we got home I hooked up my OBD2 scanner and found out it was a high temp indication. Turned out to be a defective thermostat.
I couldn't clear the fault code either...just a few drives and it cleared itself. It faulted a few more times until we could get it in for service.

 

Thanks - I'll head over to the local dealer tomorrow.

 

03mini-s: When you had your thermostat replaced did you have the engine/heater warm up delay like others have reported as well? Did replacing your thermostat help for a quicker warm up? Just curious...

 

We didn't notice any delay in the warm up. It seemed pretty normal to me like my '03. That's why I never suspected the thermostat.

 

Wouldn't ya know it - started her up this morning and NO check engine light! I'll keep you posted. Still taking a friggin' long time to get that heater going.

 

I checked this yesterday- at 28 Degrees I had heat in 4 minutes, I am sure it would be longer as it gets colder, but have not noticed it being unusually long

 

I know I don't have my car yet...just following this thread. Heat in 4 min at 28 degrees is much quicker than my current subie! I can live with that. Do your seats heat up quicker than 4 min?

 

Seat heat is super fast on the highest setting, probably a minute or 2

 

It will probably come on again like ours did.

 

This just happened to me for the first time this morning. Re-start didn't do the trick so I am likely taking it in today. Is this usually related to an O2 sensor failing or is it something with the cat? First of any engine-related trouble after three years and 19K miles -- thankfully I am still under warranty. Do have an unresolved cold start issue to deal with before warranty expires.

 

You are posting in the Countryman forums.....if you need any experienced answers from Clubby owners you will need to re-post this in the correct forum.

Cheers

 

My 2012 Countryman just started this warning this morning -- the coldest morning it has yet seen at 36 degrees. It did it once while driving. I stopped to drop my son off at school and it came back on when I restarted it to go on to work... I've only had it 3 MONTHS and it has only 4200 miles on it.... I last got gas on Monday night, it drove without incident yesterday, and it still drives ok, but with this warning light having come on twice....

 

Just a quick follow up on this. I drove the car without incident to pick my son up from school, made another stop, and drove it home the same day as the engine warning light had flashed twice earlier that morning. THIS morning however, it would not start AT ALL. Roadside assist came and jump started it and we took it to the dealer. They could only find a weak battery (so they said after working on it for nearly 2 hours) and replaced it -- at 4,200 mi in central FLORIDA where it isn't exactly under stress to crank in cold weather every day and is garaged to boot. Just FYI.

 

Dealership says they only changed out my battery, but after picking it up today, the fan now runs for 6+ minutes (yes, I timed it!) just moving a cold car that had been parked outside for hours 20 feet into the garage... This is new and unexpected.... Will be calling them in the morning. <sigh>