Frankly, I don't know much about the vanos!
I just think you, like a lot of others, are getting spurious errors from the network operating system. It's just a not-very-good PC.
I'd look for corroded grounds, plugs etc. If the electrics aren't right, the computers can't tell what's really going on.
Heat could be a factor, expanding or contracting something.
Do you feel a mis-fire - at the wrong time
or a spit-back fire
or an exhaust-fire
or a no-fire?

 

When it's in limp mode, sometimes (but not always) it feels like it's running on 2 cylinders. When it's not in limp mode, it runs perfectly, no misfires or anything unusual felt at all.

I'll check grounds and connectors and stuff. Thanks for trying to help me through this, I appreciate it.

 

As I was reading this just now, I was wondering if a timing chain skip was the problem. Sorry to hear it, but it sounds like it didn't go far enough to crater any valves. The symptoms you describe are very similar to the symptoms my '13 S had (including VANOS errors). mine had skipped a couple teeth too.

 

This is (hopefully) my final update. After another $1771.95 and 4 months in the shop I think we finally have it fixed. The final culprit was... the camshaft adjuster actuator. I have a 14 page bill that details what they went through to figure it out. He figures they had about 35 hours of shop time this last go around. The evap purge valve was also sticking open, but when that was fixed it still didn’t fix the issue.

It’s pretty disappointing the money we’ve spent on this thing, but hopefully we’re good for a long time.

 

Well, scratch that. She made it one day before it had problems again....

 

The joys of owning a MINI .....

 

Yeah. I don’t mind wrenching on things, I drive a Land Rover with over 230k on it. When a reputable independent shop spends 40-50 some hours diagnosing and can’t figure it out? I’m about to go the way of the dynamite!

 

I feel your pain on this. I have the same car but with a P0015 code. Did the timing and found a blow apart tensioner. Still drove like crap so I kicked it to a shop that does nothing but BMW/MB and they had it for like a month and a half without finding the problem. At this point I'm just researching things here and there that I could try. Damn half baked CEL.

Hope you figure out what's wrong with the car, they are fun as crap to drive.

 

4 months?
1 1/2 months?
35 hours?
45-50 hours?
$$$$ & not fixed?
I'm not very convinced these are 'reputable' garages.

 

At this point, I think I'd clear all the codes you can, then disconnect the battery, then turn the ignition on to drain the computers & then leave the battery off overnight.
& see what you've got in the morning.....

 

Feel free to recommend a shop in the Salt Lake Provo area, they are a Bosch certified BMW specialist that seemed like the best candidate. I have know enough people who have worked for dealers that I just won’t go there. I can scan the 14 pages of notes from my last time I picked it up if you’d like to see them. They were pretty thorough in their diagnostics. The biggest problem with mine is it is a very specific set of circumstances that sets it off. One that they could not replicate in the valley, but happens every night on my wife’s commute home. I can clear the codes and it will not throw a code while driving in the valley. When it does throw a code, it’s just misfire codes and nothing to indicate why.

As complex as these car systems are, some times they’re not very clear what’s going on. I’ve got a friend at work that had a B7 Audi RS4 that had a miss he couldn’t figure out. After he gave up it went to an Audi specialist for 5 months. Turns out it was the high end aftermarket flywheel that was guaranteed to not shear had sheared causing the crank position sensor to be off, but not read that it was.

 

I'm not questioning your choice of garage, but after all that time & $$$ I'd expect something better than 'we haven't fixed it'.
It seems. perhaps, to be altitude-related, as I think you've determined. You might search this forum, if you haven't already, for >> high altitude <<.
This rather rambling video, with no real solution, might be of interest:

I'm no expert, but I'd be interested to see the 14 pages of diagnostics if it's not too much trouble. Email address below.

 

It’s not really an altitude thing it’s a prolonged downhill thing. We can drive down a higher altitude, shorter downhill pass and not have it throw a code. After a long conversation with the owner they definitely did their due diligence. I’ll scan the pages when I get a minute. I haven’t even read all of it myself.

 

Get a hold of Kyle West, Facebook search him, he's a mini specific mechanic in the salt lake area. He did us good with our mini for a great value, even got us good prices on parts.

You might find his info even here on this forum somewhere.

 

Yet another update with no resolution... I took it to a different independent BMW/Mini shop. He did a bunch of tests and he came to the conclusion it was the DME. He didn’t charge me anything and recommended I take it to the dealer. He told me they would be able to clone my DME and test his conclusion. The car has now been with MINI since 2/22. They charged me a $99 diagnostic fee just to look at it, which I understand if someone decides not to have it repairs there. They drove it and immediately told me it needed new plugs. I told them no, that’s been tested 3 times. They insisted it HAD to be done as the first step in the process. When I asked if they’d remove them and not charge me when that wasn’t the problem, they said no. $300 to change 4 spark plugs, plus the $99 diagnostic fee. Guess what? It didn’t fix it, do I authorize another diagnostic fee? They told me that fee was good for “about an hour” of diagnostic time. A week later I got a text stating that they were opening a PUMA case with MINI USA to determine my issue. A week after that I reached out since I hadn’t heard anything. They informed me they were still working with MINI to figure out the problem.

Half way through typing this I got a text, BMW of Murray recommend additional services be completed. They say my injectors are bad... $2317.92

I haven’t had time to dig into it, but is it possible to replace them myself? I’ll start a new thread tonight, but thought I’d ask here.

 

Since the last time I wrote I replaced the injectors with Bosch injectors, same part number as the genuine mini and indistinguishable visibly from the OE that I replaced. That helped for about a month, then the same symptom returned.

Last on my list of possible culprits was the DME unit. The last independent shop I took it to was fairly certain this was the issue, so I bought a remanufactured DME from Precision ECUs. It took me a full day to get the CAS unit out from under the dash. Mostly because my dash was different than all the write ups I could find. Their turnaround time was excellent and I was excited to go for a test drive after getting it back together in one evening after work.

Unfortunately it did not fix the problem. It did change the circumstances that trip the codes, but it actually happens more frequently. It seems to survive the long downhills, but now trips on random deceleration on fairly flat terrain.

I’m at my wits end here. I don’t see how it can be a mechanical issue as I can clear the codes and it takes right off, but I don’t know what else electronic to replace!

 

I'm really sorry to hear this nightmare you have. I fully understand this frustration and went through similar after I purchased a used 2014 Base for my daughter with only 50K miles. After a good/nice month, all kinds of codes and limp modes out of the blue came up. Car would fix itself from time to time even for a week or so. Until it came to a point where the car would crank over and over but no fire. Took it to MINI and got a slew of codes and expensive "fixes" which made no sense and seemed to be chasing symptoms with no root cause corrective action... I paid their diagnostic fee, and took it back to continue to put my own experience with the problems and information from this forum together to try and figure it out, or set it on fire or something... Ultimately, I found some intermittent issue with the DME relay connections in the main fuse box underhood. When the car would act up, I could push and touch/move the main relay and get the car to behave, and then not behave!? So, I found/procured a used junkyard loaded (relay/fuse) box and figured there was something causing the problems connection wise in there. While waiting for this to arrive, I simply swapped the main relay with the fan (same relay part number) and the issue went away (intermittent start and limp mode with a full array of CODES)!!! Seriously, and massively frustrating that MINI was going to take tons of my money and time and not know how to find/troubleshoot/fix... The used loaded fuse box ultimately arrived and I simply took a relay from it and replaced the "intermittent" one (which I had swapped to the FAN position). There was no issue with the original fuse box or connections (so I still have that in my garage storage). Go to your main fuse box and push and make sure all the fuses and relay are in place and tight. Swap the relays around and check this area out...

 

tried this, unfortunately it didn’t work in my case.

 

Hey, just a quick follow up to hopefully close this out... I took this back to the original shop and let them have some time with it. While driving on the live scope they found that all 4 cylinders misfired at the same time. As they dug into it they found what he described as a noise suppression capacitor on the common ground to all 4 coils in the engine wiring harness that seemed like it could be an issue. He couldn't find it listed as a MINI part, but did find some numbers on it and thought it might be able to be replaced. After doing around at it he brought along jumpers on test drives to bypass it if it acted up again. Then it never went into limp mode again. He quoted me with what I thought was a very fair price to replace the engine wiring harness and we ran with that. He also replaced the crank position sensor while the transfer case was out because it was easy access at the time. It has since been driven a bunch by the shop with no issues. We just got it back yesterday, so it may be a little premature, but they may have saved the problem...

 

Dang, what a saga.

Not to jinx you, but is it still good?

 

Nope, dumped it cheap.

 

Hi, I read the full saga and I admire your persistence. I have the same issue downhill or at cruise with low load. I have done almost everything you did, including stem valve seals (fuel pumps, fuel filter, coils, spark plugs, vanos, camshaft sensors, crank shaft sensor, after cat O2 sensor, etc, etc). My saga is 6 month long and counting. I do not want to give up.

Can you show me where is the noise suppression capacitor on the common ground to all 4 coils?. Is it possible to change it?.
Thanks

 

Sorry, I can’t help you on that one. We never did find it and I ended up dumping the car for cheap. I may be a little bias, but…. RUN WHILE YOU CAN! 😂

 

Thanks, but yes…what a nightmare