I just had the same problem rear it's ugly head tonight. I took it to the dealer today for a noisy belt tension pully and about 4 miles after picking up the car DSC and SES lights :( . At least it's under warranty.
Nethack what was your end result?

 

I'm having my 2005 MCS/JCW checked out Wednesday (6/11/08) for this very issue as well as my other combination of lights...the ABS and Tire Pressure Monitoring System lights. The latter seem to come on after driving over a rough road. Anyway, if I find out something significant, I will relay the information. The SES and DSC lights are VERY random. They always go out at some point and I have never had an issue with the way the car runs.

 

The dealer called me today and said my issue was a cam sensor. I will let everyone know if that fixes it for good.

 

All,

So I finally found the problem with my DSC and Check Engine lights coming on: apparently there is a known defect in the exhaust-valve guides that cause the valve face and valve seat to burn/build up carbon deposits. Once the valve and valve seat are compromised... so is your compression. Hence a mis-fire resulting in error codes. I'm currently getting the head replaced under warranty.

I've posted in another thread regarding this issue. The other thread is here: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=140894

Regards,

Nethack

 

Well, I am at just over 50K and, therefore, out of warranty. If it is the head, what are we (I) looking at for a cost of replacement? Can't be good!

 

Unfortunately I don't know, but I can tell you this: I've got a JCW head and that whole package was $6K+. I imagine the head replacement would be about ~$3K plus labor. Again, this is all just a guess. I'll ask the dealer what it would have cost out-of-warranty.

 

Thanks, NETHACK.

If the cost of replacing the head will be a few thousand, I may as well invest in a FIREBALLED! or similar head with a Schrick cam.

 

I know this is an old thread but I just wanted to thank the the NAM community for the help. I was having the SES, ASC light on and my AC was not blowing cold. Thanks to this message board, it turned out to be my post O2 sensor which had rubbed against the side of the heat shield and caused codes and a blown fuse. I just wanted to say thanks.

 

Does anyone have any ideas about the check engine light? Mine has come on again (2 months ago 1st time). The dealer reset the light and said that a fuel injector was misfiring? He said to use BG44 in the fuel and it was fine until 2 days ago. He also said that the fuel injectors probably need to be cleaned ($300.00) and it's not quite time for the warranty to pick up the tab. I use top tier gas and the highest octane available. Anyone have any ideas how to get the light off and not have the problem again without the cleaning? Thanks.

 

so lucky me I just had this happen this morning. It was really rough when it first happened.. Saw the dsc sensor figured my run flat was low cause it was super loud... but then it just is fine maybe 5 minutes later. Ride is normal, sounds normal but check engine and dsc sensor still lit up.... so what do I need to check? I am going to be doing a 425 mile drive on Sunday back to Sacramento from OC.

 

We had to have our Mini's heads "bead blasted" due to the misfiring. It was under warrantee, thank god. I was told to use Seafoam in it every 1-2000 miles. It seemed to work, no problems with that, just other problems which prompted us to sell the car. It was an 09 and we hated to see it go but when the warranty is up and the car breaks down (which it did a lot of) we couldn't afford to keep paying the >$1500.00 repair bills.

 

my husband seafoams my car he loves to do it and well like other 04 minis have the rough idle issue and just recently replaced all the plug and the connectors for it cause they were corroded.. hoping it will be fine but he is coming to pick her up while i work to get the code read.

 

I've been reading through several threads and above all Thanks to all those who contribute their time and support. I've had my are sitting in my garage for months and finally got the energy to put it back together after replacing the small heater core and the stock Radiator to an all aluminum type. Remarkably, the car started up and I've been driving it, but all of a sudden the DSC and Check Engine Lights came on simultaneously. The Scan Gauge II gave me a PO340. Based on some threads, I decide to replace the Crank Shaft Sensor. I verified the connector and wires were not damaged in any way. Well the car started and it "seemed" to run better, i.e. no difficult starts, etc.

Well it didn't take long before the PO340 code came back. I'm back to reading more threads like this one to determine what could be the root cause or root causes. I love my 2005 R53 Mini Cooper S but it is a high maintenance car, which I can live with but what I find so frustrating is not being able to pin-point the exact cause of a problem like this one. I've heard anything from a bad O2 sensor to replacing the valves and heads. I thought the Scan Gauge II would be the tool to provide me with this type of detailed information but I realize now it may not be. I've noticed the battery voltage and/or the alternator output is not consistent with normal operation. At times I've seen the voltage drop to 11.5 volts while the car is running, but is idling. I believe I notice the fluctuations in the voltage more so when I have the AC on. I've checked the new battery and it's good. I have a battery charger that performs an alternator check and it turned out to be good. So I've reached a point where I have to ask others for recommendations. Bad alternator, bad crank damper pully? Should I take my mini to the dealer just so they can run deep diagnostics to pin-point the cause?

Thank you in advance for any help and I apologize for the long entry.

 

I know this is old but did you ever find out what was the problem my car just started doing it last night ?