On a recent trip to Washington DC from my home in St. Louis I smell a strong odor of a hot circuit board or burning wiring. No smoke and this lasted maybe a minute or two then was gone. This happened twice over a 10 day 2000 mile trip.

One fellow on another board suggested that it might be and overheating component of the ABC board up under the passenger side cowl. He said several MINI car fires have started from there. He said there was a TSB that changes the fuse from 40a to 30a.

Has anyone heard of this ???

What's a smart approach to taking care of the problem?

If i just change out the fuse, all that will do is prevent the fire, but I still have a very broken car if the board for the ABS cooks.

Is there a TSB for the failure of ABS circuit boards???

My car is an early 2002 MCS...i took delivery in July 2002.

 

check the stock problems/issues forum.

 

If the ABS controller 'fried' and caused the smell, you would have had various indicator lights showing up the problem already and the damage would have been done. Go ahead and lower the fuse amperage (though I believe it involves lowering from 30 to 20 amps, not 40 to 30, there was a service note regarding this).