On my dad's 06 MCS, he gets a CEL. He sees his friend w/ a scanner... and THAT friend went to his BIMMER mechanic as well after not finding any codes. Neither find codes so....

Dad results in taking it to the dealer (CREVIER), who claims the battery needs replacement (possible since the car is an 06 I guess) and that the engine harness is bad and want $1300 for everything.

Has this happened to anyone else before? I find it odd considering my dad does NOT drive this car hard AT ALL, most are FREEWAY MILES.

 

Not sure how many miles from your post, but shouldn't something like this be handled under warranty?

Pat

 

Dad said it's no longer under warranty.

 

in any case, does anyone know any other better mini cooper forums? this one doesn't seem to have much traffic.

 

As for better forums, not really.. the reason there isnt much traffic is that its hard to "diagnose" over the computer. Its hard to say if all you are saying sounds good or not... How many miles? Has anything been done to this MINI? Where is the harness bad? What exactly did the dealership say was wrong with the harnes? Since its a Cooper S, you said the battery is bad and the Engine harness? They are at opposite ends of the car, so it kinda sounds funny to me, but who knows....

Sorry there "isnt enough traffic" for you but again we aren't really in any position to say whats wrong/right without knowing all the facts.

 

Run your situation past Carnut--www.carnutgarage.com. He may be able to help you.

 

How long out of warranty? If it is somewhat close try to get the dealer to work with you or try another dealer. A harness is not something that is subject to abuse or ware so you probably need to find out more why they want to replace it.

Looking at your posts you waited about 2 hours in the middle of the day for a response from your second post to your third. This is a forum not text messaging.
If you want people to help you it is advisable to be patient.
Most of the people on NAM are very helpful but for free advise you can't expect it to always be as fast as you want.

 

So this is the most traffic'd forum for Mini Coopers? I am a member of other car forums and can say for the same car (say an RSX) there are more popular forums than others. Since the Mini is just my Dad's I don't really look into Mini's much which is why I don't know if this forum is best or not.

I'm not sure of the miles but it isn't much... 06, and my dad mainly uses it for long drives (i.e. from LA to Vegas), does not even go to the track for HPDEs (while I do). Only thing done to his Mini was a Borla street exhaust, which I installed for him-- though that's totally irrelevant to anything electrical, nor could the exhaust be blamed for anything else really besides a defect in the exhaust itself.

All I know is that the dealer said the battery is bad and the engine harness needs replacement. I don't know specifically what is wrong with it, nor does my father. It's just weird to me because there was no code for the CEL according to my dad's friend who is a mechanic. He also knew a BMW mechanic who couldn't find anything either.

While in my experience, a dying battery can cause a CEL, maybe from insufficient cranking watts or whatever, but a faulty engine wiring harness?

I was just curious if anyone has had similar experiences to this... a CEL where an OBDII reader did not find any codes, yet the dealer was the only one able to find something... a defective wiring harness according to them. Maybe someone may have gone through this and knows the root of the problem.

 

My 2nd and 3rd post could have been combined. Sorry, if this forum is nit-picky about things like that... it's just that obviously warranty would have been considered, but when dealers are dicking customers around, of course many people (though not all) would turn to forums. I've done so over the years on my two other cars and have absolutely no problem contributing to people's questions. But the difference there is I work on my two cars extensively and have the KNOW-How to answer them.... I have no idea about Mini Coopers. I only run into them really when I do HPDEs in SoCal.

Again, I agree I could have been more patient, but the first and only reply at the time wasn't really helpful in my opinion (no offense, Pat!) since warranty is of course always considered.

 

If the mileage is less than 50K and the car is indeed an 06 it should still be covered under the 4yr/50K mile warranty.
I've not heard of any issues with the engine harness in other cars, I have an 06 myself and am still on the original battery and have had no problems.
When his friend with a scanner hooks up to the car what exactly does the scanner see/say? Was the dealer able to pull a code and if so what was it?

 

Thanks for the reply (and everyone else's)

I'll ask my dad for more details. I just wish my dad took me with him to the dealer, so they wouldn't be claiming ridiculous things .

Do you daily drive your Mini? My dad does not, so that could be a reason the battery may be on it's way. Do these need a special kind of battery or anything? Dealer said a replacement is $270 +/- (parts and labor) but we all know how dealers like to inflate prices.

I'll try to get info about what the scanners said..

 

Here is a list of aftermarket batteries that may save you some $$. A DIY installation of a 1st gen MCS battery is pretty straight forward.

 

Spoke w/ my father. He said his trusted mechanic friend and his friend who is a BMW mechanic both were ''unsure'' of what was the cause of the CEL and thus suggested he take it to the dealer.

Dealer said the code was P1692, Electronic Throttle Monitoring Level 2/3 Engine Throttle and Injection "A".

Also I was mistaken, it's an 04 Mini Cooper w/ 28k miles... (was confusing an MY06 car i was looking at for some reason)

 

There is a bulletin that pertains to FC1692 but it only applies to cars with production dates 6/2003 and earlier. If your car is an 04, then they are using the incorrect bulletin for the basis of there diagnosis. On cars earlier than 6/2003, if you looked at the prod. dates on the EDK, you either had to replace the harness or harness and the EDK throttle motor. At this point, there could be a bad EDK motor/harness or whatever, but the GT1 should have pretty good test plans for this.

 

I do daily drive my car now but while I was deployed it did sit for 18 months (albiet with the battery disconnected) and it started right up. That's irrelevant now seeing that we've discovered the battery is actual 5 years old and would probably be about due, in the future your dad might want to think about getting a trickle charger just for added insurance. I'm guessing the code you pulled is MINI specific and probably the reason your friends scanner couldn't read it. I don't buy the wiring harness/$1300 repair story though, it actually sounds like a faulty throttle position sensor to be honest.

 

This is the closest thread I found after a search for "EDK"
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...lights-on.html

Still don't understand what EDK is or what the acronym stands for.

Yes it is an 04...

I'm not biased at or against MINIs at all, but my dad's got 28k on the odo and does not do ANY driving that should cause anything to fail so soon. My Acura RSX has 100k miles on it, with its share of miles at the track, 30 minute sessions in WOT, in hot SoCal weathers... no problems. Different manufacturer sure, but when my dad mainly takes it to trips, it's funny for something to just fail. I'd expect it on my cars though.

 

To put it simply the MINI and most of its motor was all new in 2002 and they were still debugging until about 2005. Honda had been producing the K series engines since at least 2001 and the RSX since around a similar time, of course your car is going to be better sorted. Mine's better sorted than earlier models as well.

 

EDK throttle motor is the throttle body...like I said, your car if it's an '04 is not covered under this bulletin. I'm not at liberty to provide you with a copy of the bulletin, but will tell you that the dealer that looked at this car needs to double check what they are saying if they are using the bulletin for a "quick diagnosis". The prod. dates can be very easily overlooked and you just see the exact same FC in the bulletin and use that for a diagnosis.

 

+1

 

My K series motor is from a 2002 model, it was purchased in May of 2001, so I do have one of the very earliest models. Not insisting Honda is better at all or anything, but I'm surprised no one simply put the fact aside that it was a "Honda" (i.e. reliability?) Not to be noted as a Honda fanboy or anything, my more recently acquired MAZDA MIATA has gained my favor for track use in actuality.

The K series does have it's problems as well of course....and that is oiling... and when taking this motor to HPDE's and such, it is a major concern since the motor (like the Mini's) are FWD placement (L to R = oil starvation). I've done several track days thus far w/o a baffle, but I have an oil psi light and gauge to keep track of what it's doing.

On that note, it's somewhat off-topic, but do these MINI motors need baffled pans or do they have something like that from the factory? I'm looking to take my dad to a track day in his Mini one day in the future.

Thanks for the input. All the other threads trying to explain the acronym EDK ended up being something in German or something haha.

Thanks for the input everyone, and I apologize to Krut for my language... I'll watch it in the future.

I'll be on this forum more often.. the responses are very helpful. Maybe I'll run into one of you guys from this forum at the track at Streets of Willow. I've already ran into a fellow w/ what looked like a well-sorted blue first gen MINI-S on 17" Koseis. They look like they'd be fun cars to toss around.

 

I love my MINI... but I'll go where you didn't. Honda's primary business is not building consumer vehicles. It's building engines. They are the largest engine builder in the world. I think these guys know what they're doing.

Your Honda is going to be a more reliable vehicle... and that's exactly why my other car is a Honda. I bought my MINI knowing that the first gens had a poor reputation for reliability, so I got a 2nd gen MINI and so far, so good. I was willing to put up with a few problems because I get so much fun in return with this car that it's worth putting up with the quirks.

And btw, welcome to NAM.

 

Sorry, I thought earlier you'd said you had a car from 2006 and then based on you mentioning RSX forums I took that to mean you had a 2006 RSX, logic fail on my part.

I've never heard of any of them needing one, perhaps the dedicated track cars run them (like the RSR Minis or Detroit Tuned's car).

 

Thanks for the welcome. What other car do you have? If it's an s2k, I'd be jealous. I think about if both my cars were combined, it'd be an s2k. K-series power with handling of a Miata...

But the powerband of the MINI is in more of a usable range, so it's still nice to drive.

Oh, my cousin has an 06 RSX though, and he's looking at other cars (of different years, incl. 06) to trade in the RSX for. That's probably where I got it from.

 

Nah, it's a CRV. I have teenagers, one of whom plays the cello. We need the cargo space.

 

icic. then that just shows our age difference.