Hi

I replaced my valve-cover gasket....had a leak and the car idled very high (2500 rpm). It threw error code 507 (fast idle).

Anyway, after replacing the gasket the car dies on startup. No error codes. Nothing. Just dies. Unwilling or unable to idle. I can keep it going by getting&staying on the gas (but even then it (seems to?) revs sluggishly).

I rechecked all connections, had my wife keep it at 2000 rpm - couldn't find/hear any leaks.

I'm hoping this is some sort of reset issue (I tried the software/trip reset ->19 ->21 etc thing...gauges cycle, but this had no effect). Also found another "trick" on here -> key at 1, on gas for 25 seconds, off gas for 10s, start -> no luck.

Any advice? I'm taking it to a local Mini specialist (not dealer!) tomorrow.

 

You can try to disconnect the battery if you suspect the code is still messing things up, I don't know if that will work, but it is somethign.

 

Thanks - I'm not sure that resets everything...but I'll give it a go anyway. Btw I used a little scan tool to reset the error code.

 

Hi I'm bumping this in case anyone has an idea of what might be going on.

The car is in the shop - there are no error codes.
They did a smoke test and found no leaks.

Step by step this is what I did:
Remove IC
Remove IC brackets
Remove two hoses connected to valve cover.
Remove valve cover bolts
Remove valve cover

Replace gasket & spark-plug gaskets
Replace cover, tighten bolts to spec using correct patterm
Replace brackets
Replace hoses.
Replace IC

Start car. It dies.

I can keep it going with the throttle, but it dies when I let off the gas -> even when rolling down a hill and in gear...if I let go of the gas it dies...

Had there not been perfect correlation between the initial high idle, me replacing the gasket (took about an hour), and the car then dying...I would have said bad battery or alternator...

It sort of sucks - I fix the thing that was broken...can confirm that that is fixed...but now something else, more catastrophic, breaks.

Some of my theories:
1. The car had an air leak all along. The ECU compensated for this by using a very small throttle opening at idle, the leak got bigger and the ECU compensated even more. Now that the leak is gone, the car gets no air on idle and just dies...car cannot adjust because it needs to actually idle to adjust...Is there some way to reset its idle settings?


2. The battery is bad, in combination with #1...this one sounds a bit far out to me...what if the battery is bad, at low rpms the alternator doesn't deliver a lot of current, and the car cannot control the throttle body...so instead of the rpms falling to say 500 and the car recovering, it falls to 500 and the car can't react so it just dies...at higher rpm's it's sort of ok because the alternator is delivering a bit more juice...oh man, this one sounds goofy...this problem is worse with the AC on...and it got worse the further I drove the car (read: the more I stopped at traffic lights and restarted the car) ... and I'm using a non-OEM/Autozone battery.


3. I broke something? I forgot to pre-install the passenger-inner boot bracket on the IC (one closest to IC on the left when looking towards car)...so I tried shoving the bracket through underneath the boot...realized my mistake and stopped, then removed IC and did it right...I'm wondering if I might have broken something...I didn't use a lot of force, but there are some important stuff back there (fuel rail, fuel injectors&wiring).

Any advice appreciated. I asked the shop to replace the battery with an OEM one, 'cause the one I have is real small and the guys at NASA tech didn't like the way I used a piece of wood between the battery and the hold-down to keep it in place...

 

Replaced the battery - no luck.
It's like the car has a massive air-leak -> but it's not showing up on the smoke test.

They took off the inlet duct and they can see that when the car is off the throttle plate is slightly open...but when they turn the car on the throttle plate closes hard, and actually distorts from the vacuum created.

It's like the idle control setting is off-center or something.