Hi,


I have a 2005 Mini Cooper S. I was in some traffic yesterday, creeping along, upon light acceleration, lights came up on the dash, and it began to run super rough. Pulled over, towed home.


I bought a cheapo scanner, and it showed code P2300, and no other codes. From what I could find, that is "Coil Pack A".


Today I replaced my coil pack and plug wires, cleared the code, started it.


It was difficult to start, still runs rough, and the code came back!


Any ideas?




Thanks,
AlexQS

 

Did you use OEM coil pack and OEM wires? Needs to be both OEM or both aftermarket not a mix.

Check each of the spark plugs for unusual wear/residue.

If plugs are worn then replace them.

You can do a search for P2300, there are several threads on this.

 

Its MSD Coil and MSD Wires. This is replacing the Screaming Demon and unknown wires that the original owner put on. I replaced the plugs with oem NGK platinum about 12,000 miles ago.

The problem started suddenly BEFORE I replaced the coil and wires.

I searched for p2300, and did not find much. One guy who seemed to have a broken connector, and zip tied it.

I'll pull the plugs and look at them tomorrow, but it happened so suddenly -running perfect one moment, and running like total crap the next minute.

I'm afraid it could be the DCM/ECU whatever you call it, but I don't want to spend $1200 before I can prove it.

I have a multi-meter,.. I'm not sure what to check though. Any ideas of tests I can run?

 

I'm going to double check all the grounds, and I found fuses F02, F03 and F04 are related.

Any other ideas?

I also found the coil terminal (x6150), it's a table that says stuff like "Pin 1 and Ground" "Condition: key on engine off" "Value: battery volts"
I also have a similar table for ECM Connector (x6000)

Sorry to sound like such a newb., but I should just set my multi-meter to volts and check all of those, right?

Also, I was thinking of unplugging battery, disconnecting ECM, and testing Ohms between the Coil Connector and ECM Connector. Would that be a good idea to tell me if I have a wire shorted or broken somewhere??

Thanks in advance for comments.

 

Double check the wires and connectors that connect to the coil, a pinch or short in one of those wires or the connector to the coil can cause a "sudden" problem.
Besides the coil going bad, that's what I would check since you didn't get any kind of a code pertaining to a misfire or problem with an individual cylinder first.

 

Thanks,.. That helps, and verifies what I was thinking. Right now I'm waiting for my wife's phone to be fixed. BTW, off topic, but for anyone with a broken screen on iPhone, the Mac Store can do parts and labor for less money than getting a DIY screen on Amazon.

I'll report about the MINI after I get home and start checking things.

Regards,
AlexQS

 

I've pulled the plug off the coil, and measuring for battery voltage with key on engine off condition.

I have 12v between terminal 2 and ground, but 0 between 1 & ground, also 0 between 3 and ground.

Power at terminal 1 on fuse panel, and fuse #2 are also good.

I haven't tested the terminals at ECU yet, I want to disco the battery and let it rest before I unplug that one.

I'm confused on my next step though,.. Do I measure the ECU, or the cord that plugs into the ECU? Or do I have to pull the back off the plug so I can measure when it is plugged into ECU???

 

Okay, so I see how it works now. (And it still does not work)

On the plug with the 3 wires that go to the coil pack, I can back probe all 3 of them with an Ohm meter. No broken wires unfortunately,.. because that would have been an easy fix.

The center wire goes to the fuse box. Wires 1 & 3 go to the plug for the ECU.

The reason that I didn't see power on 1 & 3 earlier is because it was not pluged in to the coil. Power goes in to the coil on wire 2, then comes out of the coil on 1&3 and goes to the ECU. I do measure power from the coil at the ECU terminal.

I believed I have proved that the coil works, and there are no broken connections or loose wires.

I also replaced the plugs today, hoping that that would be it. Now it runs very very well and smooth for " 2 Cylinders "

What next?????

 

Bump.

Anybody?

I'm thinking to test the Cam Position Sensor, as I know that would effect timing,... But I don't think timing is off. Also I believe Crank & Cam Position Sensors would have their own trouble codes, different than the P2300 (coil pack A) which persists.

I guess tomorrow, I'll check cam position sensor. Crank sensor must be working though, because an implausible signal or no signal will create a no-start condition.

Please share your thoughts,....

 

Recap: I have code P2300
Replaced Coil, plug wires and spark plugs.
Tested wires from coil to ECU/DCM -no breaks
Cleaned ground terminal on battery, and ground strap connections in engine bay
Cleared code (several times)

Code P2300 comes back immediately every time I try to start the engine.

It's hard to start, runs on 2 or 3 cylinders. Spark plug test light blinks bright on cylinder 2 & 3. No light on 1 & 4, but it will blink dimly at about 3000 RPM. I'm not sure if it's the fire-stroke or waste spark, but as mentioned -it's not running strong on all 4 cylinders!

The ASC light (circle-arrow-exclamation-point symbol) is illuminated.

I need help.

 

CMP Tests.

Terminal 1 = 12.4 volts key on, 14 volts engine running (normal)

Terminal 2 = .05 volts key on, 2.4 to 2.49 volts engine running (values should be .2 volts key on, 2.5 volts engine running)

Terminal 3 = .1 volts ( I can see .17 if I switch to milivolts)
Values here should be 0.1 volts maximum

I wish terminal 2 had higher reading with key on engine off, but values look okay with engine running.

Have I found the culprit, or is that close enough to spec.
???

 

Go rent a compression gauge from Autozone, about $20 and they give it back..

Check compression, maybe they suddenly have no compression and won't run? 2 cylinders at one time is totally random.. but at least eliminate this since it's free and takes 15 minutes.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I truly appreciate that. I can't believe I suddenly lost compression in two cylinders. It was running strong,... Didn't hear anything break. I may check compression sometime soon just to learn of the health of the engine, but right now that is not suspect.

However what I'm missing is spark, and already I can prove that, I just need to find out why.

Any one have thoughts about the results of my Cam Position Sensor check above?

According to Bently I should see .2 volts where I only see .05v with key on engine off.
However, the key on engine running produces normal voltage from the same pin on the CMP
Sensor.

Edit: fixed decimal point in wrong place above

 

I believe I may have a similar issue! Did you ever resolve the problem? If so any suggestions would be awesome thank you!

 

Silly question but did you save the insulators on the coil? The little rubber doughnuts between the coil and the block at each of the bolts? Could cause a short of some kind... maybe - I really don't know.


I have an MSD and stock wires with no issues.