The other night the DSC and Runflat indicators both stayed lit.
I reset the runflat indicator. Nothing. Pulled over. Turned the car off and back on. Same thing. Thinking I could have a brake problem I pulled on my parking brake slightly while driving to be sure I knew were the handle was and the lights went off.

Funky ABS sensor? Too intermittent to bring it in.

 

One or more faults in the ABS/DSC controller will cause the behavior you observed. Have your dealer scan the car for faults.

BTW, if the tire pressure light comes on steady, there is a fault in the system. If it comes on flashing, it thinks there is a flat tire and is doing its job.

 

Yea. The dealer said it could be the controller. I'm going to wait to see if it happens again but they did make a note of it.

 

I've got a good idea what your problem is.
I fixed a Mini the other day with the same problem.
There is a 4 wires running under the center console going to the DSC sensor.
The sensor is located at the rear of the console( under the console ).
The wires run under the E-brake and rub against the E-brake enough that the
actual metal in the wires start touching the E-brake handle when it is in the lowered position. This shoots a ground to the wires. 2 of which are Can Low and Can High wires going to the DSC sensor.
If you want you can pull up the boot around your E-brake, check and see if the wires are rubbing the E-brake . You should be able to see the copper
where it has been rubbing.

Please get back to me on this and let me know what you find.

 

Very nice Pete!


Your home phone # would be helpful to all of us with those particularly sticky problems.

 

I encountered this problem the other day on my 2004 MCS.


The dealer claims it was a faulty magnetic rotational sensor thingy.

They have none is stock and they will not arrive for a month or something like that.

They "recoded" it and claim it should fix the problem for now...

I'm skeptical...How does one re-code an ABS sensor? Or, even a tire pressure monitoring system?

-Mark

 

Sometimes, don't ask me why, coding a control module can give temp. fix on certain problems. If it is a hard core fault in a system the only way to fix it is to repair wires or replace faulty components.

 

As an engineer, I'm at a loss on how recoding this could solve a fault...It appears that they are fixing the effect instead of addressing the cause...Likely because they don't have the parts...

-Mark

 

I don't think they are "recoding" the module, more likely simply clearing the fault and hoping it stays away.

 

The tire light for my mini comes on once about every 2-3 months. Doesn't scare me that much anymore since I reset it everytime without much hassle. I think when that light is on, ABS doesn't work, right? Next time it goes on, I want to lock my tires and do stupid things. Yea or nay?

 

Both lights came on again, several times...

I've scheduled an appointment for a DSC board replacement.

Regards, Mark

 

I just had the same problem on my '03 with the same results. I will post the dealer's response.

If this problem is showing up frequently, MINI should do a recall as it may adversely affect the safety of the vehicle, e.g., ABS.

 

Sorry to be so late in the response. But, here it is.

If both DSC and Tire Pressure lights come on simultaneously, it is the Steering Control Sensor. They may come on and then go off after a while initially. This is a sign the sensor is failing. The car is still driveable, but emergency handling may be affected when both lights are displayed. If you encounter this problem, the car should be taken to a dealer. The car's computer will have logged the incidents and the sensor should be replaced.

Note: The replacement part will have a different part number. (It is BMW policy that whenever another manufacturer's part doesn't live up to BMW specifications, it will be replaced. And, if need be, from a manufacturer whose products will live up to BMW specifications.)

Replacement is covered by the car's warranty. Total time takes about one hour.

I had no trouble getting mine replaced at the dealer.

 

They replaced a circuit board of some sort.

Then, they had another fault on a sensor, which needed to be "VOC?'ed" to the dealer the next morning.

Finally, replaced some sensor...I thought it was all related to DSC and a rotational velocity sensor.

It took 2 days to get it all fixed.

Regards, Mark

 

I just have my 02MCS at Classic MINI in Mentor, OH for this problem. Mine would go on and stay on for 2 months then suddenly turn off. Just annoying. The Mechanic told me that the way they were fixing this was recalibrating the sensor through the computer and resetting the fault code on there as well. He said that this is what they do first and if it occurs again, they would replace the sensor. So far the lights have not come on so we'll see. Classic MINI has been great to work with.

 

Funny, I search for DSC and runflat and come up with my own thread.
This has happened 3 times in the last 3 weeks. 6000 miles left on the warranty.
When the car was in a couple years ago, no failure found.

 

just got the DSC + ABS + flat indicators coming on simultaneously while coming off an off-ramp... manual said if no chime, then it's a fault. Hm. They stayed on for the rest of the journey through the city. When I had safe occasion to kill the ignition and restart, they went away...

hm

 

I just got that problem fixed yesterday, it's the "wheel speed sensor". You have to replace the sensor too...it's the front driver side most likely. Resetting it by turning off and on the ignition is only a temp fix, but it will come back again...and again..and again.

 

cool, that's awesome. I really appreciate you commenting. I have a dealer service visit on Tuesday, and I will make inquiries!

 

Thanks for the feed back, but why do you say that the front driver's is most likely to fail? Just curious.

 

had my asc, abs and ftm lights stay on after a few days of intermittant lights. I had chance to read the codes, sure enough, it was the driver's front wheel speed sensor.