I bought a used 2009 Mini Cooper S hatchback a little over a year ago. To provide some background, within the first three months, my timing chain broke, high pressure fuel pump went out, in-tank fuel pump went out, blew a head gasket, and had to replace the crank position sensor. Good thing I had the extended warranty which I never buy... fast forward to January, I was driving down the freeway and all the sudden the car just died. Had it towed to the dealer. Dealer said bad brakes, bad clutch, and that that the DME was shot. I asked how they knew this and they said that a code was thrown having to do with a bad driver for ground. I was told that I could only get a DME from the dealer and that it with the clutch and brakes would be $6,800. I then had it towed to an independent BMW shop. He said the same thing. Bad DME. I had it towed to the house and started troubleshooting. Found that only cylinders two and three have spark. No matter what, one and four will not fire. I have swapped out coils, bought new coils, bought new plugs to no avail. Had the car towed back to mini and grudgingly purchased the DME only to receive a call stating that the DME didn't fix it. They offered to have it towed to my house as they were out of options and they needed the room on the lot. So, here we are in April and still no spark on cylinders one and four.

I just finished wringing out the wire harness all the way back to the NEW DME and have good continuity everywhere. I'm lost guys and could really use some help.

 

Having recently been though issues with no spark on a project BMW e36 of mine, I can relate to your frustrations.

I am going to start by asking a really simple question, how are you testing that there is no spark? Are you using a timing light or are you checking spark at the plug with it out of the engine?

There are a lot of reasons a plug might not spark, it sounds like you have been through many of the more obvious ones including new plugs and coils. This to me sounds like you might not actually getting the signal to the coils to create the spark. I would suggest replacing the crank and cam position sensors. Before spending money on the sensors, unplug one at a time and see if that changes the symptoms of it trying to fire.

I have found when working on my project engine, if one cranks for a long time without a working spark, you can easily flood the engine and the spark plugs wont fire due to them be soaked in gasoline. I have found the most reliable way to dry them out is to buy some starting fluid, then spray down each plug, dry it off and reinstall. It might also help to use staring fluid to get it to run, once then engine drys out it might make it easier to start. It can also be helpful to pull the fuse from the fuel pump to unflood the engine.

I can't say how many times I wish my project e36 just had a distributor and a set of points, it is a much easier system to track than an electronic ignition system. In the end of the day I found out that my problems were that the spark plug heat range I was using was too low and my plugs were fowling. You are probably using stock plugs so that shouldn't be the problem.

 

hi, chipping in

I think THE FIRST thing you want to do is check compression.

also it is NOT true that the DME is a dealer only item. I have rebuild/fixed/worked on close to 10 minis and i can tell you the the DME can be cloned for about $300. you buy a good used dme with matching part numbers and you're good to go.

can you communicate with the DME?

finally, despite the misfire, what the other codes you are getting?

where are you located?

 

Have checked compression, 140-150 on all cylinders. I can communicate with both DME's perfectly fine. I don't have the code list in front of me but the dealer said the code causing the problem is "F2F8". All of the other codes are associated with aux functions. I will try to post them tonight.

I'm in Ohio, north east of Cincinnati.

 

since we know that the compression is good, we now move to the next step of knowing whether there is a spark or not.

Can you test for a spark?

1-remove the fuse for the gas pump
2-remove spark plugs
3-with one plug at a time, insert the plug in the coil pack and use jumper cable to connect the plug to ground.
4-start the car and SEE the sparking at the end of the plug
5- repeat for the other 3.

Step two when done is put everything back together and use "quick start" spray. apply it right at the elbow where the pipe goes into the throttle body.

let us know what happens

 

So I know without question that I am not getting spark to cylinders 1 & 4. I know this because I went through the procedure that you outline. What is odd is that sometimes I will get a strong spark from cylinder 3 and sometimes there will be no spark at all. I have tried different coils new and old I have tried different spark plugs new and old. When I had the car at the dealer they even confirmed that there was no spark on 1 and 4 and week on cylinder 3. It was because of this that they said I needed a new DME. However that proved to be wrong.

 

Since spark is, lets say, is the issue, we need to find out the condition of sensors responsible for ignition.

Plugs are ok
Coil packs are ok

The other sensors are timing dependent. So, confirm that your timing is set correctly. Pin needs to get in the locking whole in the bottom and the intake and exhaust shafts need to be inline. Can tou confirm that? Take pix

 

I'm sorry I'm not following what you're asking for sorry

 

To check the timing.

 

Okay guys. So I don't have the tools to check timing; I don't think at least. I just got back in town town today and replaced the crank position sensor. No fix, nothing else to replace... I don't think. Here are the codes stored on the DME...

E72C, E72B - Integrated Heating
C904 - K-Can line fault Junction Box Electronics
E104 - KCan low line fault Instrument Cluster
C944 K-Can line fault Multiple Restraint System
DA04 K-Can line fault Sliding Tilting Sunroof
5E5C Brake pad wear indicator front brake pad
2F8F Engine shutdown time plausibility
D104 K-Can line fault Tyre Pressure Control

 

MiniToBe, can you help me understand the replacement DME scenario. I'm being told by multiple sources that this can not be done, but yet other people say it can easily be done. Kinda the he said she said scenario...

 

sure...you need to buy a DME with the same part numbers as yours (if you post yours, i can show you those numbers), then there is a guy out in IL who did my cloning and I referred two more ppl to him. you send BOTH DMEs to him and he does the work for you. it is that easy.

I wish I can drive to you and take a look :(

Do you have INPA and the other software?

 

C904 - K-Can line fault Junction Box Electronics

JBE=Junction Box Electric = fuse box in pass compartment....maybe worth a check of that area for moisture....Do you have a sunroof ? Has the windshield been replaced recently ?

 

Also, with respect to extended warranty purchased, who did the original work as stated in first post, timing chain, crank pos sensor ect. ?

 

Hey, thanks for continuing to help and suggest ideas guys. I am very appreciative. So I talked with a lot of different folks today but decided that I would come home and scan codes on the new DME, clear them, and then try to start to see what new codes came up. interestingly enough, when I did this with the new and original DME, I didn't get any codes when I tried to start it. It was really close to starting but you could tell that it needed the other two cylinders, obviously.

One thing that I did notice was that when I scanned the original DME it had code P15E8 stored on it. I cleared it and it never came back. However, shortly after I did a search on P15E8 codes and saw a post where someone had problems with water getting in their sunroof and damaging the JBE located in the foot well and they were getting no spark.

Many, many months ago when I had all the work done on the warranty side of things, they said that water got into the airbag system and damaged a connector because the sunroof had been left open. So this has me interested in checking out the LBE in the passenger foot well. I'm on the same line of thinking as you Gray Raven...!!! I hate to say it but really hope that it might be in this direction.

 

So I have gone through every aspect possible and still can't make progress. Today for some odd reason I decided to check timing. After removing the valve cover, I rotated the exhaust cam to where the clamp flat was at 0 degrees. I then measured the intake cam and found there to be 4 degrees difference. Is this enough to be concerned with and possibly be the problem? If so, how could this have happened all of the sudden. Again, it wasn't too long ago that the Mini dealer replaced the timing chain and guides.

 

Best guess....the cam bolt backed out of the cam gear. They are torque to yield...

 

I am having this exact issue on a 2009 R56 Mini Cooper.

We replaced the timing chains and the car ran like a top for 20 minutes or so driving fine. Then it shut off with no spark or coil pulse from DME on cylinders 1 and 4. Cylinders 2 and 3 have coil pulse. There is Fuel injector pulse on all 4 cylinders. Did you ever solve your problem?? I am tearing my hair out. Double checked timing again. Replaced DME. Replaced Coils.

 

Well, I finally found out my problem. Turns out that the clutch self destructed into a thousand pieces. A piece of the clutch passed between the crank position sensor and the pickup on the flywheel. This bent the pickup for the crank sensor therefore not commanding a spark on those two cylinders. Since parts of the clutch were flying around, they bent teeth on the flywheel and abraded the transmission housing to the point that transmission fluid started leaking. I starts now but I had to buy a new transmission, clutch, flywheel, and two CV axles as it broke the bearing housings. Now I have a misfire on cylinder two when I apply a heavy load. I believe this is the injector as I checked spark and swapped coils and such. Only thing left. What a POS car

 

Thanks for the fast reply! This car has me tearing my hair out. Had you scoped the crank sensor output while the car would not start? I scoped my crank and cam sensors and the waveform looked good.

 

holy cow man. my SINCERE condolences. I thought i had it bad, car after car and $$$$ but this one may take the cake.
dealer DID say bad clutch however. we all like to overlook their claims a lot though, and that's their fault.

 

In case anyone else runs into this. I finally solved the "no spark on cyl 1 and 4 issue". There were two bent crankshaft reluctor pins. I don't know what caused it, if it was a clutch job in the past or what, but I straightened the pins and all is good! Thanks for the help

 

Thanx - have one bent tooth - no spark 1 and 4 -
THE THREAD HELPED AFTER A COUPLE HOURS TESTING

 

Bent pins! 3 of them, fairly easy to straighten. Missing a cover, probably picked up a stone r something! Thanks to all the suggestions!

 

Where are these bent pins located?