Work I was doing on the newly-acquired used 2011 Mini Cooper S Hardtop, which already had a stressed FRM due to prior owner having one of the reverse lights completely filled with water for who knows how long, required me to disconnect the battery (more than once). Safety first.

The last reconnect was apparently too much for the FRM. Hit the Start/Stop button (no foot on brake) to get it to ON mode so I could fire up some OBD-based monitors, and to my surprise the headlamps immediately came on. And I couldn't turn them off. And the high beams didn't work. And the turn signals didn't work. And the hazard blinkers didn't work. And the bottom half of my taillights was on. And the cabin LEDs were all out. And the speedo and other dial-gauge illumination was out. And the door-underside lamps were out. And the windows, which were down (to facilitate earlier referenced work) wouldn't go up.

And I realized I had a new CC-ID in the mix: 231, Light System Failure. And I hit Google. And everything pointed to a fried or otherwise-done-with-you FRM, and discussions about voltage spikes when reconnecting the battery. A small handful of persons seemed to have found ways to defibrillate their FRMs with coding tools, but for the most part, replacement seemed to be the path.

A trip to the local Mini dealership, which a week and change ago successfully kicked my FRM into turning my previously-out reverse lamp back on (after drainage, fixture replacement, and pigtail corrosion removal), yielded that my FRM was decidedly in no-cooperate mode and I was looking down an $880-ish replacement path. OUCH.

I have a skilled-as-heck independent Mini shop jabbing at it now, but it still looks like replacement will be the answer (if only because of the labor hours involved in electronically yelling "CLEAR!" at an uncooperative FRM over and over again until it finally cooperates).

So that takes me to a question: I am at this point getting wicked twitchy about disconnecting and reconnecting the battery ever again. I have been driving and maintaining my own vehicles for over two decades and I have never run across an in-car computer that may get a case of the buh-byes from the voltage spike of reconnecting the cable to the negative battery terminal. But that's what I got, and others have had the same thing happen. Are there any ways to "be more careful about this" when I have to disconnect/reconnect the battery in the future?

Wackiest question I've ever had to ask and makes me feel like a rank amateur, but I happen to be in tech for a living and I know how much of a losing battle it is when you don't give electronics what they want (and avoid what they don't). So looking for ideas on how to perform future service in a, ah, "more FRM-friendly way."

Thanks for any input.

 

I lost counting how many times i disconnect and reconnect my battery and "knock on wood" nothing happened. I think it is hit or miss type deal with the module.

the only thing you can do is to use a capacitor when you connect the battery. it will take the sudden spike and ease the voltage into the car as the cap charges.

FRM is easy work. find a used one with matching part number or options. it will restore most of the functions. Use WinKfp and NCSexpert to code the vin and your options to the donor FRM.

here is "more to the story than meets the eye" link...

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...solutions.html

 

Thanks for this. I was eyeballing that thread -- I'm had planned to get my hands into NCSexpert and will add WinKfp to the list. Since I'm in tech for a living -- long long history -- all these issues that boil down to being able to say (put your best Star Trek actor voice on), "computer, please turn the such and such on" have got me fully done with the headdesking exercises.

Do you happen to have a reference for using a capacitor when reconnecting the battery? I figured something like that was going to be the path, but I could really use an exemplar to learn from.

 

for this specific application, no. I have not seen anyone do it. In the times where radio and amplifiers were the thing, the cap was kind of a must. I would suggest starting from there at least.

 

Aok. I'll keep a-Googling. Many thanks!

 

no problem...if you get it done, just attach a pic and let us know of any improvement.

use car-part.com to get you a used FRM for now. try to find one with matching p/n

 

Well, have an update. As noted I had the car at an independent Mini shop, very well regarded. The original FRM was... fully uncooperative. Used FRM behaved strangely despite best efforts (things like windows going up when commanded down and vice-versa). So fell back to a new FRM.

I suspect, in fairness (and anticipating some "yeah but did they try X"), that had there been time to throw the kitchen sink at the thing, the used FRM might have ultimately been brought to heel. But I needed the car functional and the shop couldn't reasonably make me their only priority, so we jointly made the hard call.

Now, I have the original FRM (which I gather is an FRM3 -- have to learn what the significance of that is/isn't). I did a physical inspection and can't find much sign of obvious trauma -- no burns/scorches, no discoloration, no... nothing. Which frankly strikes me as a little odd. I think I need to learn what imperfections look like on *this* piece of solid-state electronics, because it looks too doggoned clean given its electrical role, age, and history.

I have to nose around to find software and hardware sources so I can get to playing with this stuff. In the meantime, the car proper is back to business as usual, and I need to figure out my capacitor project. Will throw updates when I get them...

 

One thing to note is not all FRMs created equal. If the used one wasnt a proper match, it will act up. Do i take it that you bought a new one and moved one?
for software, you need ISTA/D, WinKfp, NCSexpert, INPA...if you want dealer level software then ISTA/P with ICOM connection is the way.

 

Yeah, bought a new one. So the new one is in the car, the original is on my kitchen counter

Thanks for all the detail on software packages btw. Very helpful for my go-forward.

Regarding "a proper match" -- what would define a proper (or improper) match outside of the usual -- part number, maybe revision (FRM3 in my case vs not-FRM3)?

 

all of the above...When my CMS All4 FRM was part of the dead herd, it took me a while to find a good match. I had xenon light WITH adaptive option. The only one i can find was in england it he wanted 250 i think...to my luck, it was lost in the mail :( long story short i found on ebay or car-part.com for a similar price and i went for it...5k miles so far and things are good.
So, I wonder what was the part number on the used one they used and what car they took it from?

 

Digging this out of the way-back machine, I was looking into the capacitor idea and ran into this very interesting class of intended-for-vehicles product.

Thoughts on this stuff?

 

Reading the description, it seems that you only use it when you're about to jump start or connect another voltage maintainer. I wonder if you can connect to the battery and then when it is green, you connect the car cables!

give it a try

 

It does seem like a cool idea. And the more I think about how twitchy the electronics are, monitoring every little whatever-fluctuation down to the microvolt, the more I'm inclined to use something that does not wire in permanently.

I'm having a tough time teasing out the differences between some of the entry-level stuff (sub-$20) and some of the next-tier-up options ($50-$60). Barring being able to figure that out, eyeballing this one:

http://www.centurytool.net/QuickCabl...602700-001.htm

Any thoughts?

 

I made the mistake of installing some cheap eBay HID's on my 2011S once. The headlights stopped working, altogether, unless I held the stick back in "flash-to-pass" mode. I disconnected the battery, pulled the FRM out, inspected it. Did not smell "smoked". And no evidence of water intrusion, etc. Put the stock headlight bulbs back in, put the FRM back in place, re-connected the battery, everything worked again! Geez, what a scary time that was!

 

I keep wanting to take defibrillator paddles to my old FRM. Maybe when I get software-savvy I'll put the old one back in and yell "CLEAR!" at it to see if it takes the hint

 

There is an extended warranty on the FRM up to 8 years or 125k miles