First off, I'll admit it so that you don't have to: I'm an idiot

I was on a date jamming to music in the parking lot with my car off and my car battery died. I grabbed my portable jump starter, hooked it up, and turned it on. In my haste to look calm, cool, collected, and confident in front of my date, I hooked the wires up backwards.

The moment I turned it on, relay R1 started clicking on and off rapidly. Through my testing (I don't have the money to take it to a shop right now) I have determined that the relay is not the issue, and there seems to be a fault in the ground connection. Whether that's coming from a fried computer or a bad ground connection, I don't know. I have checked all fuses under the hood, by the battery, and in the passenger-side interior fuse box. I have bypassed the relay and wired it on, and something in the engine bay continues to click.

I hooked it up to ISTA and it cannot reach the MASK, MOST, ISPB, or DME/DDE modules, but all other modules seem good with no faults.

When I try to start the car, it cranks for about 8 seconds then stops. There is no spark.

Any ideas on where I can go from here?

 

It looks like the MOST and MASK statement are for media. I have an aftermarket stereo, plus I disconnected power to the stereo system when this issue happened so that the battery wouldn't die as fast when testing, so I'm assuming that's why those are red. My main issue now is trying to figure out why the DME is not reachable.

Are there any specific relays or fuses I should check for this? I'm going to check the power junction box after work today to see what I can find.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE any help would be appreciated!

 

can you communicate with the DME directly?

also, ISTA/D can tell you what faults you have.

where are you located?

 

I'm in Utah. How do I communicate with the DME directly? In ISTA it showed up as red which meant that it couldn't communicate with it at all so if I remember correctly, it wasn't even able to read the fault codes. And when we hooked up my friend's regular code reader it couldn't connect.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR REPLYING! My Mini has been broken for over three months now and I'm desperate to get it working!

 

If ypu couldn't connect to the DME then it is dead and you need another one. Check my thread/post " flooded or struck by lightening".

I know a guy in IL who can clone DMEs...i used him numerous times.

 

Is there a chance it could be power supply to the SAME? There's gotta be a way to test

​​​Is there anything else that could be causing the ground connections to flicker on and off?

Thanks again!

 

Is there a chance it could be power supply to the DME? There's gotta be a way to test

​​​Is there anything else that could be causing the ground connections to flicker on and off?

Thanks again!

 

Is there any way to check the power source going to the DME before I do that? I would really hate to replace it and then find out it was something else.

 

Check the two green relays in the front fuse box. They are the bottom two.

 

R1 Anand R2? Under the hood with the picture of the engine and bolt? R1 is the one that clicks.

 

Yes...

use the ones from the fans and see if that changes anything.

 

Do the R1 and R2 fuses go to the computer or come from it? The issue seems to be with the ground going the relay. I bought a new relay and have tried swapping then and it did nothing. R1 still clicks. I even took the relay out and wired the circuit on and the clicking continued in the engine bay. The ground signal powering the relay (not the computer signal but the high power signal) just keeps turning on and off.

 

if you want, you can mail me out your DME and I can check on my 09 clubman S if your DME is actually alive?

 

That would be awesome! Before we do that though so you know of any way to check the power supply going to the DME? Like what cable is it that actually powers the system? A majority of the ground connections in the car are flickering on and off, but I don't know where in the chain that starts, if it's before or after the GAME. Does that make sense?

 

Plug that connects the car to the DME is the 3rd plug (counting from top to bottom). There are several power wires in that plug. Mainly, they are the solid RED wires. you can use a tester or a needle tip to test them. take that plug off the DME and connect the battery. run the tester through the holes and see if it turns the light on.

 

Ok sweet thanks! And that's the power INTO the DME right? I'll check that tonight. Any idea how I would check the power from the battery into the high voltage input of R1?

 

The easiest way is to remove the fuse box and slide out the bottom cover. Or just remove the relay and test either side of the relay coil. There should be a diagram on the relay itself showing what terminals are for the coil.

 

I finally brought it in to a mechanic, who confirmed that the DME is bad. I need to confirm the part number, but would a set like this work?

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F20 2080956473

Would I need to do any additional programming? I hate that this is such an intense and expensive repair for something so little, but I'm excited about finally getting to drive my car again! It's getting a bit too close to Winter to be able to keep riding my motorcycle! 😂

 

What year is your car? S or non s? Auto or manual?

Replacing the set will change your mileage and depending on the options of the donor car, there might be some issues.

Get/what is the part number of your dme?

 

2008 R56 Manual

Is there any to program the mileage?

 

Anything is possible. But it is better to just clone your origanl DME than buying a donor set and changs mileage and VIN. Pm your email and ill connect you with my tech.