I recently purchased my daughter a 2010 base mini. After two weeks started running bad, lost compression on #4 cylinder. (Dropped exhaust valve seat)After complete valve job, friction wheel and water pump pulley. Engine runs super quiet, from anywhere from 15 to 30 miles, check engine light comes on, have P0014,P0015,PO16 code. Tried cleaning and swapping camshaft sensors, no changes, same code. Pulled crankshaft sensor and clean, no changes. Pulled vanos silinoid and swapped no changes. Pulled valve cover and checked timing again, everything was still dead on, timing chain and all looks good.
Can anyone please give me an idea as what might be causing this issue?
Thanks

 

I am in a similar boat as you .. bought a 2009 base for my stepdaughter ... was getting P0015 all the time.... recently replaced front (exhaust) VANOS solenoid and has been fault code free for about a week now ... worth trying ... easy fix and not too expensive ... I got two for about $80 on eBay....

 

Prior to the VANOS solenoid replacement, I also changed all spark plugs and two coils that were showing misfires ..... again, pretty cheap and easy to do yourself ...

 

Thanks for the input, daughter had ordered only one new vanos solenoid, first installed on intake side, went a lot farther. 50-60 miles before light came on, showing P0014,P0016,P0017, got rid of P0015. Just swapped around the vanos and cam sensors, test driving.

 

Check engine light came back on, back to P0014,P0015,P0016. Back to square 5. Hum.

 

Weird how you are getting P0014 and P0015 codes... that means you are getting both ADVANCED and RETARDED timing issues on that side ... a bit stumped, I've never had both at the same time. Could possibly be other timing related components that need service (a.k.a. - maybe timing chain?) ... some other parts that you might be the camshaft sensors, but I never had to address that to get ride of P0015 ... BTW .. .over a WEEK now and no codes for me .. I hope you find similar success ... maybe try replacing both intake and exhaust VANOS solenoids since it's not that onerous and see what codes remain.