Hey NAM! So I haven't ever needed to post much at all if any, i normally just sift through the threads and learn from everyone else's experiences but i am currently at that point where i need a little direction, advice, maybe i am overlooking something or what i don't know.

So a little back story, about a year and some change ago my brother let me drive his 2012 JCW that he owned a short time, i was in the market for a BMW 335i but fell in love with the JCW the moment i got around some corners being he lives up in the mountains with the twisties...2 months later i bought my own 2010 JCW. For about a year and 6 months the car was amazing, felt amazing, i did the typical suspension stuff to help it, got rid of the run-flats, some Alta sway bars, and lowered on some H&R's, stuff i researched and made my decisions off this amazing website. The only "performance" mod i did was i bought a catless downpipe cause i wanted a little more of the addicting pops from the JCW, and subsequently i triggered the check engine light due to the o2 sensor, but figured i knew it was gonna happen, and i can live with it.

about 6 months later, while trying to pass a couple cars at once, i downshifted from 6th to 5th and then into 4th and as soon as i matted it, the car popped, fell straight on its face, kind of hiccuped hardcore and then drove like a non turbo mini. So i limped it home, pulled out my little scanner tool cause i knew that had to have thrown a code...and sure enough...p1497! I came straight here and starting searching and lord or lord the amount of info i found was amazing so i just made a to-do list, easiest task first and down the line off what others have done but to no avail.

Down Stream Airleak...i pulled apart every hose, pipe, clamp the works from the turbo to intake to make sure no leaks, bought a smoke tester and all, no leaks...cleared the code and drove it, the moment i got into hard acceleration, same thing. Long story short...i ended up totally replacing the throttle body, Diverter valve, entire intake manifold, valve cover, gaskets etc and nothing, so i took it into the local shop that specializes in Mini's but isnt the dealer. I have basic wrenching skills but anything more and i was outta my league so they dug into the car to find this air leak and when checking timing, BAM! ... apparently my Vanos solenoid on my camshaft "broke" and stopped working, bouncing the timing chain a bit and throwing the timing off to where the idle would bounce and no power etc. My car only has 90k miles and the service manager informed that the chains usually need replaced every 70k-80k, and he said i was lucky i didnt blow up my entire motor.

Well $2600 later, they fixed everything BUT the code was still there...so they went over everything twice, and still couldnt figure it out. Im not doubting their skills at all but im wondering if anyone here has any insight, or advice, or has ran into this same issue...downstream air leak sounds like something piping related, they think my valves maybe leaking, or some little o-ring looking seals on the camshafts, or the head of my engine was worked on before and done wrong but i have no proof of that unless they take off the head to check valve gasket part # i guess and im already $2600 in.... before i pull the trigger on another $1000+ that may not fix it i wanted to tap into your guy's knowledge, see if maybe the answer is more simple than what they make it to be. Maybe im getting ripped off cause i don't know much about Mini's or something.

Ive read so much and re-read so much i figured just asking straight up might help me more.

 

The code is pain in the back. I know smoke test should be able to find something, but it seems the code is triggered but when there is high flow of air. I wonder if you can pressure the i take pipes and see/hear where the leaknis coming from. The intercooler amd its pipes could be an area to be double checked. Also the valve vent pipe might have a hair line crack. Lastly, the noise maker is another area.

 

i do plan on going back through everything this weekend but i already have tried to pressurize the system, although i didnt look at the noise maker thing in the back closely but it didnt show any leaks from the smoke test that i noticed, and the vent pipe looked good to me. I almost wonder if its something software related on the ecu if that is even possible.

 

You're in the 1st-gen R50/R53 forum.

Might have better luck diagnosing your problem by posting this in the correct R56 forum...

 

Thought I would share my experience as I think I have fixed my issue and it was not any of the usual suspects.
History. I picked up a 2010 Cooper S with 100k on Craigslist as owner was getting P1497, and had coolant leak.
Changed water pump and rear plastic pipe so that fixed water leak.
Still needed to pass SMOG but was still getting P1497.
Checked cam cover and PCV hose but all OK. also would occasionally have rough shift, especially when cold.
I was monitoring throttle position with the Torque App and it looked like it jumped at times and not smoothly moving with throttle pedal position.

I got a used throttle body from ebay. It was a later model from 2013 and installed that and it now drives perfect, smooth changes, no error codes, all OBD readiness checks passed and been good for the last week.

I can only guess that the throttle was uncontrollably opening different than commanded that seemed like an air leak.

I'm happy, a fun little car.