Hey all! I recently picked up an auction R53 for a great price, so I thought. The car has a ton of issues, mainly electrical it seems. I was able to connect with Ista to try and do some diagnostics and I basically have no idea of where to start.

Originally I was having EWS faults, Vin mismatched, but I retaught the Key and that fault code seems to have left. Theres a larger, nothing is talking going on issue. I managed to find the PO, and it sounds like there was a drivers side leak. That brought me down here to investigate and I found cut wires. And to make matters worse, I cant find the other halves (assuming the colors would line up). Could these be my main issue?



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I would say yes, that's your issue.
What a hot mess.

 

My first plan is to try and identify where to reconnect these wires to. I found a general 06 wiring diagram but I dont know what to look for with regards to that area (how to find it in the diagrams). Also would the EWS being red on Ista mean its dead and I should look at replacing it?

 

I have wiring diagrams but I can't seem to find where that bundle would be in the diagrams, any ideas?

Also with the EWS being red, should I be looking at replacing that before anything?

 

Most MINI dealer parts counters have those bushing wires in stock. (There are MANY types of ends which are pushed into the back of the modules). And sometimes if / when ordered are not correct ones requiring some due dilligenence and dedication by the MINI Parts Advisor.....

Were me. I'd find a MINI dealer that had a "good wiring" tech who's tackled them before and chaulk it up to a good deal costing more than planned....

 

Unfortunately I'm too hard headed and its too early to take it to a dealer haha.

Upon digging through the inch of water on the bottom of the car, I did manage to find a starting point. Going to start cleaning today and see if I can restore any comms.

 

I don't think you can just clean up those terminal ends and Motor on....It would be a temporary fix and eventually over time not even a temporary one

At this point that corrosion has worked it's way past the bushing wire end and down through the insulation into the harness. The repair wires at the dealer push into the back of that connector proper, and repair wires are about 10 inches long ensuring that the corrosion will not come back.

The wires need to be soldered and then heatshrink sealed.

 

Yeah I'm figuring that connector is pretty shot, going to start looking for a replacement bit of harness ( I dont mind soldering the 50+ pins). I'm more curious if I can clean it up, salvaging the BC1 itself. That seems like the bigger problem than the cable

 

Try to salvage that connector the best you can.

Ordering new one can be hit/miss since the BMW film can be sketchy as to which one to order....You could always cut that section of a harnes off a donor car at the junk yard too. Give yourseld as much of that donor harness you can. Then have fun soldering and heat wrapping

Maybe check with ALLMAG. Give Dustin a call and tell him what wiring/modules you need...he can be very helpful.

 

Where are you located. I have an 06 shell with most all the wiring harness.

 

Making progress! Cleaned up the board, realized that one of the pins in the white connector has broken off. After cleaning the board, I soldered a jumper wire in place of that one connection and basically hot wired it back to the connector. Obviously its super temporary but looks like the BC1 is still working!

I still have no crank, but at least all my modules are talking now. Also located in Denver, my plan right now is to hit a junkyard this weekend an buy a new harness bit but Id be glad to buy off a member instead.

First alarms are because the seats are out. Any idea out of those faults what might be causing a no crank? I was thinking that fuse fault but I checked the interior F4 and it was fine.

 

I think you'll be chasing down ghosts until you have that harness soldered up.

Get yourself a good soldering iron with rheostat....good roll of electrical silver bearing rosin core solder for electronics/general wiring. I've had one for years, even used it to add a small piece of insulated wire to the antenna inside my key to extend range of button functions...

A good small electric butane torch works best for the shrink wrap...

 

For sure, thats going to be the plan for the weekend. Going to pop the BC1 back out and give it to a buddy to really make sure all the crud is off it.

As far as the no crank, any idea what that could be? Nothing on there screams, prohibit crank.

 

The DME will do things to preserve engine management components and modules including but not limited to; shutting down fuel/spark supply when issues are detected...

My guess something is not being "read" due to one or more bad connections detected.

For your "water management issues" I would order/examine; New door opening cavity seal, check sunroof drains for blockage( if you have a sunroof ) and consider having new windshield installed down the road with new foam backing for the black A pillar covers. The latter can be a big problem when urethane not properly applied during windshield swap and/or foam backing to A pillar covers not being put back in. The foam blocks both wind noise and rain from entering cabin. Aftermarket auto glass companies NEVER have the clips or the foam backing pieces for a MINI repair....they end up using GOBs of windshield urethane instead blocking drainage ports under the A pillar and sometimes COMPLETELY cover the dash VIN pate....The VIN plates are a "decal" and they ONLY come from Germany = 3-4 week wait.....

Not using MINI dealer for windshield replacement = Russian Roulette....

 

Still making progress. Realized my power in to the BC1 was shot, jumpered it and have more things talking. Not sure what Kombi2 is. Interestingly, My DME module which was yellow before, has now gone red.

 

So I'm making progress.

I repaired my BC1 connectors, but unfortunately my BC1 itself is shot. I have a new one coming via USPS (so who knows if that'll ever show up). In the meantime I grabbed one from a junkyard, (earlier HW and SW version). Plugged it in and I'm getting most of my connections. I've also managed to fix my tachometer so its now getting signal. I'm assuming these BC1s aren't backwards compatible which could explain some errors I've got.

Looks like the engine isn't talking to the Kombi (cluster?). Through wiring diagrams I found thats pin 26 I believe on the back of the speedo. It calls out Computer Data Lines System. I cannot for the life of me figure out where this thing is going, does anyone have any idea? This is where I got that idea from
https://mhhauto.com/Thread-Mini-cooper-speedo-pinout


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I also found out that the wires are cut there as the original connector was water damaged. A mini tech apparently hardwired all the connections, hence why some are dead ended. Allegedly.

 

not sure I understand the question, come again. I might be able to lookup in Bentley or tis

attached is the wiring diagram I downloaded from somewhere, some time back now

 

There is a memory chip inside a BC1 that has a copy of the VIN, mileage, etc. that has to be programmed to the car.

I found an article somewhere on the ‘net that shows which chip, and if that chip can be removed and soldered into the new BC1 then you don’t have to program it.

Can’t seem to find the article again, and it wasn’t in my browser history.

 

I guess I'm more figuring out how to test if my DME is dead. I anticipated that ZKE Vin difference (future problem) but I figure that wouldn't be holding up engine communication.

That DME_0x12 is whats holding me up right now. My replacement BC1 all my buttons and things on the car function so I don't think that's my issue. Would the VIN issue hold me up from communicating with the engine if everything else is talking?




My next step was going to be to check continuity at these points because this seems to where I would be losing connection. I've been combing the wiring diagrams and this seems to be the wireset that talks to the engine. If I have continuity at these points, would this mean that my DME is toast?

 

Checked those wires, all are good. Getting desperate as I don't want to replace my ECU. Checking fuses according to this.

https://www.mini2.com/threads/obd-not-working.350621/

F1, F2, F34 all deal with engine electronics.

When the key is switched all the way on, F1 and F34 feed back voltage, F2 does not. Should this be hot?

Unrelated I'm also not seeing power on a few locally, F3 and F4 for example, no power. Could my ECU be the problem?

I'm not sure how to check these 2 guys but they deal with the DME.
K6300 DME Main Relay / Engine compartment fusebox
FL9 50A DME unit and Switching unit 2-speed blower via I01135 (Relay electric engine cooling fan)

 

TA -

DON'T...waste your time. It's NOT worth the effort, time, aggravation.

Just go buy yourself a running parts car, that you can...inspect before you by. Pull the wire harness(s) that you need and spend that time doing it RIGHT.
IF...you finally get your car running with the bad harness, you want to take the chance of driving down the street with your family, (girlfriend or other), and have the engine quit, 50 miles from home ? Or worse, have something catch fire because of a single wire that you missed..?

Not me.

MIke

 

I definitely appreciate the sentiment. But I have plenty of time and the aggravation is fun. I've got a 280Z Ive been building for a few years that rests in the winter and this is filling the void until summer.

The wiring isn't terrifying, I'm not new to it and with the diagrams it's really not that hard. I've made substantial progress and this is the last jump I'll hopefully have to make. Plus this whole puzzle is an absolute blast to me. It gets me to challenge my electrical drawing skills and work on some of my other technical skills.

If those things happen, so be it. I have AAA and good insurance haha. It's not my daily and I have no intention on getting rid of that.

With regards to the wiring, it's just the driver side connector that the factory uses to assemble easier that was hardwired. Nothing else have been touched, so it's really just, is my DME dead or am I just not getting power to it. I did tear the engine fuse box apart looking for the underside (learned my lesson quick), so it's not unthinkable that I could have damaged it. That's why I'm curious if those fuses should be all hot with the key in as that means I probably damaged the fuse box and just need to replace that.

Edit: Also because talking out loud helps. F2 F3 F4 should be hot with the key in. With them not being, ECU isn't getting power. So I need to check the relay going to the fuses first. If that's working it means I probably broke my fuse box.

Double edit: forced the relay to turn the fuses hot. Still not talking with the ecu. Pretty sure my ecu is shot.

 

So I investigated further. I had power on F1 at the fuse, which goes to pin 40 on the ecu (red/white). I believe that's power for that the ECU according to research. Further reading, power on the ECU it signals the relay for F2-F4. I had that wrong last night. With my F1 giving power, I checked at the ecu plug. Nada. Looks like I'm getting a new fuse box.

 

Just curious, are you using the schematics found in the Bentley manual, or did you find others that are accurate?

If you found others, where did you get them?

Thanks, Dan

 

Found them here and I think someone else pointed them, https://www.minitorque.com/threads/w...06-mini.34321/

I've fed the file through some OCR tools to make it semi searchable. This is specifically for a 2006 alledgedly, but that's what I have. Everything I've found so far is accurate.