Hello Forum!

New to the site as far as being a member but I’ve used it for reference.

I have a 2010 Mini with an automatic transmission non turbo and I pulled the engine to change the front and rear main seals, the oil filter housing seal, the vacuum pump seal, the valve cover gasket, and for a much needed pressure wash. I covered all the vital electrical components with bags and stayed away from those areas on the chassis and the engine while washing.

The engine is back in and turns over but it won’t fire. I can smell gas coming out of the air box, and the plugs are loaded with fuel, but spark when turning over laying on a grounded surface. I checked the crank position pickup wheel and none of the teeth are bent, and it’s keyed to go on one way. My buddy took the engine harness off during the pull and I put it back together myself and there is one plug I can’t find what it goes to. It’s coming out of the engine harness with the three main ecu plugs. There’s some debris in the connector so that tells me that it’s not being used like this is a universal engine harness for all trim levels.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

It mounts right on the ECU box above the trans mount. The other end should be some where in that area.

 

Found a similar post from a little while back.
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...r-dme-ecu.html

Alarm connector, maybe? Unless someone beats me to it, I'll check mine tonight.

 

Thank you for pointing that post out. It seems as though it’s not used, but if you can check yours and confirm I would greatly appreciate that as well. Thanks for the support

 

So I am what my buddies and I call a “BDI” aka big dumb idiot not realizing this at first. I took the back of the engine apart and realized that the manufactures did the cardinal sin of making a bunch of different plugs the same terminal so the idle air control valve, the knock sensor, and the pcv valve are the same connector. Can anyone tell me the wire colors or the connector colors that go to each respective component?

 

Also I realize now thats not the idle air control valve because these are drive by wire and the throttle body controls the idle

 

Mine is connected. I think the only difference is mine is a manual. It's connected-to harness runs into the bundle tied between/under the JBE and ECU.

Mystery connector

Connected to

Harness routing disappears under ECU

 

@Mnkytweet
thank you so much for the reply. If you could please do me a favor and unplug that and look inside the part of the connector that has the little plastic piece that mounts to the ecu bracket and see if there’s any dirt or debris in it? This sounds ridiculous because naturally it should be clean if it’s connected. My connector has a bunch of debris in it and it looks like the contacts inside the connector have not been connected to anything. If you don’t want to do that I understand because “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”, and again I really appreciate your time and effort in your reply.

 

So I was wrong in one of my replies where I sad the connectors are all the same. They are not. They have those little guide keys on different sides of the connector body that won’t allow you to plug it into the wrong thing. Mini-rookie mistake.

The other day I pulled the ECU and fuse box completely out searching for the other end of that connector with no luck. From what I can tell everything is plugged in and all the vacuums are connected. After disconnecting the battery to reset the ecu and with the fuel pump fuse disconnected I can spray starting fluid post MAF and reconnect the intake tube and turn it over it wants to start up. The next time I try by removing the intake hose from the MAF and spraying starting fluid with the fuel pump fuse out it won’t try to start. When I plug the fuel pump fuse in and try to start it, the plugs get gas fouled.


Brand new battery
Brand new coolant temp sensor

Any suggestions? My next step is to remove the MAF and MAP sensors and clean them with MAF cleaner.