MINI is committed to delivering the ultimate in product satisfaction to you, our customer.

Quality monitoring has revealed that in some Cooper S Automatic vehicles, the engine wiring harness may not be routed correctly. As a result, the cable sheathing and line insulation may be chaffed while driving.

If this happens, it is possible that the engine will switch to the emergency, failsafe mode (with reduced power output) or that vehicle cannot be restarted after it has been switched off.

Letters will be sent to owners of affected 2005 MCS Automatics in the coming weeks.

Should you have any questions about this matter, please contact your Authorized MINI dealer. As always, if you need our assistance you may email us at MINI.Assistance@askminiusa.com or by telephone at 1.866.ASK.MINI.

 

Interesting....Thanks for the info

 

Got this fixed just a couple of days ago at my dealership. He put in my key, and the service bulletin popped up.

 

Lordy, I hope mine doesnt come up, it runs great but for the SES light and I don't want the software upgrade (not to mention that I hate taking the car into the dealer since I've had other BMWs damaged while in service before).

 

this was the very thing i reported about on motoringfile last week. had mine done - no problem at all.

and eval - like you, i was fearful of the software update. i never had the ses light come on and didn't want to fix what wasn't broken. well last week i had it done and put a couple hundred (hot city stop and go as well as hiway) miles on the car and it's running flawlessly. i'd take the update. it can also affect your warranty if you refuse it - or so i was told.

cheers - drew

 

I just had my MSCa in last week for the software update, and everything has been running great since. No more SES light. They didn't, however, do any kind of update to the wiring harness. Guess I'll be taking another trip to the dealer in the near future.

 

Will this be done on a car that will be delivered? We are still waiting for our MSCa!

thanks!

-jac

 

It is very likely the problem has already been corrected in the assembly line at the factory No worries!

 

sweet! good to know....

I just e-mailed my MA...our MCSa jut rolled off the truck at the dealer!

-jac

 

So is this the issue that is believed to be the ONLY cause for the tranny problems? Or is there also a ecu or dme update?

 

jac - it depends on your build date. Ours was built 8/11/05 and did not have the update software and it was not done automatically. Because the letters aren't out yet we had to go back to get the upgrade. Now that they have officially announced the fix and that letters are being sent to 2005 owners, they made be able to do your automatically if it doesn't have the newest version.

 

Do we know which MCSa's are affected? VIN range by any chance?

 

Same here.

 

Well, as of the date of this posting (9/15/2005), I haven't received a letter notifying me of the problem (and based on my build date (3/23/2005), I should be a prime candidate for having the problem). But then again, since I have not experienced the SES/EML problem, I am wondering if my car is not affected by the issue. It would be nice to know conclusively whether I have to worry or not; publishing a list of VINs that are affected by the issue would seem to be the simplest way to provide closure - if your car is on the affected VIN list, you need to take it in. Nothing like keeping things simple and stupid.

 

I haven't gotten a letter yet and my car was built in 4/2005.

 

I agree. My car was built in Jan and I've had no word from MINI or the dealer I orginally took it to months ago for the SES light (who, ironically offered to contact me when any fix was available).

I don't see why I should have to go to all the trouble of going to the dealer to find out if my car falls under the recall/TSB. I'm sure the recall/TSB has VIN ranges and offering that info is what would really be helpful here.

It is particularly important if the defect can result in anything dangerous like the sudden loss of power that has been reported.

 

I haven't received anything from MINI, but am taking mine in tomorrow for a different repair. My build date is 4/29/05. I guess I will ask then. Anyone with my build date get this fixed yet?

 

just calm down this is noit really that big of a problem u don't need to go rushing to the dealer this is just a rerouting of a wire recall u will know if the wire breaks then u can tow it and and let them fix it so just chill out and keep motoring

 

Very convenient advice (just let it break and have it towed).

 

I took DC in for another repair and the service advisor had the recall listed, so they replaced it with another harness that runs under my passenger seat.

 

I got the letter Saturday. Because MINIUSA sends so much junk I was going to toss it along with all the unopened credit card and mortgage rate mail. But against habit I read the letter: Bring the car in to have the "engine harness routing corrected" and it is supposed to take an hour. I live and work about 8 blocks from SF BMW-MINI but because of one (out of one visits) bad experience with an SA (Jeff Whitford) I am reluctant to return. I'm thinking of driving an hour to Concord to have it done there. Oh bother.

 

I got the letter this week, but I had the computer fixed last week. Unfortunately my car died on me this morning. The SES light, EML and DSC came on and I had a complete loss of power. yeah! I mean boo...

 

Are you saying that your car died on you after you had the computer (presumably the DME) fixed? If so, was the failure due to the routing of the wiring harness?

 

Anyone been flash with v43 yet?

 

v43 and towed to the dealer tonight.