Hello out there. This is my first post so pardon the etiquette. I have an '05 S Cab with only 5,000 miles on it. I only use premium gas.
One month ago I was driving along and had total loss of power followed by a stall. The check engine light came on and stayed on. I brought it to the dealer. They said the fault code was p0128 and they purged the cooling system "as per bulletin". Well yesterday, the same thing happened. I was driving at 30mph and had total loss of power followed by a stall and the check engine light came on and stayed on. I brought it back to the dealer and they now said it showed fault code p1689, throttle monitoring fault code stored. level 2/3,torque. They claim they reprogrammed dme with latest software as per sim 16 05 05. New program # 7562646. op 0056862 dc 0012090200.
Can anybody tell me if they have experienced anything like this before and if so did the dealer perform the above fix? Did it work? Is there something that they missed?
Thank you in advance,

Marc Lavin "05 S Cab

 

I have a 2005 MCSa and I was in the dealer 5-6 times while still in the break in period. One of the problems was similar to yours. I had total loss of power and the check engine light, EML light, and DSC light came on. I dont rememeber what the dealer did, but they WERE able to fix it.

Dont worry, I think the dealer will be able to fix it.

 

--I've had a couple of stalls in the past 2 weeks. Both times when I was stopped at a stop light or a stop and as I started accelerating the car stalled on me. Weirdest thing, I just shut off power, restarted and everything was fine. VERY strange.

 

Yes, there is. The engine compartment wiring harness has gone bad and needs to be replaced. Same thing happened to my '02 MCS.

 

If it is the wiring harness, there was a recall (Sept. 2005) on this. My wife's '05 MCSa had this work done. The harness was supposingly routed incorrectly and was subject to chafing.

 

Same thing happened to me. I almost got killed, as the problem happened on the on-ramp to a major highway. There were vehicles (all larger than mine) all around, trying to pass, yelling, honking, lights flashing, coasted a bit off the on-ramp and was able to get on to the shoulder. I still could not get power, the "check engine" light was on, so I turned off the ignition and restarted the car after a few seconds. I drove slowly to the local dealer. They said they had never heard of such a thing and were unable to find a problem. They reset the "check engine" light. I await further developments.

 

Same thing happened to me, my 06 MCS shut down 3 weeks ago in Denver at the SCCA Solo II National Tour during practice, 105 degrees. Last week, Shut down throttle again on I-70 in the middle of Kansas on the way to Denver, 105 degree's. I took it to the dealer, they said I had a bad oxygen sensor and replaced it and reset the code. I thought all was fine, then 2 days ago, while accerating through an intersection, the car shut down again in 1st gear. I put it into 2nd and slowly accelerated, I took it back to the dealer again this morning. The dealer, Baron Mini, said there is nothing wrong with the car other than its a known problem that Mini's ocassionally shut down for unknown reasons, they think its a bug in the ECU and cannot do anything about it. I say its crap, they need to get this problem fixed. I sure hope its the wiring harness, that would be an easy fix.

 

OK, just had my 4th occurrance. While the car was travelling to Denver, it had a total loss of throttle on the interstate. Temperatures were around 90 or so. The car set for about an hour before it would work. After 1 hour, around every 1 minute, the throttle would cut off for approximately 5 seconds for 200 miles!! After stopping for gas and getting back onto the interstate, it ran just fine for the next 200+ miles with no hickups.

I'm now wondering if it could be a gas cap issue.

One thing is for sure though, my dealer was DEAD WRONG that there is nothing wrong with my Mini. Its not normal to break down every other day including for 1 hour on the side of the interstate.

 

It would appear that your present dealer is not up to the challenge. Even though you may have an issue regarding distance to another dealer, it is at least worth investigating. (Unless you like to have the car stall on you as you are trying to accelerate up to highway speed on an on-ramp... somehow, I don't think you do....)

 

But the service campaign was for 2005 model cars. I would hope that the 2006 cars had the wiring harness re-route done at the factory.

 

However, the '06 cars should have the benefit of lessons learned from the earlier cars. I think the issue is more with the DME (they have been known to decide it is time to go on holiday).

 

The DME is a computer. What happens when your operating system hangs? You shut if down and re-start it. The larger issue is what has caused the computer (DME on the MINI) to hang. This is why I think there is a problem with the DME. It may need replacing (but MINI is not going to be thrilled at the prospect of replacing the DME; so there is going to be a need to get a very competent dealer to take the lead in getting this sorted out).