My MINI S get on fire from ABS pump in ROMANIA.
Tomorow i put some picture.

 

My wife sent me a pic of a Mini burning in the lot where she works. She owns a 2003 S, it wasn't her's on fire. I uploaded a pic.

I'll try to get more details.

 

Hard to tell, but it looks like Mellow Yellow to me. If so, it's got to be a 2nd Gen R56.

Looks like the wind is blowing in just the right (wrong) direction to stoke the blaze. Nasty.

 

It does look like an R56 - the squared off rear & wheels.... This is not a good sign

 

fyi, June 2010 my 34,000 miles R56 had an electrical fire, and I was able to save it. 5 more minutes and my car would have been like the one in the picture.
By that time there were already 5 or 6 R56 reported on fire in the US, plus at least one in Canada

 

Was this MINI in Miamisburg? I work there and I saw it too. Nasty fire. I feel so sorry for the lady that owned it.

 

Same with mine , but mine is a 2002 S with 45k, cherry condition except for flames.

Short trip. Engine off. Smoke under bonnet. 2 fire extinguishers later, yup 2, and I only suffered a completely melted Main Electrical harness. $5000 estimated repairs.
I'm going after corporate BMW for damages.

Siting ALL these forums and other sources.

The main service repairman at BMW/Mini said " Yup that's known to happen."

We'll see what they say, keep you posted.

 

My 2007 MINI S caught fire 5/27/2011. It is charcoal! ....sitting in salvage yard waiting for claims adjuster. I was having recurring problem with fan running after car was shut down. Had taken to dealer several times because of this issue.

 

I just got done eating lunch today, when a local BMW dealer tech came in driving a used 04 mcs. I asked some general questions that i normally ask the techs who work on them ( I work at the same company LITHIA, im just at VW). Any way I asked him about the p/s pump or fan he said its always been the fan that shorts out causing the fire. when I asked him if they ever recalled them he said "some were recalled and some were replace when fails." Then I thanked him for the info and went on with my day, hoping this would help a lot of people.

 

[FONT=Consolas][SIZE=3]Thanks so much for your concerned input! In my case, a fan would continue to run after I turned off the ignition. I had taken it to the dealer 3 times and believed it was fixed. ....then it would start again a few months later. The dealer is almost 3 hours away. The last time I took it there was Nov.30, 2010. I was about 45 minutes into my return home when the engine light came on. I called them and they told me to bring it back. I turned around and took it back. They gave me a rental to drive home (from near Albany to west of Syracuse). They brought my car back the following day and it was fine until about a month ago when, AGAIN, the fan kept running. I called the dealership and said I could not get it there for a few weeks. The service man said not to worry as the worst thing that could happen is it could run the battery down. "HELLO"....now I have a fried MINI in the salvage yard. I do have many pictures that I can post. They were taken at the scene and some were taken later when I went to get the only plate left on the car. Thanks again as I would also like to help all the MINI owners who could potentially have this traumatic problem....like a MINI twin tower! It is frightful! The sad thing is that we had really loved our MINIS.....[/SIZE][/FONT]

 

I've had a 10 mm box end duct taped to the edge of the battery compartment since 2005, when this phenomena first caught my attention.

Fortunately I have yet to need it, but it would allow a complete battery disconnect in about 30 seconds.

IIRC there are two potential causes - one the ABS, and the other the PS fan circuit.

Fingers crossed, and the wrench stays...

 

Thanks! I am not a mechanic, but I wish I had been aware of your duct tape knowledge before this incident. 30 seconds might have saved my MINI....However, this should not be a necessary action for you or for any other MINI owner. When we buy a car...we expect to be safe as long as we drive it safely and take care of it's needs. The cause, in my case, was PS fan circuit. One person on this site keeps a fire extinguisher in his car! Should this be necessary? )-: Stay in touch and thanks again!

 

Hmmm..... after 2006 the fan should have a fuse/fuseable link....
When the cause of the fire is found, please post.
BMW ( biggest mistake worldwide ) just won't look or listen with this issue.

I feel for you as well as everyone else that has had this BIG, needs to be big letters BIG, issue........

 

When the cause of the fire is found, please post.
[/quote]
PLEASE READ POST #509

 

Inspectors from BMW and my insurance company are setting an appt time and date to go to salvage yard.....I will let you know if they find the cause. Fingers crossed!

 

PLEASE READ POST #509[/quote]

For most of the fires it has been the PS fan, in other cases it's been the ABS. The ABS fires are not exclusive to Mini.

 

As a former '05 owner and a student of this issue for nearly seven years, I feel the need to weigh in here so folks aren't misled. There is no real evidence anywhere to suggest that the EHPS cooling fan is the cause of the reported fires. Granted, the fan bearing (and the fan itself in the '02-'04 model years) is quite vulnerable due to its location and exposure to the elements and is a very common failure item. I went through three different fans in the six years I owned my first MINI. However, the worst that can happen is that the fan bearing freezes and (1) cooling is lost to the EHPS pump (which can accelerate impending failures in the pump motor); and (2) a fuse blows, which in the early designs you also lost power to the main cooling fan. There is simply not enough current being drawn by the fan to make it a fire suspect on its own.

karen1022 reports that her "fan would continue to run" but I suspect what she heard was the electric motor on the pump continuing to run which is a very common failure mode (when the fan fails, it usually freezes up). [Edit: Other evidence supporting this conclusion: (1) the problem was intermittent; (2) the dealership swapped out the fan thinking it was an easy fix to the problem, and it obviously didn't help.]

The likely source of the fires is the EHPS pump unit itself. It is a known Achilles Heel in the 1st Gen MINI, and it draws a ton of current. The electrical side of the pump is self-contained and within that containment is a motor controller card. Heat and dust (electric motor brush dust, which is highly conductive) are the killers of these pump motors. If you've ever seen one of the MINI EHPS pump electric motors opened up on a MINI with 75K+ miles on it, the windings are literally packed with brush dust. The pump's electric motor runs hotter with all of this crud in it. Now, lets say a bit of this pervasive, conductive brush dust gets into the internal controller card. Shorts occur, and strange pump behavior ensues such as continued running after engine shut-down, continued power draw, total and sudden failure, etc. (all experiences that have been reported by MINI owners and many of us have witnessed in person). Heat exacerbates these failure modes, and if you happen to have a seized cooling fan bearing the failure risk is accelerated. The pump motors draw enough current that if there's a full short, the wiring harness and the insulation get hot and melt. Corroded connectors (what MINI and the NHTSB say was the root cause in the early years) compounds the problem. Add in a little oil blow-by under the engine and you have all the ingredients for a blaze.

I don't claim to be the guru here and, in fact, recommend that you poll other reference materials to your satisfaction, including a full read-through of the other EHPS Pump threads here on NAM. I find the related thread over on the MINI2 forum, which contains seven years of posts, to be a good study:

http://www.mini2.com/forum/first-gen...yes-no-66.html

If you don't have time to wade through nearly a thousand posts and related links, this totalMINI thread is one of the best single sources for advice on the 1st Gen MINI EHPS pumps:

http://www.totalmini.com/forum/46-20...-failures.html

As steve says, the ABS fires are thankfully "onesies and twosies" and not exclusive to MINI.

 

thanks for that hugely helpful post

kind regards,

Charlie

 

Thank you for your knowledgeable input. It could have been the electric motor on the pump that I was hearing. Your reasearch is very helpful and commendable! The inspection will take place near the end of this month and I should know the result early in July. I will let you know their findings. Hopefully, they will be able to determine the cause and , most importantly, save others from this traumatic experience....and in time to prevent loss of life! Thanks for the link to the MINI2 forum! Hey, do you still drive a MINI?

 

Always will. Check out my sig.

Good luck with the inspection. Hope you'll report back in this thread with the results.

 

melting down a mini is for me a deeply troubling event...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontan...man_combustion

I suppose that is anthropomorphism taken to an extreme, but it is what it is.

Charlie

 

When you have just seen your very own MINI "twin tower", you find it hard to trust another MINI! It is also difficult to find anything quite as much fun to drive. I am test driving some other cars. I will definitely let you know the result of the inspection and I have pictures to post that were taken at the scene.

Also, a friend of mine is working at a commercial construction site about an hour south of here in Lansing, NY (near Ithaca, NY and Cornell college). He is working on a vision center and arrived at work on Thursday AM to see a big black area in the grass. When he went into work, he was told that a MINI had burned there at 1:30 in the AM. The woman driver was unconsious on the pavement. Someone was passing by and called 911. This was investigated by the New York State Police. This is all I know other than the exact address was 100 Uptown Rd. Lansing, NY. I have informed my contact with BMW and hope that they will investigate the cause of this fire.

Thanks for your input and I will keep you posted. If one life can be saved, it will be worth whatever it takes to correct this problem.

K~

 

This just happened to me on Thursday night. My 08 Mini Cooper S caught fire and completely burned. Im probably one of the younger Mini owners, got the car when I was 16, so it was completely devastating. It is not confirmed yet (my car is under complete investigation, im not allowed to go near it), but they believe it was the power steering issue.

Here is Charlez:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/6436784...in/photostream

 

I am so sorry for you! I see that your's was red too. It is like losing a best friend. I am amazed that there have been no fatalities....at least not that we know of... My insurance company and BMW will be inspecting my car at the salvage yard tomorrow. Will be sure to post the results. Mine was still under warranty. I wonder what that means!??

I am really glad that your car is under complete investigation.

If you want to reach me privately, my my email address is: karen1022@twcny.rr.com.

 

Thanks Im 19, i only had the car for about 3 years and mine is still under warranty. As far as being investigated, the fire department, special investigation unit, and the junkyard are all investigating my car. And it better mean they are replacing my car for free! Yes, i would be curious to know what happens.