2nd Gen R55 Clubman Sudden limp mode under acceleration, but no code.

Discussion in '2nd Generation: 2007+ R55 through R61' started by dkdzyn, Dec 9, 2016.

  1. dkdzyn

    dkdzyn Member

    Dec 8, 2016
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  2. dkdzyn

    dkdzyn Member

    Dec 8, 2016
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    OK, here is the latest in the saga!

    After a Joyous few days of error-free motoring, driving it this weekend suddenly the half engine in limp mode light pops on, once again while under acceleration. I ran it to my local auto parts store and had them put the ODBII reader on it and it showed a code of P0304, a misfire on the fourth cylinder.

    By now I'm on a first name basis with everyone at my local indie Mini mechanic... So I call Will and before I can get the code out of my mouth, he says, "Bad coil on the 4th cylinder, I'm sure of it. Bring it on in before lunch and we'll swap it out."

    The coils are about $55 ea, and he knows I'm on a pretty tight budget at this point, so he swapped in a used coil ( as they keep the non failed but still good coils off of cars that are having them all replaced with new ones.) he shows me a hideous rusted coil pack and a shiny, almost new one and says "this thing is your old one. Here's the replacement. We recommend you replace all four of yours as soon as you can in the new year because we don't know how long this one will last and they usually fail in sequence one after the other shortly after one another. If this is how bad your 4th cylinder coil is, I can only imagine what the others are going to look like."

    So after they tested it and couldn't get it to fail, they charged me only for the time to swap and test it and gave me the part for free, since that's why they keep them around. So far so good... More as it happens!
     
  3. MCS02

    MCS02 Moderator
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    Hope this is the fix. Sounds like a good shop!
     
  4. 00Mini

    00Mini Well-Known Member

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  5. bigjas

    bigjas Member

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    Makes me glad I only have one coil on my Mini. My wife's van has individual coils and they are both expensive and buried! I hope your misadventure is over!
     
  6. dkdzyn

    dkdzyn Member

    Dec 8, 2016
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    Annnnnd the adventure CONTINUES! :frown2:

    This morning while following my wife to the local Honda Dealer to get the EGR valve replaced and intake cleaned, my Mini's CEL popped on AGAIN! So I'm rolling my eyes and pulling at my hair and thinking "Well, Will SAID the next coil would probably go too, so that's what this must be."

    Nope.

    I took it back to the shop this morning just so they could hook it to the code reader and let me know what we were dealing with THIS time and Will walks by and goes, "It CAN'T be coil #3 already!?!?" Well it is TOTALLY unrelated! The Tech hooked it up and it shows a loss of overall pressure somewhere IN BETWEEN the air filter box and the Turbo cold side induction valve (Is this the diverter? I thought THAT was on the hot side and I've replaced THAT already!) So this (so far) rules out (probably) carbon buildup in the intake, loose valves, blown rings, but does NOT rule out a cracked intake pipe or hose, a bad solenoid or gate on the turbo induction valve or even possibly (and I PRAY NOT!) a problem with the timing chain tensioner!

    The FIRST THING was to just flat replace the air intake filter, because I hadn't done that yet (stupid I know, but with everything else, easily, accidentally ignored) so we put in a new one and bingo! CEL goes out AGAIN and the error goes away (for now). My Tech is still betting on there being something else leaking downstream from the air filter, but step one is done. Turbo boost has returned for the last 3 mile drive so far. We'll see if I make it home without it popping back on! If it does, Stitch may spend the week between Christmas and New Year's Day getting his intake lines smoke tested. Good Lord, I HOPE not!

    Danged Experiment 626!
     
  7. 00Mini

    00Mini Well-Known Member

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    Never a dull moment !!
     
  8. Zapski

    Zapski Well-Known Member

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    Yikes. What a rotten run of luck. :(
     
  9. Rainman768

    Rainman768 Active Member

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    If you ever run across a P0299/2C57 code (low boost) it may be a malfunctioning waste gate on the turbo. That happened to our clubby earlier this year.
     
  10. dkdzyn

    dkdzyn Member

    Dec 8, 2016
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    Well fellow Motorers, I guess 3 weeks is all I can expect at this point before I have to spend more money on Check Engine Lights....

    I spent one week away on vacation (where I was dealing with problems with our old Honda Odyssey while on the road, but that's a different Sad Sack saga...) so I didn't drive my Clubman during that week, and then I got back and have had two pretty solid weeks of fun driving, even if most of it is of the daily driver variety. Yesterday, I went to get onto the interstate and "DOO DOO DOOOT" CEL pops on. "AAAARRRRUUUUGHhhhhh! Not again ALREADY!" Back to lowered power and no boost again. Interestingly, I find that (not due to my driving style) my Mini S gets BETTER milage running in limp mode than it does when it's "fully operational." I don't get why this should be, even as it runs decidedly rougher while in this mode, but that's an aside.

    So I ran it over to my local O'Reilly's Auto Parts to have them hook their ODBII reader to it and get a code out... once again, nothing. No code, no additional dash light in the center speedo gauge, just the half-engine light in the tach info window. I checked the fluids again just to be sure. The O'Reilly's guy suggested I unplug the battery for 7 minutes to clear the memories in the computer, which didn't sound like useful advice, but WTH. I also ran the engine and listened to it to hear if anything sounded odd. Nothing at all in idle at least. And the engine LOOKS so clean and new because I've replaced so many parts on it at this point in addition to adding new and additional heat shields, etc. I guess once my paycheck clears Thursday morning, I'll head back to my mechanic and see what wondrous wallet cleaner Stitch has deviously devised THIS time to remove all of my bothersome earnings...

    Once I get a new diagnosis, I'll post you all an update on my continuing adventure into driving a Mini that fancies itself to be a Ferrari when it comes to maintenance!
     
  11. Guapish_Fliver

    Guapish_Fliver New Member

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    Diverter or waste gate is my guess..
     
  12. dkdzyn

    dkdzyn Member

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    Wellll we will see, but that was replaced just two months ago.
     
  13. Zapski

    Zapski Well-Known Member

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  14. dkdzyn

    dkdzyn Member

    Dec 8, 2016
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    I keep wondering about this, but so far two different mechanic shops haven't thought there's a problem with it. I'm not crossing it off the list though.
     
  15. old81

    old81 Club Coordinator
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    All this time and money, have you replaced the HIGH PRESSURE FUEL PUMP yet? :) Or had the MINI dealer read out your codes when you get the 1/2 power and check engine light?

    Just ask'n. :)

    Don
     
  16. dkdzyn

    dkdzyn Member

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    Thanks Don. I've seen that as a possibility and am going to have it looked at. With 108,600 on the clock and being a 2008, do you know if I'm still in the recall window? Where can I find out about it?
     
  17. 00Mini

    00Mini Well-Known Member

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    Go to miniusa.com and type in last digits of your vin number.
     
  18. dkdzyn

    dkdzyn Member

    Dec 8, 2016
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    Well... that was a non-starter. No "official recalls open" for my vehicle.
     
  19. Dave.0

    Dave.0 Helix & RMW Powered
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    Please tell me someone has replaced the 7 year old OEM battery or at least load tested it. Everyone knows MINI ECU'S and electronics go retarded with low voltage.

    Also look into the HPFP like mentioned before.

    If none of this works take it and trade it in on a day it's runnin' well.
     
  20. dkdzyn

    dkdzyn Member

    Dec 8, 2016
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    Yep Dave, the battery is a recent gel unit. It can't hurt to put a monitor on it, this being Texas with its notorious summers frying batteries, but it isn't even two years old yet. I'll take that under advisement though. Thanks.

    Here's the latest as of this morning:

    I took it to my Mech today and he put his diagnostic tool on it. He could find that it had had a "single occurrence" fault, but no stored info on what the fault had been generated by. IN looking back through the car's internal electronic history, there was an initial fault way back at 86,XXX miles (I'm at 108,600 now) that initially caused the condition that was throwing the CEL-limp mode, but no information about what that might have been. Since that point there is no further data on what is going on with it, but all of the other possibilities came up with nothing stored in memory at all. I told him that the CarFax on it said there was a minor accident at that milage, so I wondered aloud if something could have been replaced to put it into running condition again that would have had "the missing data" of what was affected. My mech doubted it, but I DO find it curious. The Shady Dealer I bought the car from had told me HE bought the car from another BMW dealer and did some work on it and used it as one of his daily drivers for nearly two years before selling it to me. He CLAIMED to have not known it had ever survived an accident (At this point, I no longer believe him) and indeed, there are no signs of such an incident in the body, save for a cut in the front bumper fascia near the tow hook and what my Mech reports as "possible accident damage" to the exhaust pipe which causes it to rub against the heat shield under the center floor. There seems to be no further searchable data online about this car's history and from the date of the accident and once The Shady Dealer got it, there is a big gap in the records.

    So, going back to my mechanic, I asked him about the High Pressure Fuel Pump and he said, Yes, it COULD be an intermittent fault in that component but that it usually logs the error and none was present but he wouldn't discount that it could be a cause. (I THINK that in order to get Mini to replace it for me under warranty, I need it throwing a code for the HPFP. Does anyone know if this is true? I assume I can't just walk into a Mini Dealer and demand they do a routine replacement of it the way Honda replaces air bag modules and Audi did throttles... :crazy:) I asked him about other plausible causes suggested here, online. He doubted that carbon buildup in the intake would be a culprit in causing such an intermittent issue and said he'd expect THAT to create a more constant degraded condition, but that cleaning the intake would be a first step before doing a full walnut blast, which is MUCH more expensive and labor intensive. Another bad coil COULD be another possibility, but again, he said he'd expect to see a stored code of a failure, even if it were spotty. So, at this point I have no answers. He cleared the error and code and now I'm off again with no CEL on and boost returned.

    More on this as adventures continue, but one thing I had NOT realized until today is that even if a fault occurs one moment in time, once the CEL pops on, the engine STAYS in that mode until you inspect it like this and electronically turn off the code. So, it is POSSIBLE that I have an on again off again issue that just pops up long enough to force a code and limp mode, but isn't actually damaging the engine because its not a persistent error, grinding away at some component. That said, SOMETHING is going on and needs to be addressed BEFORE it DOES become a damaging situation...

    Owning this Mini is rather like being William Shatner in a Twilight Zone episode. :devil::mad2:
     

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