I have an interesting question for everyone. I just got my car back from a dealer in NY I have never been too. They were trying to diagnose the issue with my right rear tail light being out. They said they replaced the BCM and everything was working ok? Got home and the light is still out?? I am out of warranty but they covered the part and I paid $300 in labor. Is there anyway to confirm they actually changed the BCM? I only had one key with me here in NY, so they only programmer one. I am wondering if my other key that they did program will work? If so, is it true they did not actually change the BCM? I can't see why it would still not be working? Anything I might be missing? I just changed the bulb to make sure it was not that... The other thing I find is that they did not disconnect my battery to perform this work. All of my radio preset were exactly the same as before the car went into the dealer. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Are you running the rear brake light mod that turns the upper "rear fog" light into an additional brake light? The radio presets stay on my car after pulling the ground.
I was so that is my reasoning for thinking the BC-1 in the first place. Funny thing is I just took a pic of the BC-1 that is in the car and it looks like the original one despite the dealer stating they replaced it. It has all the original production info on the module itself including the original program date of 8/24/06??? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
You will probably hear "we have to send back parts that are warrantied." if they did or didn't swap it. But since they just did the work, said it was fixed, and now it's not, then call them on it. "You said it's fixed, but the problem isn't gone." Also, if you want to do some detective work, disconnect the connector from the BC module that has the lighting wires on it, and see if they are shorted to ground or something by removing the connector at the rear brake light and checking there. IT should be floating. It is possible, but unlikely, that it's a new module AND whatever fried your fried this. For a shamless commecial plug, if you had some fancy scanning SW like the Bav Tech FES sells, you could have logged the S/N of your old BC module to compare with this one... Matt
Stopped using mine after the same problem. Finally just swapped wires so the upper lights are now dedicated brake lights and the lower are strictly the running lights.
Did you have your BC-1 replaced?? What did you do to fix the issue. What wires did you change? If the dealer was not going to fix it, I thought out disabling the upper brake light and extending a wire to the right light not working? I have parking lights on the right, just not the brake.
Yep. Was replaced soon after doing the rear fog mod with the jumper. Removed the mod and the dealer fixed it under warranty. I just cut the wires and swapped them. I think they were the number 1 and 4 wires. Did you put the fog light mod back on at any time? I would definitely get back to the dealer ASAP and demand to see the old part and to get the car fixed proper as it seems they didn't fix it.
I think Greatbear or someone opened up the BCM and found that the driver transistors had more than enough oomph to drive the fog/brake combo. But anyway, if the dealer found it they could deny coverage. FWIW, I have the rear fogs wired up that way and have had them that way for years. Anyway, you paid $300 labor (which is really high, changing the BCM should take less than an hour) so call them up and say that you can't see that it's working. Also ask if all new BCM modules have such an old date on them. Hope that they say "bring it in and we'll fix it" instead of "bring it in and we'll cover parts if you pay for labor". Matt
I would love to know how they of an old part with the last 8-9 #'s of my vin as well. See pic. I figured I will pop in on them at 7:00am when they open. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Now I'm confused. Do you own a 2006? The "rear brake mod" can't be applied to 2005+ taillights. Or do you have the Minspeed/GoMiniGo mod for the 2005+ rear fog in the bumper? FWIW, Ian Cull/GBMINI doesn't approve of the mod. Read Ian's posts in this thread: http://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums/stock-problems-issues/50441-electronics-module-shorted.html. You can do the mod and still play it safe by using LED bulbs in the top position.
So I went back to the dealer at 7:30 this morning and showed them the picture of the bc-1 that was in my car. They looked puzzled and after a couple of phone calls, they admitted they must have made a mistake and never switched the bc-1's? Swapped them out and brake light works fine... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
:blush2: Yeah, that's the ticket......we forgot to forget to tell you we forgot we didn't replace the part you paid $300 for us to replace.....
Ians post is correct on the math... but that's as far as it goes. There is no info there about the drive transistors that are used for the output. Nore is there compelling evidence that many more failures are caused by the fog light mod than there are failures of the BCM on unmodded cars. Sure it's a dodge the dealer can use to deny a claim, but the mod has been in play for years and I just don't see a lot of failures that can be traced to it. If one is cautious, then don't run it or do it with LED bulb replacements. If one is under warranty or looking for good will, yank it before you take the car in. anyway, it's not that big a deal. Back on topic, it's funny that they'd say that they did the work, logged the work as done, but didn't do it! Whoever checked out the car needs to get a spanking! Matt
It is likely the old part was shipped back to be re-furbished....usually the next day... Still, call them back...and say the fix did not work, you got either a defective BCM, or the fix did not work, and it needs to be swapped out again....they need to do more work.....they might comp the repair...heck, it is amazing it got out of the shop. Perhaps the wiring harness is shorted out...and made the second BCM fail very quickly!!:eek6: The issue you have is kinda common...it seems to be popping up quite a bit...think of the BCM as kinda like an computer with a few amplifies attached....and the 'AMP' that multiplies the signal from the computer, to make it big enough to light the rear bulb has likely failed. Often folks have run different mods...extra brake lights, etc, that can cause the 'amp' in the BCM to fail.....when they are forced to drive too much current/voltage...like most electronic, they burnout. These mods can be run, with a few changes....things like LED's to reduce the current, and blocking diodes on the secondary wires to prevent back feeding back to the bcm on unused wires, (this can cause other BCM issues) or out right modification of the rear lights to prevent this.
This hasn't been answered, and I want to bring up the question again. Exactly what mod was applied and then removed prior to taking it to the dealer? The vehicle is apparently a 2006 MINI. All this discussion about the brake light mod but it doesn't work for a 2006! If the mod was indeed applied to a 2006 taillight it certainly isn't right!
Maybe he had the 4th brake light mod on the bumper....it fills in the plate where the earlier cars has the back-up light very nicely.