1st Gen R53 Cooper S Most liked posts in thread: Body Control Module

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.

 

Ask them to see the old part.

 

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

 

Are you still running the rear brake mod?

 

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.

 

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

 

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.

 

: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

 

Too bad Clover isn't here... that's her department.

 

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.

 

That's what I meant by the Minspeed/GoMiniGo mod I mentioned earlier - using the center bumper rear fog as an extra brake light. However it is not the well known mod that people would usually refer to.

I took it a step further and have a rear fog that operates up as brakes, fog, and backup all-in-one. I did a writeup on NAM but nobody else has said that they've done it, and I may still have the only MINI with this mod: MINI COOPER :: North American Motoring - 05/06 Rear fog mega mod EXTREME