1st Gen R53 Cooper S Electrical Gremlins

My guess is with the alternator., second guess ECU, third guess is I shouldn't have guessed at all . . .electrical can be so touchy, final guess is moisture in/under the coil pack.

 

Has the battery ever been replaced?

I'm thinking it's an 04, living AZ where is a bit of heat, if it's never been replaced I'd look there. Some of the symptoms indicate the a battery on it's way south. Would at least put one of those battery tester thingies on it to at rule it out.

 

A "12-v" battery that reads 12-v is actually pretty low. Don't rule out alternator or battery just yet. Get a load test on the battery from your favorite auto parts store first.

 

Not the first BBA rebuild I've seen fail. That's why we only sell the new ones.

 

Not sure if this helps...

the lights are drivin either by the IKE (computer behind the bit speedo or Nav display) or the body control module.

the guages are driven by the IKE.

None of your faults listed are related to the ECU in any way. (there are tons of computers in the cars now, not just the engine computer).

The fact that your rear tail lights AND the dash system both were acting up is a hint, but not a clear one. This would mean that both the IKE and BC module were having issues, and that would mean start with the voltage supplies.

12.0 Volts is NOT a healthy battery. 12.6 volts is what you should read with lo load on it, 13+ when the car is running and the alternator is doing it's work. Start with a load test on the battery, or do a quick swap of batteries and see if all is well. Since the problems are intermittant, it will take a bit to get confidence back. Sucks, but that's the way it is with intermittant problems.

The intermittant and then dead PS pump system is typical of it's standard failure modes.

Driving a lowered car through about a foot of water means that your BF is on the hook for a lot of grovelling and some serious slave time! While he's in the dog house, hand him the toilet bowl brush and other tools to clean the bathroom!

Matt

 

That's two pieces of good news....

the 13+ when running means that your alternator is doing it's job. Still the load test of the battery is a good idea. Most places will do that for free.

And the S2000 is another piece of good news!

Good luck with the rest.... And keep us posted...

Matt

 

have fun.

 

JCW Gauge Install / Electrical Problems

I joined the forum about a month ago and this is my first post. I’ve been troubleshooting some electrical problems that were self-induced and I thought that my experience might be able to help someone else who began a project only to wish that they had not tried to fix something that was not broken.
My mini is a 2007 S (R56) w/ 50k miles. We have owned it for 4 years and I know the previous own took very good care of it. Until about 2 months ago besides regular maintenance we had only changed the battery once (3/2011) and put on new front brakes. It was mainly driven by my wife as a 2nd car. Her main use, believe it or not, was transportation for our 2 – 150# Great Danes who think that every time the mini is started they get to go for a ride.
Two months ago on my way to work, all of a sudden the car lost power. Other than the loss of power, everything else ran fine. $3,500 later and a new turbo I was back in business. Two weeks after that I began experiencing overheating and a new thermostat was required. Not a big deal. That’s one of those things that needs to be replace every once and a while on an aging vehicle.
I live in Arizona where we have just begun to get temperatures less than 100* again. Because of just having replaced the turbo and not wanting to do that again possibly due to an overheating situation, I decided that I needed a gauge instead of an idiot light to get a better feel for how the engine’s cooling system was operating.
That was about the same time that I started googling the web for what gauges were available and joined the Motoring Alliance – Mini Cooper forum. Despite some warnings and concerned posts, I watched the YouTube video on installing the JCW Gauges and bought the OEM gauges from a Mini dealer online.
The YouTube video was very helpful for someone who had not taken apart the area around the steering column on a Mini before but overall it was very incomplete where the wiring was concerned. Regardless, I dug right in, got the gauges mounted, the wiring changed and the battery cable reconnected.
Being ready for lift off, I hit the start button. The wipers were on but initial I thought I may have hit the control lever on the column during the install. But for some reason they would not go off. Along with the wipers here is a list of other electrical problems that I experienced: rear wiper and all wiper fluids did not work, signals went on but had to be turned off manually, steering wheel controls for the stereo and cruise control did not work. I disconnected the new gauges and put everything back the way it was but noticed very little difference in any of the items that I listed.
After more searching online for Mini Cooper electrical problems, buying the Bentley Service Manual and studying the electrical schematics, I checked all of the fuses and found one 10A fuse (A4010 / F-15) that was blown. Upon replacing the fuse I experienced the following changes to the vehicle: Wipers stopped working and would not turn on, transmission would not shift out of 3rd gear in auto or manual setting, A/C compressor stopped working (fan stayed on), turn signals worked fine, steering wheel stereo controls and cruise controls worked normally. I pulled the fuse and returned to the pervious electrical problems.
My next step was to go step by step through the gauge wiring diagrams, checking every termination 3-4 times and replacing a couple of pin terminals that I had damaged during the initial installation. I did find a couple of errors I had made in the wiring connections and corrected those. I also took extra time to make sure that the connectors to the footwell module had not bent any of the pins and were seated properly. From some of the threads I have read, the footwell module has been a sensitive area where some people have experienced problems with the connections. Everything on mine looked good even after my rewiring.
Now with the gauges reconnected and the F-15 / 10 amp fuse still removed I started it up once again. Although I had corrected a couple wiring problems I had found with the gauge wiring I still had the majority of electrical problems and without the F-15 / 10 amp fuse installed the gauges were not functioning. With the fuse installed the gauges did work but I was afraid I might reactivate the issues with the transmission not shifting so I left the fuse out while driving.
It was finally time for me to give in and find help. I have a shop that specializes in BMW/Minis only that I have been doing business with for 5 years and have a fair amount of trust in them. I was still reserved in wanting to just hand the car over to them in anticipation of another $3-4,000 bill. Some of the threads I had been reading described this exact horror story with a bunch of trial and error change out of components until they get it right. A friend of mine has another BMW/Mini shop that he has done extensive business with and offered to call the Owner to see if he was able to look at my problem and give me a rough guestimate. He said that it sounded like major problems and recommended that I take it to the dealer for their expertise. Now I was sure that my pricing fears were going to be met or exceeded.
Not wanting to write that check without another try first, I began to consider investing in a diagnostic scanner that might be able to give me some insight into what is causing my problems. Thanks to Amazon, I had a new Autel Maxidas DS802 in my hands in 24 hours. Having no knowledge of what I was doing I read the manual from cover to cover and plugged it in. About 12 error codes later I was at least getting somewhere. Only about 3 of them would erase and stay corrected. This did however correct a couple of the problems that I was experiencing. BTW: I needed to contact Autel during this time and they have one of the best customer service departments that I have every dealt with.
Now I’m really running short on ideas. But before I give up for real this time I had read that Minis are very sensitive to battery voltage and if your battery is greater than 1 year old and you’re having electrical problems, put a new battery in. Although I was not having any issues with starting, my battery was 3+ years old. WTH, I’ve done everything else so why not change the battery before I take it into a shop.
In went the new battery and I fired it up. I attached the Autel DS802 and reread the codes. Upon hitting the “quick erase†button and allowing it to cycle through I was able to clear a majority of the error messages. I put in the 10 amp fuse that was left out, reread the codes, erased the errors and what do you know…..everything cleared on the diagnostic scanner, all of my electrical issues were now gone and everything works as it is supposed to, including the new gauges.
Moral of the story is: if you have electrical problems in a Mini Cooper, unless you are sure of what the problem is, change your battery first. It just might save you a lot of time and a lot of money. The diagnostic scanner was a must have also. Without it I could have never cleared the codes.
I’m sorry for the long post. I hope some of you are able to make it worth your time reading it.