New to Mini, New to MA. Interesting start.

Discussion in 'Starting Line - New Member Introductions' started by getrieben, Aug 7, 2015.

  1. getrieben

    getrieben New Member

    Aug 7, 2015
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    #1 getrieben, Aug 7, 2015
    Last edited: Aug 7, 2015
    Hello all, long term BMW owner here. I have wanted a Mini pretty much from the beginning. My wife doesn't care for style or maybe that the car is a "lifestyle" rather than a means for transportation(wallflower so I understand). But I finally had an excuse to buy one because of my daughter needing a vehicle. Searched forever for a "good" deal. Being in the Salvage business I have been keeping my eye open for a theft recovery or simple accident. I tried to avoid the flood cars because of the inherent gremlins that can be amplified by corrosion. Well... as my life goes, I bought a flood car. But... But.. it was fresh water! But.. it doesn't look wet? But.. it smells new and has 8,000 miles! But.. its optioned exactly how I would order it and what other car could pull off Brown! But.. it starts and runs (oh boy, this changes later) Tons of "Buts" to justify my hand raising on its own during bidding! Everyone will ask so I will say, I paid $9600, add fees and repairs and I am at $11,700 as it SITS in my driveway:mad2: Had light hail on every panel, "had" being the important word. A masterful dent remover massaged them into history, went back in time convincing the storm to pass this one up. A perfect job. Previous owner was a 95lb school secretary who lived 1 mile from work in an affluent area. So the car looks brand new. This is important because this is its only redeeming quality as of today. It is a very pretty piece of art that my wife makes me admire and justify daily. It sits with a battery maintainer so I can occasionally listen to the radio while I make engine/exhaust noises like a 4 year old standing on his dads seat. Tossing the steering wheel a half inch to either side as I race around my minds eye memory of a winding tree lined road. I must admit, I have almost come to terms with the fact that this may be how I will live to enjoy this accomplished desire. Word to the wise, listen to your wife. She knows better than you when it comes to decisions that are based in emotion and imagination. Like gambling, we need to realize that we are using money to fulfill a desire that rarely considers the implications of using too much. I will continue my story after I upload some pictures, looking forward to learning more about my "art" and meeting you all. To be continued...
     
  2. Zillon

    Zillon Well-Known Member

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    Nothing wrong with the 'lifestyle' aspect of the MINI brand - this brand offers a lot more fun than others.

    Good luck with the reconditioning, though - what needs to be done in terms of fixing the flood damage?
     
  3. getrieben

    getrieben New Member

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    After hours of interior removal and searches for any potential issue I have found 4 wires on the lower 2 plugs on the BC1 or JBe if you prefer. When disconnecting those plugs to examine the wiring 4 pins came out with the plugs. before this point the car ran like a top! Everything worked perfectly, did notice a slight dimming in the milage display and a slight odor from the footwell, which started the search. Evidence is strong with flood vehicles. It is easy to see water intrusion and damage especially if not addressed for 3 months. I removed the entire interior, less the dash. The passenger floorboard was wet, the right rear footwell was dry but had been wet. The front footwell was still wet, about 2 quarts of water was rung from the cellulose backing of the carpet, dried in the sun in 2 days. The bottom 2 plugs wicked water into them. That caused the corroded pins and the damage. the circuit board is perfect, albeit the bottom pins did break off. Working on the board is micro surgery and beyond my capabilities. So rather than replace the pins I just soldered a jumper wire off the back and routed it around to the correct wire in the plug. I know, I can hear the cringing. But I was anxious to get her fixed and wanted to drive my new car. And, this seemed a logical fix. And it worked! Buttoned her up, reconnected the fully charged battery and down the road I went! Life was great, minimal investment with no signs of serious damage. All the while I am thinking "why did they total this car?" that was an easy repair. But being in the business i understand the red tape and liability issues, not to mention Mini would never "shade tree" the repairs. But even with buying and programming a new BC1 and repairing the hail the insurance company could have made that work for under $2000. Maybe the unknowns present to great a risk and they just hit the button on every flood car. Someone told me that some states will salvage a vehicle if the water shows that it breached the sill and entered the vehicle as a matter of law. Everything was great, so I headed to the shop to perform the inspection and title work. They drove to get the emissions and safety inspection, passed. Then they drove it to lunch, down to the post office and back to the shop. Over the course of 10 days it sat waiting for a date with the sate for branding and a green light for tags. They moved it in the shop a couple times, no big deal. During the down time I thought it would be a good time to have the PDR work done. The tech came and moved the car into a well lit bay and began to do 4 hours of dent removal. Roof, hood, doors, quarters all done. Only things removed were the hood and the interior panels. The next morning is when my nightmare began. They got in the car to drive it on the tow truck and.... no start. 30 attempts later...no start. everything was checked, fuses, relays (ehh?) battery was low and recharged. Battery was removed to allow DME reset..nope. Key operates as normal, lights and accessories 100%.
    Everything but the engine will not fire. crank yes. Smell gas, yes. Spark, no. checked the BC1 and it looks the same as when i did the work. I am absolutely stumped..
     
  4. Goldsmithy

    Goldsmithy MINI Alliance Ambassador
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    Welcome to MA. Sure wish I had a solution for you...
     
  5. Savvy

    Savvy Well-Known Member
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    Welcome aboard. What year and model did you buy? Just rescanned both of your posts... I don't see that info posted in either?
     
  6. MCS02

    MCS02 Moderator
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    Welcome to MA! I too came from BMW. Mini are very picky about power. If the battery is bad get a new one. Bad battery have been known to cause all sorts of problems.

    What year is your Mini and model?
     
  7. wmwny

    wmwny Well-Known Member

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    Welcome to M/A! :Thumbsup: There are many here who can lend a helping hand of advice to you, but, as Savvy suggests, we DO need a year and model.
     
  8. ZippyNH

    ZippyNH Well-Known Member

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    Welcome and good luck!!
    As a "fun car" that does not need to be reliable, you can take a bit more risk...so might have been worth it...
    The degree of flood damage is hard for guess...but in my experience, they can be good cars for 12-18 month....then the water in the connectors dry out, resistance goes up...and the real gremlins start...
    BUT it sounds like the issues here were much more mild....very shallow, like it was driven through a deep puddle of a foot maybe?
    I might suggest getting Getting the body rust proofed the old way...drilling holes, and spraying asap to both drain and limit corrosion, so it does not suddenly rust through....

    What year, and model? Know it is a gen2 since you said it was 4 years old....but s, non s, clubman, etc?
     
  9. Nathan

    Nathan Founder

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    Welcome, thanks for joining Motoring Alliance, the FUN and Friendly MINI Community.
     
  10. getrieben

    getrieben New Member

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    First, Thanks for the warm welcome. The Mini is a 2013 S, AT with 8831 miles. The Mini dealer had the first set of eyes after the storm it was in. The notes indicate that the body had 300+ hail dings, damaged chrome trim on the hood and fresh water intrusion on the passenger side front footwell. Unknown estimate due to insurance regulations, no work performed per AllState. They noted that no water was present upon arrival and none was removed by them. The dealer also noted that "potential JBE, chassis wiring and related components may be compromised but function properly at the moment. This just happened in May, we are now in August. So the service advisor remembered the vehicle and stated that nothing was done because the Allstate agent had over 1000 vehicles to review and was cutting checks like a drive thru! I have since stripped the interior to the sheet metal and have unplugged every plug in the entire interior, having found only 2 plugs (both are the 2 lowest plugs on the BCM and also the closest to the cellulose material sprayed on the back of our carpets, see attached. The seats have been inspected, the glove box removed, the center console and armrest removed. Everything smells new and looks new. I have had 10+ people comment on how nice and spotless it is. That is the case front to back, top to bottom. Regarding rust proofing, it would be throwing money away. The interior was bone dry behind every panel with exception to the passenger footwell. For good measure I used 2 humidity indicators that we use at work (uline) they did not even register. And our portable desiccant dehumidifier was also installed as best possible and ran for 2 cycles, both timed out because nothing above the relative air humidity was detected. Regarding the exterior, it can get as wet as possible with no ill effects for obvious reasons. So I have zero concern for the future reliability and condition. Had it been salt water I still would not be concerned because of the results stated above. Also attached is the pic of the car, the BC1 board and solder job. You can see what I was attempting. The crazy thing is this all worked. Not until after the PDR work did it have a no start issue. I checked the panels and all appear to be installed correctly, besides what could the tools from PDR repair possibly do to cause a no start issue? The remote key works correctly, the radio, windows, odometer, locks, lights and every button that operates a device works 100%, just won't start. Cranks like a madman, no spark. You can smell the fuel. The battery is registering 14.1 volts at this moment. No spark. I really like this car, and want to drive it! For the 100 miles or so before I decided to nose around it drove like a new car, very fun. My DD is a 535xi wagon and my weekend car is a 996.2 C4 Cab. So this is truly a chance to get myself a spirited toy and my 17 year old something to shlep her buddies in. I will solve the issue and keep the forum up to date, with my learnings documented. Thanks again for every input!
     

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  11. Firebro17

    Firebro17 Dazed, but not Confused
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    A very warm welcome to you! Reading your story is enlightening and equally painful. When hunting for my first MINI a few years ago, I passed on buying a 2006 R53 JCW that somehow made its way to a car lot in Southern California. A trace of it's origin pointed to that of the Southern Gulf of the US. Strangely, this car was EXACTLY what I was looking for, just as you described the one you've found. Upon a very close inspection, I had a notion or maybe more of a question that the car appeared to have been in a flood or at least had been VERY wet at one time or another. To make a very long and stressful story very short, the correlation of the build and sales dates were unbelievably concurrent to the Katrina event. The broker of course knew nothing of what I brought forward. The car had been obtained at auction and I guess the feeling was that if it came west, no one would ever be the wiser...

    I wish you well on your MINI adventures and assure you there's all kinds of fun to come, once past these hurdles.
     
  12. getrieben

    getrieben New Member

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    Thanks! I deal with salvaged vehicles for a profession and never paid this much attention to the affects of water, even if minimal. The fact that only 2 plugs were affected and the car is parked tells a lot. When dismantling a whole vehicle it is easier to sort out what can and cannot be done. It may be super simple no brainer, or it may be a crazy voltage issue that has trapped the electronics into a permanent "limp" mode. I am confident that hooked up to the proper programming software this will all be straightened out. I believe we are on the edge of having these programming capabilities pre-installed by the manufacturer similar to the operating system of a computer. If you look at the handheld programming systems used for our cars its laughable that we can't pop a disk in a laptop and run simple diagnostic tests our selves. Its definitely a conspiracy to keep it from the everyday guy. The high price has guys like me at the mercy of the shop that ends up doing my work. I'll bet $100 that they won't let me watch the process because they would look terrible charging me hundreds for 10 min. of clicking boxes on a screen and waiting 60 minutes for the system to be re-flashed. Honestly I am more aggravated by my inability to drill down the issue with simple dos based software than I am at anything the storm did or Mini didn't do (raise the electronics above the hip line).
     
  13. MCS02

    MCS02 Moderator
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    I believe if the BCM and ECU get out of time it will not crank. It has to be taken to a dealer to have them reset.
     
  14. 00Mini

    00Mini Well-Known Member

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    Good luck in your quest !!
     
  15. rusty.daily

    rusty.daily New Member

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    Hey y'all, my name is Rusty. I'm a mini tech in the Mo area, and I'm the proud owner of an 05 R53 bone stock, but I'm planning on changing that soon enough
     
  16. MCS02

    MCS02 Moderator
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    Welcome to MA! Rusty
     
  17. getrieben

    getrieben New Member

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    Where are you in Missouri? could use a "mobile" Mini tech!
     
  18. rusty.daily

    rusty.daily New Member

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    Thank you guys, I'm from Kansas City
     
  19. mrntd

    mrntd Well-Known Member
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    Welcome Aboard both of you.
     
  20. rusty.daily

    rusty.daily New Member

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