This past Saturday a bunch of us were out and about for the Eric Jones Memorial RiverRun - A Sports Car Driving Tour in Central and South East Ohio. The MINI ran great almost all day, never really pushed it that hard, these are public roads of course. About 3/4 the way through the day a group of 3 MINI was zipping along the Ohio countryside, one of them being me. We turned from one road to another, zipping along downhill, give it a little gas and my MINI lights up the dash like a bunch of Jews for Jesus putting up the Christmas Tree. Pull off, read the code P1668, the code reader has no answer for me on that one. Reset and try again, get maybe 100 yards and same thing. Everything is a bit warm and there is a small puddle of coolant just under the bottle. Maybe it is to hot? Add some water and check the oil. It could use a little, add 1/2 qt. Let it sit and cool for a bit. We try again to no avail, this time there is a clearing next to some power transformers at the side of the road. Limp it in there so we are off the road and the other 2 cars with me also have a place to be safe. Call Chad, we discuss the bypass valve, but he's out having fun and can't check the code, not wanting to be a bother I move on. Call Steve at Custom MINI Shop, he also mentions the bypass valve. The bright idea of zip tying the bypass valve comes to mind. Not sure how to do it a quick call to Ryephile gets some advice. Still no joy in mudville... However now we are about a mile away and there is no cell coverage. One of my cohorts that was kind enough to stick with me gives me a ride into the nearest town, not far at about 2 miles back south. Try to get a signal but nothing good enough to dial. We are just outside the towns general store. I go in and ask to use the phone, explaining my predicament assuring the lady it was an 800 #. She lets me call but keeps reminding me if the phone beeps they need to get it to take an order. While arranging the the tow the phone does beep once, to warn of a low battery. About 30 seconds later it dies. Hang up the phone, buy a couple of bottles of water and thank them. We head back up to spot we had service before, next to the transformers under the high power lines. Call the tow service back and they tell me since it was a different person once the dispatch is complete the original person will call me back. But to make matters more fun the charge on the phone is about 10%. I sent the Jason with me back to bring Cooper and his girlfriend some water and bring back the phone charger. Got the call back, was told it will cost me 300 some bucks, thats after what my insurance would cover. I'm not in a position to argue so I agree and am told it will be 70 min for the truck. We allow the phone to charge some and head back to where my car is. 30 min later the flatbed arrives. Heck of a nice guy, turns out he owns the towing company. The 100 miles or so to the dealer in Columbus fly's by even though the truck would barely go over 65, has a leaking exhaust, no air and is louder than my car. Cut to Tuesday, get a call from the dealer and I try to tell them what I know about the situation, he keeps cutting me off telling me it will be $104 + tax and shop supplies to diagnose. I don't get warm fuzzies from this guy but I tell them to diagnose but in the meantime I put in a call to a MoM member that has a little juice at the dealer for some help. Not long after I get a call from another SA at the dealer that I worked with before, they checked it out, the bypass valve is bad. There are a few on my shelf and they will let me supply the part. Hop a ride from another friendly MoM member and bring them the bypass valve, they tell me to hang out as it won't take long. They button up the car and take it to be washed, it really needed it, between the gravel roads and the mud where I had pulled off it was pretty bad. They don't test drive the car as the belt is showing a few signs of being bad, like it's part shredded. But I have the belt on my dresser, doesn't everyone keep a spare MINI belt on theirs? I figure I'll run home and when it cools in the evening perform a belt change. Not 100 yards from the dealer driveway it goes back into limp mode. From there I made an illegal turn and took it right back. Checked the code again before giving it back to them, yep, same code. Tech wants to change the belt thinking it might be slipping. So they give me a ride home is a 2011 Spice Orange Cooper where I give the belt back to shop guy to take back. For yucks I call Way and ask him what he thinks. He advises me to have them check the crank pulley. Call the SA and ask her to have them check that out too. Thats where we are now. More to follow as the story unfolds...
Good to see you haven't lost your sense of humor, yet :arf: Maybe you'll get to keep the Spice Orange for a bit :devil:
Don't get me wrong. It was a great day. The drive was a real hoot. The people were mahvalus. The weather was sublime. Sure...the car broke, but even that helped build friendships and could of been a lot worse. My glass is half full.
The latest update... The new belt was installed and the car test driven, as I expected this did not fix the issue. The crank damper pulley was checked and is fine shape, unusual for a MINI from TX at this age, then again, the MINI was garage kept and was often not out in the worst of the heat there. Further diagnosis has found that the intake tube between the throttle body and supercharger may be the issue. The tube pops off the S/C end. There is a built in circlip on the S/C end that has broken. This causes the tube to pop off under boost. of course the clip is not available as a standalone item and one has to purchase the entire hose. Being it is an odd failure there is not one is stock, the dealer is having it overnighted in. For those keeping score at home it is item #15 below, MINI Part # 17-51-7-541-096. (16 is for auto trans cars) Even in my extensive spare parts closet I don't have one of these on hand.
Is there any rhyme or reason to the way they number these pictures? There never seems to be a pattern to what is numbered what, or is there and I don't see it? Jim
Need to think like a German Parts Engineer :wink: What I find odd is this parts grouping is under the Radiator section.
There is a tab on the end of the supercharger intake duct a retaining bolt screws through, however, the symptom of a poor fitting profile gasket or cracked duct is usually a hunting or rough idle. I don't know if you had a spelling error when you said "under boot", if so and meant boost, the supercharger intake duct is under vacuum. If part# 20 has popped out or is cracked, it can also generate the code you had. The upstream MAP pipe is sealed with an O-ring within a duct boss on the duct, and it's secured by a retaining collet, that may be what you are referring to as a circlip. I've had the pipe break below the sensor before, and keep one on hand, as well as a spare duct & boss fittings. Long distance diagnosing has it's problems and there's no substitute for hands on. There is always an omitted critical detail.
Fixed the boost vs boot typo. I'm just going on what the tech is telling me. I can't easily run out there each time they think they found the issue to inspect. I have asked for the old part back and will take a picture of what broke to share. I did pull up the RealOEM diagram while discussing the matter with the tech and verified the part number. We'll see. I'm not super impressed so far as I've paid for a bypass valve replacement already. Good thing I had one on hand, I hate to pay for new parts that are not needed as a tech tosses parts at a problem. Paying for the the labor was bad enough. Thanks for your insight Keith...ever think of moving to central Ohio?
Here's a photo of the parts in discussion. There are two red retainer collets, one for the MAP pipe, and the other for the brake booster pipe, only one is shown. When the supercharger intake duct is removed multiple times, the MAP pipe can get tugged on, stressed, and crack below the cup that fits over the sensor bulb, also, multiple removals increases risk the duct retainer/safety tab will be broken. The collet does a very good job of retaining the pipe, so pulling out under vibration or engine movement would be next to impossible. The green profile gasket on the end is a source of vacuum leaks and oil drips if it doesn't seal well. The segmented duct at the bottom was used for fluid diameter analysis and thermal testing. A new ceramic coating process allows composites and plastics to be thermal coated. The supercharger intake duct is a good candidate for coating, however, the pipe retaining insert is the weak thermal resistant component. The duct can tolerate the 500 degree ceramic curing process easily, the pipe retaining insert melts after an hour. The insert is secured with metal barbed rings and can't be removed without damaging. Fluid diameter analysis revealed a restriction smaller than the stock throttle body bore.
The daily update.... The new intake tube did not fix the issue. Tech reported that the S/C pulley was wobbling. That was probably the cause of the few strands that were off the old belt. Tech wanted to replace the S/C pulley but I had him pull the bolts out, coat with loctite and put them back in. After doing so he found the Crank Pulley dancing around like a belly dancer on speed. From the help of Way at Way Motor Works and Aaron at OutMotoring a new ATI Crank Pulley is on the way to the shop as I write this. While this is not over yet I think we can see the end game here. Helpful in advice and counseling along this journey are the following: Chad - Detroit Tuned Way - Way Motor Works Aaron - OutMotoring Steve - Custom MINI Shop Ryephile Cooper & Meg Jason MetalMan The support of the local community in helping in out with all this has been great. Hopefully the next update will have me and my MINI back together and running.