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Mini Cooper engine warning light

Hi everybody, haven't posted on TSR in ages but I have a question about my Mini - recently the "check engine" warning light came on (in yellow). The handbook says to have the engine checked, so I took it to a local garage (it was due its service anyway) and they said they couldn't find anything the matter. They reset the system and for a couple of days it was fine, then the light came back on.

I had cleaned out my bank account paying for the service and previous check so I just carried on, and after about a week it went off again. Then two days later it came back on. The car is running fine to all intents and purposes, the only thing I can say I've noticed is a difference in how well the car pulls away when I accelerate - sometimes this is very marked but at other times it runs totally normally. Oil and coolant levels are fine.

I'm just wondering if anybody else has experienced this and whether it's worth getting it checked again before any long drives - I'm planning a trip from London up to the Scottish Highlands in June so would rather it didn't explode in a ball of flames halfway up the A1 :smile:

Any comments or suggestions gratefully received!

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Reply 1

FXX

Engine management lights don't turn on for no reason. You've been ripped off if you've paid someone to turn the light off for you. Try going to a BMW/Mini dealer or specialist instead.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 2

Jennybean

In my experience it's the BMW dealers that do the ripping off. I didn't say I paid them to turn it off for me - the car had its service and that's what I paid for.

Reply 3

FXX

Regardless, it's bad practice to just ignore the warning light.

Try a local Mini specialist instead. They will use genuine parts etc so that might be pricey, as BMW parts always are, but they'll be fairer on labour and are more flexible with their pricing.

Reply 4

Jennybean

"Bad practice"?! Really?! Do you have any idea what could be wrong with the car? I was really hoping for some mechanics to answer, not just other drivers.

Reply 5

FXX

Ah well, in that case, I'll leave you in peace. I'd be wasting your time if I told you to take it to a Mini specialist a third time. Engine management light can literally be anything but if there are any psychic specialist Mini mechanics on here, I have a few questions of my own, so look forward to hearing from them.

Reply 6

stevoboy

The light means the engine computer has detected a fault which causes the emissions to be worse than normal - it's a legal requirement for car manufacturers to detect engine faults that worsen emissions, otherwise people could be driving around with severely increased emissions without realising.

Loads of things could cause the light to come on, some more serious than others - personally I wouldn't use the car more than you need to until you have at least found out what the fault is then decide how serious it is. If the light is on then the engine controller will definitely have logged details of the fault that triggered it, a garage with decent diagnostic equipment should be able to read out the data.

If it is an intermittent fault the light may turn itself off if the car has done several journeys without seeing the fault again, although the fault information will still be stored even though the light has gone off.

Original post by Jennybean

Any comments or suggestions gratefully received!

Reply 7

gbduo

Have you got an android phone?

If you do, you are in luck, because you can buy an app called Torque Pro for £3 I think and then buy one of these:-

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HHOBD-Torque-Android-Bluetooth-OBD2-Check-Engine-Auto-Code-Reader-Adapter-OBDII-/150770268644?pt=UK_Diagnostic_Tools_Equipment&hash=item231a9bb9e4#ht_3023wt_986

And for £25 you can read the faults of the car yourself. Just google where you can find the OBDII port in your car, but it is probably under the drivers wheel.

Reply 8

CurlyBen

Could be almost anything. My Dad's old ford had the check engine light come on when the brake pedal switch failed, for example. An OBDII reader (you can get stand alone and laptop based units as well as the phone based ones Graham mentioned) but they won't give you all the information the system contains - some will only be available to someone with the BMW software. Unfortunately there isn't really any way to tell what it might be or how serious it is without more info, especially if you don't really notice anything wrong.

Reply 9

Gothica

Original post by Jennybean

Any comments or suggestions gratefully received!

How old is your car? , Has it been ragged a lot?

Reply 10

Jennybean

That sounds very cool. Actually I do have access to an android phone so maybe I will look into that app. Doesn't look like anybody has had a similar experience so think it will probably come down to biting the bullet and getting somebody to check it, though I may use a different garage this time! The car is about 4 years old and has been treated with a reasonable amount of respect.

Reply 11

Herr

Original post by Jennybean

There is no chance that a MINI's CEL would come on for no reason at all.

If you had brought it to a proper mechanic or a BMW dealer they would have done an air-fuel mixture reading and could have diagnosed the issue for you in 5 minutes.

There are several possibilities on why the CEL would come on without logging a fault code.

Could be from anything from a loose hose, your fuel filler cap isn't closing properly, the catalytic converter not at it's optimum. You could usually tell by the exhaust temperature,, air-fuel-mixture and whether the exhaust is full of black soot or not.

Reply 12

Chri1990

Hi I have a Mini Cooper s 2008 model.. Unfortunately my engine management light keeps coming on and off, and I have a strange sound coming from the engine like its overheating can anyone help

Reply 13

username1894667

I got a VW Touran from 2004 and recently the engine warning light comes on, but you literally just leave it and it will turn off and sometimes back on. I'm pretty sure its due to a clogged-up diesel particulate filter as after doing a lot of short journeys the light comes on but after a long drive the particulates clear out and the light switches back off. Google up about the diesel particulate filter and best of luck with the repairs.

Reply 14

dhr90

Old thread.

But anyway, the engine light coming on indicates a problem, or something not normal. Leaving it isn't always advisable. You can get a code reader cheaply from ebay (£10-£15), plug it in yourself and it will tell you the code and possibly what it means. Then after a google you can decide whether to fix it yourself or leave it or pay a garage to fix it.

Reply 15

Rw87

Old thread I know but I have just bought a 2007 mini cooper clubman and after 10 days this happened to me, WITH the noticeable change to its 'pulling power' (and I get a 'tsk' noise sometimes when taking foot off accelerator or changing gear). Had it checked and had a valve replaced, within a few miles of leaving the garage the light's back on and the change to pulling away and noise is back.
I'm literally waiting to take it back to the garage tomorrow morning but have stumbled across this after googling to see if anyone else has had the same problem. My cars had 4 previous owners in 10 years, its only done 61k miles with a full service hx, so in pretty good nick!
I'm hoping my garage will redo diagnostics for free since I had barely left their forecourt...

Reply 16

DJThomas82

I had this on mine. On and off for 3 months. Eventually the garage worked out that when they replaced the fuel pump (which is a common problem), they should have also done a software upgrade.
Once they did the software upgrade it never came on again for 6 months, untill today!!!!

Reply 17

DJThomas82

Does anyone know if the software upgrade fixed the problem... today I was messing about in the settings and think I accidentally reset to factory settings.
Would this have wiped off the software upgrade that they did for me?
That would explain the warning light coming back on for me.

Reply 18

Rwoodhall40

Hi there, we have purchase a 57 plate mini clubman recently and seem to have exactly the same issue.

Can you tell me whether the fault has been sorted now and what the issue was?

Many thanks

Richard

Reply 19

DiamondDon

Hi
Similar experience here. Purchased a 57-plate Cooper in November, engine light came on within a day.
Mini garage replaced the exhaust vanos and cleared the error, but light came back on within 10 miles. They did a clean up the valves & sensors, changed the head gasket, reset the timing, and replaced the water pump, and reset the error.
Light stayed off for 250 miles then came back on.They reprogrammed it and reset the error, only for it to come on within 10 miles again.
It's going back in tomorrow :-/. Each time the light comes on, the power dips, plus there's an oil burn smell when I come to a halt and reverse into my garage. No noticeable oil usage, however I've only managed 350 miles in the thing in 2 months.
Since the reprogramme, & when the engine has warmed up, the car stalls when slowing down, with or without the start/stop activated, and struggles to fire when restarting.
I'll post an update once I've heard back from Mini.