The girlfriend called me up the other day and she told me that her 2007 R56 was doing all kinds of stuff:

-Engine Light
-Maintenance Service
-Light Malfunction
-Other Errors

Also she was telling me that the car was losing power inside the cabin randomly. More specifically, she would be driving and the Tachometer and Speedometer would power down and then restart like the car is starting up. It was incredibly strange.

Well long story short, we got the car to the MINI dealership and they found out that there was a bunch of oil inside the Intake Tube (one connecting to throttle body), and the intake tube (takes air from grille to bottom of airbox) was unhooked. This fixed many of the errors, however not all of them.

I believed that the cabin power was due to a fuse, which they believed too, but it was not. They are continuing to investigate and they ordered another module they will be testing tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully it fixes all. The car has been great for her, but up until recently, when we have started thinking about bigger mods, the car has just really shown its real colors with its random conglomerate of problems. The factory warranty is almost up too... I'm just very curious to know what is really going on.

Has anyone else ever had problems like this?

 

Checked the battery in terms of a load test?
Seems very similar to many when they had a dying battery that couldn't hold a charge.

- Erik

 

^They checked all the connections to the battery and then some and they have also tested other batteries.

 

IT is a bad battery problem. From the MINI ETK (dealers manual) the car will shut down power wasting items that are not required for safe operation of the vehicle if battery or charging system problems are present.

I had similar problems and when i replaced the battery with a new one from the local parts store all the problems went away.

The OEM batteries are know for poor performance and short life spans. And if it is still the OEM battery then you are very lucky to have had it last this long. Mine only lasted 18 months.

So replace the battery with one from local auto parts store and i would bet all of your interior light, and other oddities will go away. DO NOT buy a battery from the dealer they are way to expensive and are of poor quality.

 

I will ask them about that today. They should be calling me around lunch time with a update. It's become really annoying as she has been without the car for almost a week. If a problem still persists they are going to give her a free loaner... I'll update the thread when I talk to the service manager.

 

They replaced a fuse and that did not fix the problem and then they replaced the control module for the cockpit... It worked for a couple days and then now the problem is coming back. We will have to take the car in again.

It's beginning to be a big pain in the *** to have to run up and down the street with this car.

 

Probably the battery still...my father's BMW 645 had similar electrical issues and warnings from active steering and a few other components. Told the dealer the new (few weeks old) battery maybe bad. They ended up with the car for two weeks replacing $1500 module after $1500 module with no cure. Again I mentioned the battery seemed suspicious to me due to a slightly slower crank. Dealer said no way, they fully tested it a few times. More days of diagnostics...Then they decided to replace the battery...Problem solved! Luckily it was all under warranty.

When my Cooper battery died last year it was a very quick death over the course of a week. I am very in-tune with the car starting sounds, etc. And I just BARELY noticed it cranking slower that week. I had the radio on for 15 minutes without the engine running and it didn't have a enough power to turn the engine. I drove the car the for another week and it started for about six days, then one morning dead. Took it to the dealer and told them the battery is dead...Nope they said, it tested fine....Yeah RIGHT...drove it another week, exact same...Took it to the dealer again and they did the right thing and replaced the battery for me under warranty. (Same dealer as above actually)

 

Well, forgot to mention that the battery was also replaced. I guess it may be another bad one. Just a PITA to deal with. Hopefully she will sell it once the warranty runs out. I can't imagine dicking around with this thing without the warranty.

 

Oh in that case then the SPEG (fuse box module) may need replacement.

 

I remembered another answer!!! Bad ground in the engine compartment!!

SI M 61 05 07 http://www.mediafire.com/?r2tmc9gmj4jk60j


Various warning lights are illuminated, e.g., Airbag, ABS and DSC; electric windows or other systems are
not working; and there is no communication with various control modules.
CAUSE
Ground points X13004 and/or X4 are loose (not connected correctly).

 

Got the car back last week. The dealership had it again for full week and they gave her a 2011 Countryman All4 S loaner. It was a really nice ride and was good break from the hell her MCS has been providing. They replaced the entire computer harness for the instrument clusters and the reprogrammed/flashed the entire system again. They believed that the computer was just faulty, but are not completely confident that was the fix as they have never seen this problem before. They also took the liberty of replacing the recalled water pump, which was nice because they originally told me they would not be available till mid Feb.

We have had no problems so far, and we are really hoping this was the final solution. I can't bare to have to call up the service writer again to schedule to drop this thing off.

Thanks for all your comments and hints on what it could be.