ugh... talk about a crappy start to the day... my 2k3 MCS decided to die in the middle of a huge intersection... here I am... stranded... nobody willing to help out a MINI owner... cars zooming by as I sit in my car not sure of what to do... after a couple minutes, I decided that I couldn't sit there doing nothing, so I decided to beg and plead with drivers stopped behind me... the first guy I asked did the all too familiar... "I'm really sorry man... I'm 15 minutes late... I really can't help." Fortunately, the next guy happened to be a good samaritan and took 10 minutes out of his time to assist me with my dilemma.

Once I got my car out of the intersection, I checked my trusty Scangauge II and found out my car threw ignition coil codes. Has anyone seen those codes pop up before? If so, what was the resolution? I'm hoping it's something minor, but I've often said that in the past and it ended up costing me a pretty penny.

GotMINI

 

Just thought I'd update... turns out my ECU failed and I'm now in the process of getting a $1500 replacement... oh joy...

GotMINI

 

I am being told that my ECU is now bad also...
I had 50k of trouble free issues with the car and now the whole POS is falling apart in the last two months...
Replaced water pump
Replaced condensor
now the ECU

Being told to put back my old ignition to stock (no after market coil or wires) I also had a sprint booster and a unichip. All seemed to work fine for the first 30k????

 

Were there any symptoms prior to the ECU failing? Did the care act strangely in any way? I am having a similar problem (not sure if its the ECU) but the problems only occurred in the rain??

 

Are these all R53's, or are there R56's having the same problem?

 

The R56 uses coil on plug (individual coils); the R53 uses a coil pack (one coil per 2 plugs).

The output of the ECU is designed to provide a certain amount of output current to drive the coils, if this value is exceded the drivers could be damaged; if you find youself replacing the ECU due to this kind of failure, that begs the question what caused the outputs of the ECU to fail? because if not rectified I would expect the new ECU to fail as well.

 

I feel your pain GreenIguana. My car is in the shop again having the camber plates replaced, but before I managed to get my car back, my mechanic notifies me that my passenger side CV axle is going bad... another $600 down the drain. I suppose I could have looked into getting a used one, but I don't have the time nor the patience.

Getting back on topic, my car ran absolutely flawless before the incident with the ECU. It just happened out of the blue, nothing occurred prior to that time to alert me of a problem with the ECU.

GotMINI

 

Here is the story of bad happenings....No real clues right before the ecu problem but a sudden spree of engine issues in 1500 miles at 51k.

The long version:

• I had no issues with the car except the battery died two years prior until it hit 51k...
• I started hearing a squeal out of passenger side engine bay.
• Dealer detected nothing on diagnostic but turned out the belt tensioner was bad and was replaced - still squealed though.
• Turned out gears to waterpump were gone (4), so I had an electric water pump put in, battery dead went bad while at shop for 1.5 month.
• Belt tensioner was jumping around now so I took off the crank pulley and the jumping stopped.
• Car overheated because of blown fuse for electric waterpump (wired wrong), back to shop and Condenser then was gone on next pick-up....
• Upon return car the ran fine with no apparent issues, I had the cat put back on at last shop fix also so I was listening to engine noise allot.
• On trip of failure; I drove 3 miles, stopped at intersection and car started jerking upon green light take off - died in middle of road and would not restart, dash lit up with all warnings - started 5 minutes later and limped about 1/4 block to side street and had towed to shop - now burned out ECU. Being told that maybe my Jackson plug wires or Screamin Demon may be causing (both have been on car for 5 years) or by my plasma booster also? Or combination of???

Maybe a clue inside the trail of mods?
Engine Mechanical Mod List:

• SCREAMIN’ DEMON COIL PACK - 5 yrs
• JACKSONRACING PLUG WIRES - 5 yrs
• ALTA 15% SUPERCHARGER PULLEY - 5 yrs
• DDM CAI - 4 yrs
• ENGINE TORQUE DAMPER - 4 yrs, now removed
• NKG SPARKPLUGS - 4 yrs
• M7 DFIC SYSTEM - 3 yrs
• M7 THROTTLE BODY 60mm - 2 yrs
• M7 180 THERMOSTAT - 2 yrs
• OBX RACING HEADER 2.5” OUTLET - 3 yrs
• ALTA CATBACK EXHAUST SYSTEM 2.5” - 3 yrs
• CRAVEN 17% CRANK PULLEY - 4 months, now removed
• CRAVEN ALTERNATOR PULLEY - 2 months, coming off
• DETROIT TUNED BPV - 3 yrs
• JCW INJECTORS 380 cc - 2 yrs
• OKADA COIL PACK PLASMA BOOSTER - 2 yrs, coming off
• UNICHIP – FLUX, CUSTOM TUNE RAMP 8 - 9 months
• ELECTRIC WATER PUMP - 1 month

 

Well the only thing I can correlate from your story to mine is an overheating issue I had a couple months before my ECU failed. Turns out that I didn't tighten the cap to the expansion tank and eventually the cap loosened enough to allow coolant to spew out. Perhaps the overheating damaged the ECU in some way that caused it to prematurely fail?

GotMINI