Hi all,

So we picked up our new 2010 MCS November 09 Build about a month ago. Yesterday it got REALLY cold (-30 degrees Celsius or like -25 F I believe) so COOOOOLD. When we started the car up the EML light came on (the half filled in engine one). Trying to drive the car, of course, we were limited in RPMS and speed (safety mode). Letting the car warm up, the light turned off, and the car ran fine. Any ideas what this could be?

 

Just wanted to give an update on this topic. I just called Mini here in Calgary, AB, Canada. The guy in the service department was actually quite aware of this problem. I guess what happens in extremely cold weather is that moisture gets into the throttle body and then subsequently freezes when the car cools down so quickly, locking up the throttle body mechanism.

The problem is apparently a bad intake manifold that allows this moisture to get in, in the first place. BMW has previously released a "fix" for this through a new part (intake manifold), but apparently that one did not work (problem persisted). He just told me that they released another attempt at a new part only about 10 days ago.

I have an apt. to get this intake manifold put in on Dec 17th, I will post an update once it's in and we have another cold spell to see if the problem comes back.

 

oh damn... I had this problem each of the past two winters... hearing that there is yet another fix for this and if this happens to me again this winter I might be looking at a different car come spring.. (between frozen throttle body and cold start chatter)