I got a red warning today on my 07 R56 justa. It was for the steering wheel electrical lock failure. According to the manual the car shouldn't start again as they advise to drive straight to a dealer as the car will not start again. Of course by the time I pulled out the manual to read that I had stopped the car and turned it off. Funny thing was the car started just fine and nothing was apparently wrong. It starts and stops fine and the steering wheel locks and unlocks just fine. I don't have a dealer in town, but took it to a independent mini mechanic. He read the failure, it was actually 2 in the computer. One he reset, the other kept coming up if he tried to reset it. (116 and 112 I think).

Anyone with any ideas?

 

I remember seeing something about this already in the forums. Would look it up for you but Im at the barbershop with my cellphone

 

Whew its harder to search the site with a smart phone. I found it....

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...nctioning.html

 

What were the EXACT faults from the scanner?
It should tell you what component or subsystem is affected.

- Erik

 

112 and 116. It wasn't in the intellifax database and they were closed today, so I'll find out in the morning.

I sent a pm to the starter of the thread that misterclean pointed out. No response yet.

I'll a battery first I think, that seems to be a common cause of these warnings.

 

I did notice that on realoem.com mini now shows the steering wheel lock for my month/year build car to be discontinued and replaced with another part no. I wonder if this indicates that early build 07 coopers had a generic part problem in the steering wheel lock.

 

The TSB indicated that a low battery could cause the fault. I had the battery replaced. No joy. Still couldn't clear the fault.

Scheduled appointment with the dealer. Bummer. Even the local indie place isn't sure and recommended the dealer. Still considering just replacing the part at the local indie shop and seeing if that works.

The fault code is A116.

 

Doing some digging, I found more information on this.
* MINI / BMW DTC A116 - Steering Wheel Lock (ELV) ECU Abruption Error
There's definite issues with the Car Access System (CAS) module.

Bavarian Technic walks through the possible cause and fixes (similar to E9x platform):
* http://wiki.bavariantechnic.com/inde...brubtion_Error

- Erik

 

Thanks, what I was afraid of, steering column replacement. Fortunately for the mini, the lock is shown as a separate part and can be replaced instead of the whole column.

 

Interesting, I don't think my 2008 and 2011 even have steering locks at all as you can turn the wheel when the car is off.

 

They don't but 2007s do.

 

Did some more research on realoem.com. It seems that by 7/2007 mini dropped the steering wheel lock altogether. It makes me wonder if they can just take my steering wheel lock out altogether and reprogram the car. I'm hoping that is possible.

 

That would be nice. I was wondering the reason they did away with it—I guess they figured it was hard enough to beat the computer that the steering lock was just needless complexity and didn't improve security enough to be worth it.

 

I went to the Mini dealer today. They were able to just clear the code. They test drove it and it didn't come back. It appeared to be the low voltage problem as my car had the battery testing yellow and I had it changed. Then on the way home I puiled into a rest area and the code came back. As before the lock still locks and unlocks so I was able to continue on.

I called the SA, they are ordering the part. Fortunately I can just have the lock replaced and not the whole steering column. I've got two questions in they are going to try to answer:

1) Given they deleted the lock that same model year, can't you just remove the lock and update the car's software?

2) Can Miniusa cough up and pay for a goodwill service? Seems logical given that they also deleted the part from use and I only have 40,000 miles on a 07 MC.

Nice SA and dealership overall so I kept my calm. They tried and thought they had it, but alas no avail. Either way, I'll have it working again next week. I have another car to drive, so not a biggie, although from all appearances I can still drive it although I did read in bimmer forums where this problem is more prevelant, many report the system still works, then one day it really locks up.

 

Seems to be a common denominator at times for quirks of such...

That not be possible if components don't allow reprogramming due to hardware / software configurations.

Ehh, that's a tough call. You're out of warranty, but you could argue the safety concern with such faults / problems.

- Erik

 

double post sorry.

 

That not be possible if components don't allow reprogramming due to hardware / software configurations.

They switched in the middle of a model year, so it would seem all they did was delete the part and reprogram.


Ehh, that's a tough call. You're out of warranty, but you could argue the safety concern with such faults / problems.

Worst they can say is no!

 

Well I pick up my car today. Birmingham Mini did a fine job. A week ago, the steering wheel locked up on me the day before I was to go down for the lock replacment. They had the car flat bedded to the dealer, their expense. They also talked to Miniusa and Mini agreed to pick up the cost of the repair. It took an extra day because when they sent the lock they didn't send the fracture bolts to install it, but I really can't complain. Many thanks to Mini of Birmingham.

Well its finished now and the car starts (and still locks and unlocks) on command!!

I'd still like to explore removing the lock altogether. Seems you should be able to jumper a wire to make the computer think its there.