Good afternoon Mini enthusiast. I have currently been searching through the forums hoping to find a similar issue with my vehicle and a lot of the threads are close but no spot on. So lets get into it. I have a 03s model that was recently purchased at 159K. Prior to purchasing the car (from a friend) we have completed a large amount of diagnostic and repairs along the way. Many years ago he tapped into the wiring harness to add a programmer to the vehicle which did more harm than good. The programmer never registered so he reconnected the harness with your standard wire connectors and floated on. After roughly 5000 miles the issue started. The EML and traction light would kick on and throw the vehicle into limp mode (as we all know) and after multiple ecu restarts the traction would turn off and he could run on half power and make it home. After a full day of tracing wires and following everything that he had cut into I found a semi loose point. Bare with me for for not knowing the sensor name, but it is located at the top of the motor close to the radiator next to the stock intake tube. I believe it is the absolute airflow sensor. I pinched the wire in half while the car was running and it shut the vehicle down. We rewired and it purred for another thousand miles and I bought the car hoping that this was the final fix. So, here is where I am at. I was cruising going about 70 and the vehicle powered down completely. Towed it home knowing that the wiring was not completely OEM and purchased a new harness. The harness was pulled from a Mini with 40k with fresh connections. After all was hooked back up it fired and I drove it down the road a bit and came back thinking all was well. Fired it back up to grab a celebratory brew and it shut down again. EML light and battery only only two lights on. It tries to turn over we read the codes and nothing is there. Understandably I need to have the battery tested tomorrow, but the out put allowing the vehicle to try and turn over. I have read the throttle body connection issues and a fault of the body itself and currently one is on the way and should be here Wednesday. The differences that I am running across compared to others is that the EML will allow other vehicle to run where mine will not start. I have the three components for a motor to run. Air, spark, and fuel which tells me it is sensor related. The fuel pump has been changed, the oxygen sensors swapped, the plugs and wires have been completed, and the tune up was about 6k ago. So am I on the right track thinking it's the body? I don't think it would be the ecu as it is still allowing the vehicle to process and try to crank. Sorry for the novel, but I know how the forum game works and a back story always helps.

 

Moving you to the Stock Problems/Issues area.

 

How old is the battery? Next, do you have power at the starter? I don't think I noticed but what tranny do you have as there are interlocks with the brake/clutch before the relay is allowed to send power to the starter?

 

I will have to get the age of the battery tonight, it is a six speed and the starter has power and was also changed when I completed the wiring job two days ago.

 

Perhaps nothing, but you are sure the engine ground strap is connected and tight?

 

I am. I will be happy to recheck the torque value when I am off of work, but the main strap we swapped it with one from a 2007.

 

Do not have to check the torque on the ground strap, if its tight then move on. A recent thread where the guy was having issues with the car starting turned out to be the ground strap.

You say it is trying to turn over, does the starter turn the flywheel?

In Pharma Construction we had to do "loop tests" on every circuit we had. It may be as simple as a $5 resistor, the problem is how you are going to find it. Just do not overlook the most simple item as in many instances the simple item is what is causing the issue.

 

I understand that, for sure. It is just odd that I am pulling no codes. It will turn over fine, but it will not actually fire up. That why the spark has been checked as well as the fuel delivery. The throttle body butterfly flutters, but I have a hunch it may be restricted or something internal.

 

Also to follow up with more information the two wires that were tapped into were on these two sensors BMW 0872648 DC04693145A and BMW 0872679 DC04693279AA.

 

Battery has been tested and it is fine. Also the throttle body came in today and it is the same situation.

 

P0222 is the only code that was registered on a scaneer. Would that be an issue with the throttle pedal?