Greetings, all.
A coworker asked if I could replace the throttle body on his 2007 S hardtop (R56, I believe). I found the part online for $200 but I hear rumors that it requires a DME reset/flash after replacing. Does anyone know about that? If that's true and necessary, I'm in the Kansas City area, are there any shops around here that would do such a thing? I haven't gotten through to the dealer yet for their quote. If it IS necessary and if they charge anything like BMW does for an airbag reprogram ($200), I'm going to tell the guy to bite the bullet and just pay the dealer.
Thanks

 

I was actually wondering the same thing, as I was going to replace my stock TB on my 2005 Base MC with the TB off of a E39 5 series BMW. But, I don't want to do so if I have to reset / flash the ECU. Anyone have any ideas?

 

I never did get to talk to anyone from Mini to see the price but a commenter on Pelican auto parts said if it DID need to be flashed it wouldnt be driveable until that happened.
I called another place that works on Minis (the owner's daughter works with me and had an S that he souped up) but the guy who answered the phone told me he'd never even heard of what I was talking about. So that gives me some hope. Haha or it's just ominous because it's clearly a dealer-only thing at that point!
Other places I've read said as long as I'm using a stock replacement, which I am, it shouldn't be a problem. But that doesn't bode well for you, PSUFencer, putting a non-stock one on yours.
I guess unless someone else chimes in it's all idle speculation (haha get it?) until I do it myself. If nothing else, I'll pull the battery for a while.

 

well the new one is in and the car fired right up.
I talked to a local shop that would flash it for $100 if I needed -- if you're in the KC area it was George's Imports (kcsaab.com). FWIW it is $800 for Mini to do it, $156 - 200 for two local shops to do it if you supply the part, which is almost always cheaper than getting the part thru them. No warranty on it through them though. The other place I called was Royal Automotive in Lee's Summit, MO. They've always been cool about me bringing in my own parts.

Anyway, it's throwing a code now and I can't find my code reader. Also, under hard acceleration it's not getting past 5,500 RPM and therefore not shifting; it just stays there in each gear, like it doesn't have enough power to get any faster. The only time it did was down a big hill. If I manu-matically shift it it begins to accelerate again.
Also the intake manifold was grimy with oil so that's not a good sign.
Any thoughts about the acceleration bit?

 

I wouldn't bother programming the car for a bad throttle body unless you were already programming for something else. So if it's running good now roll on.

 

what besides the throttle body then would make it act like that? These symptoms don't seem necessarily related to the TB

 

the continuing symptoms were leftovers from the old CEL and after it was cleared it's working so much better. It was a too rich code, P2188 (IIRC).
I got a new one, P129E, which is like unexpected manifold pressure, which could have been caused by a leak in the boost tube. I rechecked and one of the connections wasn't seated well so I put it back on and tightened it up. I didn't get a chance to re-clear it since but that makes sense that that could be the cause.

 

I keep getting a P2188. Do you have any live data from the O2S1B1 and MAF, MAP, ECT and AIT sensors? Really interested in what MAF flow rate is at idle before and after your replacement. Thanks in advance!

 

I have no idea about any of that. Did you just replace your throttle body too? You might want to start a new thread for all that mess!
In the mean time I have ordered a gasket and will be putting it in this weekend. Hopefully that helps but it's really not a hard job now that I know what I'm doing.