Mini Countryman ECU/ DME Replacement

We hope everyone had a great Christmas & looking forward to the New Year celebrations!

Recently in the workshop with us was this Mini Countryman petrol with the N16 engine.

It had a misfire on Cylinder 2, causing rough running, lack of power & the engine warning light on. The ignition coil & spark plugs had already been replaced by a third party, but the misfire fault was still present. It was suspected the ignition coil had caused a short circuit, damaging the driver inside the Engine ECU/ DME.

With the car in the workshop we scanned the car for fault codes to find Cylinder 2 misfire & ignition circuit monitoring. Proving the description provided to us is correct. Using an oscilloscope we then checked a good ignition wave form on Cylinder 1. As you can see the control signal is at 12 volts. The ECU then pulls the signal to ground for a few milliseconds which charges the ignition coil. Before then releasing the ground providing necessary high voltage to the spark plug.

However as expected, on the Cylinder 2 scope pattern, it is at a constant 12 volts where the driver has been damaged.

Now we have confirmed the fault, the ECU/ DME requires replacement.

A new unit from BMW/ MINI is well over a thousand pounds making a fairly costly repair. Fortunately this Mini was brought to us as we have the specialist equipment tools for us to be able to transfer/ clone the data from the original ECU over to a used donor unit.

With this carried out & all faults cleared. The car now runs and drives as it should – meaning the owner saved over a thousand pounds on the total repair cost.

The total ethos of our business is to save owners money on the maintenance & repair of their vehicles where possible. We thank all that have visited us during 2021 and look forward to looking after your vehicles again in 2022 & beyond