Hi, I have a 2006 Mini Diesel, (Toyota engine) and it has a fault that i'm trying to solve. TPMS light and traction control light come on randomly and when they do the car drives erratically, speeding up and slowing down. Other issues have arisen like the throttle losing responsiveness and going to tickover whilst driving. When the lights are off, the car drives normally. Fault codes show as; 5E1A Can data fault from DMA DDE 5E16 Can data connection to instrument. Ive been trying to sort this out by taking apart connectors and spraying with contact cleaner. So far ive looked at the ECU in the engine bay, the ABS unit, and the fuse box and Body control unit. Can anyone advise on exactly where i should be looking? Nothing seems to make a difference but for 2 months and 2000 miles the car was fine and then the problem returned. Its infuriating to drive.
Welcome to M/A. I know nothing of diesel MINIs. What it sounds like to me is an intermittent fault in the wheel speed sensors. A sensor going bad or a wiring fault. First thing I'd do would be to check & clean all the wiring connections at the wheel speed sensors. Hope that helps you...
Welcome to MA. I would also check and clean all the grounding wires and have the battery load tested. It’s a long shot but if your battery is going bad it could cause this type of problem. Has there been any water intrusion in to the cabin? Does the car have any mods? Some people have added aftermarket alarms that have caused lots of problems. We don’t get diesel minis here, I wish we did, I am guessing you are in Europe? As much as I don’t want you to go to a different forum I do want you to find and fix your problem. You may want to ask over on https://www.mini2.com/ also they are in England, they seem a good bunch. Pleas keep us up with your progress and we will help all we can. If you do find a fix please let us know it may help someone els in the future.
Hi thanks. The wheel sensors are all operating perfectly. I had it on Live data with diagnostic equipment connected and the speeds were displayed. We did fit another sensor to try this but that was faulty and this made the ABS light come on. genrally the ABS light is off. so it is not the wheel sensors at all, or the wiring to them as i have tested this too
Hi thanks!! My gut feeling is the battery is OK as it starts instantly. No aftermarket stuff added but yes signs of water ingress which could be part of the problem.The fault codes point to the canbus system but i'm at a loss to know where to go to attack the problem. Ive cleaned everything i can see. The code 5E1A seems to be an engine one to the ECU or DME as BMW call it but i'ce taken that apart and the connections are clean. I did try that forum but 2 posts and no suggestions so far.
Tomorrow when I have a little more time I will take a look at the Bentley manual, unless you already have one, and see what I can find. I don't know where the BCM is on your mini, it seems like it may be on ether the left or right side front foot well. I may be out to lunch on that but it does seem like there is a box down there. Sorry that is all I have for now, I will check back tomorrow.
Hi, no, i'm not sure what one of those is. ... The BCM is on the RH side of my car in the footwell and i have disconnected that and cleaned all the connections. I even tried another BCM, but no joy. I know this fault will turn out to be something small and stupid!! Thanks for the reply.
I hope it is something small. It took me a month and tearing my car apart twice trying to find out why the vetch was not working. Finley I found a pin had backed out on the plug to the ECU. Where I had penned in a fuel pressure sensor. I was not amused with myself.
Modern cars are way too complicated.. Why do we need this level of technology? Interestingly i spoke to someone today who had the same lights llluminating. His turned out to be the camshaft sensor...... I looked at my sensor and the wires to it were filthy and the cable trunking had disintegrated. The wires to the sensor were the same colour as the ones to the wheel sensors so part of the canbus system..... I'm buying a new sensor tomorrow!!
Well, it wasn't the camshaft sensor... I just did a week long 1400 mile road trip in it and it varied from behaving absolutely fine (8 hours of high speed roads driving yesterday and no issues) to behaving terribly. Back to the drawing board...
Ok, I know what it is. I just paid for a Mini specialist to scan the car and they diagnosed the instrument panel as at fault. Either the tacho or the speedo unit. I've previously tried disconnecting the tacho and this did not make a difference so it must be the speedo unit. Apparently its part of the CANBUS system and is going haywire, causing all the issues. However i gather that changing the speedo is not straightforward as it will display the mileage and details of the car it came off. So it needs re-coding or something. A new speedo unit i'm told is very expensive IF i can get one through BMW. I'm told it will be hundreds of pounds. Anyone swapped a speedo on an R50?
No I never have. Try sending Allmag an email. I know they are in the US but they have several it looks like and may be able to help. They are well versed in Minis and are good people. Any independent shop with the BMW/MINI program can reprogram it for you. Here's a link. https://www.allmagautoparts.com/collections/electrical-parts/speedometer
I have read about tachs causing some kind of problems but I don’t believe I remember ever have read anything about the speedometer. Hopefully this will solve your problems.
Wow that is an odd one. The complexity of modern cars is amazing & not in a good way. Hope this gets you back to a properly running MINI.
Yep, this is what it turned out to be. The tacho was the root cause and was what was making the car go haywire. I paid for an hour diagnostic at a BMW/MINI garage which rvealed it was the instruments. I took off the tacho and the car drove perfectly! I bought another tacho for £10 from a breakers and the car is now all fixed!! Thanks everyone.