Drivetrain malfunction while driving

[Qisl]

When recently driving to work my SE stalled out with a drivetrain malfunction. I was too flustered in traffic to take a picture. The car restarted and proceeded without issue. The dealership found a fault in the EME. Corporate was consulted. Diagnosis involved fully depleting the battery to 0%, and then charging to 100%. The issue was resolved with a software update (programming encoding control unit).

I have been driving my U25 SE while my F56 SE was being worked on. The cloud of darkness that had been hovering over me this past week lifted as soon as I started driving the Cooper. The Countryman is a nice car, but the nimbleness of the Cooper is wonderful to experience.

(My Cooper is a 2023 Iconic. Its factory warranty is up in January. The repair was covered under warranty. It has roughly 23k miles on it.)

 

[MacMini34]

Interesting. As modern cars become software driven we may see more of this. What is an EME?

Was this similar to some program on a computer crashing badly where the solution is to delete then reinstall the software? You say "software update" which would imply improved software. Or was it a case of overwriting software that had developed a glitch? Either way, we will be at the mercy of dealers and their exorbitant prices for these fixes.

I have a 2019 Schwaben BMW/MINI specific scanner that I haven't tried on the SE yet but my friend borrowed it for his 2021 BMW X3 and it wasn't capable of releasing his parking brake as he needed for pad replacement. Looks like the ability to DIY is diminishing.

 

[Qisl]

Electric machine electronics. The document that I got back from the dealer said that the programming encoding control unit got an update. I am guessing that this is specific to my car’s issue and not something generally available. Yes, I think some issues will be addressable only by the dealer. It will be interesting to see when dealers declare that the F56 SE will no longer be supported by them or be corporate.

 

[insightman]

It will be interesting to see when dealers declare that the F56 SE will no longer be supported by them or be corporate.

What a scary question! BMW typically maintains official replacement parts for 10 to 15 years after a vehicle model's production ends. I hope that practice extends to their MINI brand.

Fortunately, most of the electrical parts in the first MINI Cooper SE came from the original BMW i3 (2013-2022), Of course the MINI Cooper SE sold in the US was part of the F56 generation of MINIs (2014-2024), so non-electrical replacement parts (other than the unique grille and exhaust-free rear-end) should remain plentiful.

I was going to keep my 2006 Honda Insight (the last gen-1 Insight delivered to Michigan) until my 2021 MINI Cooper SE arrived. However, a few months after ordering my SE in 2019, I was shocked to discover the 5-speed shift-linkage I needed for my Insight was no longer available from Honda. I found a used shifter on eBay and shortly after it was installed, I sold my Insight to a collector in Dayton, OH, who already had 2 of them.

Then COVID happened and I had to wait a year for my MINI to arrive. In August, 2020, my 2021 SE was the last car (and the only SE) delivered by MINI of Ann Arbor, which closed forever the next day. So the tech who had taken the training to service the MINI Electric got to prep just one SE for MINI of Ann Arbor. I don't know if he's still servicing MINIs somewhere.