An BINI electrical experts (especially in South Wales)

[New POD]

Daughter has the 51 BINI R50 Cooper in Cardiff, and informs me that the brake lights keep not turning off.

 

Goes off if you turn the ignition off, and if you waggle the switch.

I assume these are some Canbus derived shit and it probably won't be the switch, but a blown diode in or near the body control unit.

 

Can anyone recommend a decent but cheap electrical/electronics/Bini specialist in Roath ?

 

It's probably not helped by silly lights, but as they have been on for years I think we should rule them out

[SiC]

Why not the brake switch? A lot of cars turn off the brake lights when the ignition is off.

[barefoot]

I can recommend sticking a magnet onto the part of the pedal that pushes the switch to adjust it just a little bit.

[New POD]

From what I can gather from Mini2.com and my downloaded USA dealer manual (lots of pdf's) it is a hall effect sensor, and because it goes off when the ignition is off it (probably isn't an inline diode or the body control unit full of water)  

A switch is £18 with the gsf discount code that I have at work or £36 without.  Looking at the pictures I don't think it requires tools.

 

Who thinks a Pharmacy student will be able to sort it without going to a garage ?

[New POD]

I can recommend sticking a magnet onto the part of the pedal that pushes the switch to adjust it just a little bit.

 

I'm confused by this. Will this help the hall effect ? or are you assuming it's a proper old fashion switch ?

[MikeR]

if its the diode . i have a shitload in the garage .

[New POD]

if its the diode . i have a shitload in the garage .

 

That's great. I wish I'd spotted it at the weekend before she drove back to Cardiff, cause you could have had it sorted in minutes

 

According to http://www.mini2.com/forum/first-generation-faults-fixes/75153-brake-lights-stuck-9.html  if diode has failed, they are on even with ignition off.

 

 

 

I may have missed the point though ?

 

To be fair most BINI forums tend to be shit. Most responses end up being "You need to pay £120 to a dealer to tell you what's wrong because we have no idea"

[New POD]

 

Haynes has this as a 3 spanners on the difficulty scale

 

 

[MikeR]

This is car manufacturer thats had switch and meters of wire replaced with ...

 

A hall effect switch

A BC unit

Some fancy led controller

A diode

And wire

 

?

[MikeR]

Done some digging

 

 

Diode 1n5626 ... pretty much bog std diode 3A rating .. brake switch also feeds into abs

[barefoot]

I'm confused by this. Will this help the hall effect ? or are you assuming it's a proper old fashion switch ?

 

 

I'm assuming proper switch & this is an easy adjust.

[New POD]

Any members in Cardiff want to save me a 220 mile trip ?

[New POD]

So I contacted the garage closest to my daughter and he agreed to swap the switch over for £15. But said he couldn't do any more in depth diagnostics.

In the event, that didn't fix it, but he refused to charge her, and recommended somewhere that 'does electrics'.  Told her it should cost no more than £40 to swap the diode. (about an hour).

So she took it in there and rather than replace the diode for £40 plus £2 for the diode, and get recommendations and future work from all her and all her friends, they charged £45 for diagnostics £45 for replacing the diode and £15 for the diode. (including Vat)

Now it would seem to me that is a) a bargain when compared to what BMW dealer would charge, is a piss take of massaging the bill, when you actually only have 2 possible causes, and one of them has already been ruled out.

So the result is that stereotypically a back street garage takes the short term gain, verses building long term relationships with customers.

Saved me a trip to Cardiff which would cost £60 in fuel for the return trip, and a full 8 hours in the car, but I've had to pay the Bill as I'm apparently still honouring a warranty on a car we've given her.

 

http://autoshite.com/topic/29866-jobs-that-garages-wont-take-on/page-3

[MikeR]

thats a rip for a 10p diode ,  I look at this photo and its no wonder they fail !!!

 

 

glass package diode soldered to 2 floating connectors , "supported" by a loose fitting cover !!!!

[New POD]

thats a rip for a 10p diode ,  I look at this photo and its no wonder they fail !!!

 

4545687746_0e5e1e1ff1_b.jpg

 

glass package diode soldered to 2 floating connectors , "supported" by a loose fitting cover !!!!

 

I may have just clicked report, before I clicked quote.

 

This is my point.  It's a pita to get to, because under the carpet, so labour cost is reasonable, but other costs are proper massaging of the unwary.

 

 

Note I will be phoning the first guy to thank him for his FREE labour and will pop in (with a bottle of something) next time I need to go to Cardiff. And will suggest to daughter that she uses him for mechanical fixes in future.

[Dirk Diggler]

I see where you're coming from but it wasn't for the first guy (who did an otherwise incredibly fair job, even if he had charged €15) to quote for the second guys time; €105 ain't too bad ultimately

 

It's a lot more than 40; but that's not what he said; would it have been worth bringing it up with him if you felt it was unreasonable; sometimes when something is pointed out an accommodation might be made, a bit of horse trading if you want to call it that

[New POD]

Dealing with 2nd place all left to daughter who knew my wife would insist we pay for the repair so not motivated to haggle, or question the price. GRR.

 

Still saves me a trip to Cardiff which takes a whole 4 hours PLUS each way.

[Coprolalia]

Only just seen this and I'm Cardiff based. My current independent (other side of town, but it's a small town) is a BMW specialist. Used him for the last year and he seems decent, doesn't charge the earth and honest, Andy at Brecon Street Motors.

Who were the garages you used incidentally?

[New POD]

Chris Babbage

 

and

 

then

 

Cardiff MOT and Service centre

 

So, the brake lights worked until Saturday and are now on all the time again.

 

Daughter has taken it back for them to look at, but they are now scratching their heads.

 

I will be phoning them tomorrow with a "subtle gentle concern"