Anyone with aftermarket mods on their MINI might want to peruse this NAM thread before taking their car in response to the “emissions recall” which applies V39 to the engine.
It is perfectly possible, as always, that the online forums are highlighting the “one in a thousand” glitch, but the thread still makes for interesting reading:
efcmini: “… suddenly the next day my “service engine soon” light came on and the car was running a little sluggishly and the rpms would drop while idling at a light … the paperwork “Faults PO420 Cat. Converter bank 1 efficiency below threshold. Has aftermarket header pipes, muffler, spark plug wires and air intake system” … I jumped in and cranked her up. Service engine light still on … they are of the opinion that my after market exhaust is causing the problem …”
El Diablito Rojo-N20Mini: “… never EVER had a SES light until they insisted on installing the new software on my car … [dealer says] SES light says nitrous …”
bgrpph: “… few months back back SES and DSC light comes on for no reason after work and its runs very rough on lite throttle and idles poorly- runs fine at full throttle. Take it in and fault code says intake pressure high-(forget the code #) they say its due to aftermarket pulley etc & won’t cover under warranty …”
I hope this is nothing more than one or two MINIs that happen to get a similar fault at a similar time – but it is also possible that V39 in some way tightens up its emissions detections and is confused by the effects of unexpected aftermarket upgrades …
MINI Peabody has previously told me of more than one exhaust cat requiring early replacement, associated with aftermarket mods – that hints at a possible link to emissions issues?
2 thoughts on “Aftermarket mods with V39”
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M&I / GBMINI 
Great… I have an appointment at Peabody tomorrow and i’m freaked out about my car not running good when I leave them. I’m glad you posted this… I will attempt to not have the recall done when I get there. Do you think they will do that?
If you are having warrenty work done on your car and there is a recall and you choose not to have it done the dealer will not get paid to do the other warrenty work.In other words the dealer has to do the recall if they want to get paid for any other work that is not customer pay.