Playmini Manifold & Sports Cat

[Crombers]

Having been kindly offered the above noted 'legendary' part from Euan (Elfman) when he decided to move over to the dark side :rolleyes:, I gladly purchased :D

I was however keen to find out what 'if anything' could be done about the dreaded amber EML light 'possibly' coming up on the speedo when a performance manifold is fitted.

Found this on MiniMania :

OXYGEN SENSOR SIGNAL COMPENSATOR
If you get an amber warning light on your speedo when a performance manifold is fitted to your car then you need one of these!! Easy to fit ,just screws into the original manifold sensor hole and the 02 sensor fits into the compensator.-no more amber light !!!

The part arrived today (ordered 10/4) from the USA site as I was told that they had to get more stock in from the manufacturer.

Hopefully I will now get these parts fitted ASAP as I am really looking forward to hearing the difference in tone when fitted to a Cooper as opposed to Euan's JCW 'S'. Even if it is remotely close I will be well chuffed as I am sure you will all agree it provided a 'soundtrack' that made many of us smile on many an NMS run over the past few years.

(Feck, I may even have had to barge my way in behind the Elfmeister 'once or twice' to enjoy the 'tune') :yes nod:

[GCA3N]

Having been kindly offered the above noted 'legendary' part from Euan (Elfman) when he decided to move over to the dark side :rolleyes:, I gladly purchased :D

I was however keen to find out what 'if anything' could be done about the dreaded amber EML light 'possibly' coming up on the speedo when a performance manifold is fitted.

Found this on MiniMania :

OXYGEN SENSOR SIGNAL COMPENSATOR

If you get an amber warning light on your speedo when a performance manifold is fitted to your car then you need one of these!! Easy to fit ,just screws into the original manifold sensor hole and the 02 sensor fits into the compensator.-no more amber light !!!
The part arrived today (ordered 10/4) from the USA site as I was told that they had to get more stock in from the manufacturer.

Hopefully I will now get these parts fitted ASAP as I am really looking forward to hearing the difference in tone when fitted to a Cooper as opposed to Euan's JCW 'S'. Even if it is remotely close I will be well chuffed as I am sure you will all agree it provided a 'soundtrack' that made many of us smile on many an NMS run over the past few years (feck, I may have had to barge my way in behind the Elfmeister 'once or twice') :yes nod:


Why has no one told me about this. One of the reasons i sold my R50 was the intermitant EML light (after my performance exhaust was fitted). Spend £200 already on it trying to id the fault , never new about this. Also one of the reasons I was not keen on the private sale. The only thing i would say was I did get an injector replaced as the car went into Limp home mode (eml and ECU light). Since then the light has come on twice but no effect on the car. Both times when going slow and a bit sluggish, (pulling away at lights/into drive)

[Crombers]

Why has no one told me about this. One of the reasons i sold my R50 was the intermitant EML light (after my performance exhaust was fitted). Spend £200 already on it trying to id the fault , never new about this. Also one of the reasons I was not keen on the private sale. The only thing i would say was I did get an injector replaced as the car went into Limp home mode (eml and ECU light). Since then the light has come on twice but no effect on the car. Both times when going slow and a bit sluggish, (pulling away at lights/into drive)

Sorry about your plight but I only started to look for something/anything when Euan recently offered me the manifold.
Lesson here is to trawl through MINI2 & many of the MINI tuning sites if you have a fault as I have managed to fix a few things in the past with the numerous 'fix' posts on MINI2 (notably the headlamp motor) .

Maybe this part may have sorted you out (not that this is much use to you now) :

O2 SENSOR LAMBDA PRE CAT/POST CAT- ALL CARS TO 2006 £59.73
£70.18 with VAT

The 'blurb' is all here - Factory replacement O2 Sensors, pre and post cat. A defective O2 sensor can trigger the Service Engine light and also affect your MINIs gas mileage. Sold individually, get this sensor to replace either the pre or post sensor, or both. About O2 sensors: An O2 sensor (lambda sensor) has an expected life span of about 30,000 to 50,000 miles. Sensors may fail prematurely if clogged with carbon, or contaminated by lead from leaded gas or silicone from an antifreeze leak or from silicone sealer. O2 sensors become sluggish as they age. Eventually the signal does not change at all. When this happens, the EML and/or check engine light may come on, and the engine may experience drivability problems or damage caused by an overly rich fuel condition. High fuel consumption, high CO and HC emissions, poor idle, and/or hesitation during acceleration are typical complaints. If the average voltage from the O2 sensor is running high (more than 0.50V), it indicates a rich condition, possibly due to a bad MAP, sensor or leaky injector. If the average voltage reading is running low (less than 0.45V), the mixture is running lean possibly due to a vacuum leak or because the sensor itself is bad. If the O2sensor continually reads high (rich), it will cause the engine computer to lean out the fuel mixture in an attempt to compensate for the rich reading. This can cause lean misfire, hesitation, stumbling, poor idle, high hydrocarbon emissions (from misfiring) and engine damage. If the O2 sensor continually reads low (lean), it will cause the engine computer to enrichen the fuel mixture. Injector pulse width will be increased causing fuel consumption and carbon monoxide emissions to go up. Especially in a performance tuned vehicle, a constantly rich fuel mixture can cause the catalytic converter to overheat and it may be melted :eek: eek!!

[stoney]

well i dont have any thing fitted to mine and it has gone off and stayed off dont know how or why but was told bye a bmw tec that it makes no diffrence to the car

[Crombers]

well i dont have any thing fitted to mine and it has gone off and stayed off dont know how or why but was told bye a bmw tec that it makes no diffrence to the car

It may well be down to the individual car or the type of manifold in question, who knows (certainly way beyond my duristiction :rolleyes:)

Perhaps Chris Noble could 'pipe in' with his thoughts :thumbs up: as I know he explained the process to Euan at last years Doune Hill Climb armed with cables & a lap top.

[countdown]

I remember reading just leave the connection unplugged on the post cat o2 sensor. The ecu stores the error code (as it cant detect the sensor), but it doesnt through up the light. Only the pre cat o2 sensor is used for fueling, so the car will run as normal.

Problem solved and it doesnt cost anything.

[Crombers]

I remember reading just leave the connection unplugged on the post cat o2 sensor. The ecu stores the error code (as it cant detect the sensor), but it doesnt through up the light. Only the pre cat o2 sensor is used for fueling, so the car will run as normal.

Problem solved and it doesnt cost anything.

Cheers for the info, can you recall where you read this?

I take it pre cat O2 sensor is somewhere between the exhaust back box & the CAT & the post cat O2 sensor is somewhere between manifod & CAT

[countdown]

Cheers for the info, can you recall where you read this?

I take it pre cat O2 sensor is somewhere between the exhaust back box & the CAT & the post cat O2 sensor is somewhere between manifod & CAT

Read it on Mini2 somewhere.... (would need to spend time searching). Yeah I think the precat is on the manifold, and post cat is between cat and rear section. Its the one closest to the rear of the car that would need to be disconnected. The sensor just takes a reading and compares it to the precat sensor - if it isnt within an acceptable range it it assumes something is wrong and throws up the EML light. The first / precat sensor is used for fueling and the car should still run fine with the post cat O2 sensor unplugged (the post cat sensor is just used to check emissions are within an acceptable range).


All sounds good in theory, I cant confirm that it works as i've never tried it.

I think Dave at ThinkMini mentioned it to me before as well becuase I considered a manifold and decat previously and it was the light that was worrying me.

[doogz__]

I had to do a similar thing with an old saxo I had.

Replaced the manifold with a performance one, which only had space for one lambda sensor. The new manifold was also a decat, as the cat was in the downpipe.

The pre cat lambda sensor went back in, near the bottom of the manifold (had to re-route around the engine bay) and the post cat one went into a threaded metal sleeve, which I stuck in the fusebox.

Just be careful, most lambda sensors have their own heat source, i.e. when it’s plugged in to the car, but not attached into the exhaust, they still heat up, so be careful what you do with it if you take it out the exhaust system!