I read in a mini magazine that most spi minis are actually running on a limp home method which bascially over fuels them.

This is because at some point in there life they have had an issue and the ECU goes into a fail safe and this has not been reset.

I believe that my new spi is such a case as it is over fueling, giving very black sooty plugs and black smoke on throttle, can anyone give me any help?

Do i need the handheld computer diagnostic thingo or...

All help would be great, and yes i did mention recently about the aftermarket ecu which may be a thought at somepoint but for now want to get it running smooth.

ta

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New from the UK and wanting a NICE little British car!

Read the UK mini forum. There is a sticky section about SPI's written by a user called 'Sprocket'. Very useful, I used this info to get mine going well. And yes, I ended up buying a diagnostic tool....

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1964 Morris "Cooper S" Group Nb Racer
1965 Morris 850
ex 1967 Morris Cooper S
ex 1969 Morris Van (Rover SPI running gear)

Hmm, I always thought mine ran very rich, I'll have to read up.

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1970 Mini Deluxe - 1275, Weber, Clive 346 cam, MS 4-pot slotted discs, Megajolt ignition Now with new improved Mambas... almost on the road
1966 Van with Traveller rear seat conversion
2008 Prado GXL
All in various states of repair...

No experience with SPI mini's whatsoever.

But you could always try disconnecting your battery for a while, which will often reset ecu's. If it doesn't do anything then it's not like you've lost anything, except maybe radio settings.

Anyone over here in Perth got an SPI diagnostic tool...

Will have a good read of the SPI sticky in uk forum too. Thanks for the heads up

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New from the UK and wanting a NICE little British car!

This does not work with SPI's or MPI's, you need a code reader to reset them.
Cheers Pete

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A recent study found the average Aussie walks about 900 miles a year
Another study found Aussies drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year
That means, on average, Australians get about 41 miles per gallon

Kind of makes you proud to be an AUSSIE

Anyone in sydney have a code reader i can borrow to re-set mine?
Mine is running very very rich.
I can smell fuel in the cockpit when shifting from 1-3 (its an automatic SPi)
It never used to do this.

There are a few reasons why they run rich, and it is not always fixed by resetting the fault codes, although this can help. Read the UK Mini forum and go through the process of checking the sensors, and in particular the MAP sensor located in the ECU. These can get gummed up with oily fuel deposits when the in line filter in the vacuum line from the inlet manifold stops working....

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1964 Morris "Cooper S" Group Nb Racer
1965 Morris 850
ex 1967 Morris Cooper S
ex 1969 Morris Van (Rover SPI running gear)

I had the same problem, first thing to check is the temp guage, I know this sounds odd but the same sender works the guage and ECU. The sender unit sends signal to the ECU then it goes to guage. If the guage reads low (asuming engine is at right temp) then the ECU will run the engine in cold start mode, will probably struggle at higher RPM too. If it's not reading right the temp senders probably nutted, mine was.
If this has been a ongoing symtom then a good clean out would help. Get a can of carby clean and using the little spray tube, blast through eveything you can find, tubes, ports, EVV's and in the throttle body. Start the engine and warm it up a bit and then give it a dose of Subaru intake cleaner, follow instructions on can.

The SPI seems like a black art so many contradicting views.

Some people say there is a limp mode, others say there isn't.

Some say disconnect to reset other say it doesn't.

Some say you need an SPI comp thingo, others say you don't.

Either way i'm going to check it over, but would like to know if anyone here in WA has a reader?

Thanks

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New from the UK and wanting a NICE little British car!

In a short explanation, the MEMS ECU does have a limp home mode, its designed to allow a bypass of any sensor that isn't working and the ECU will sub in pre-programmed value for that.

The ECU does have a memory, its used for storing fault codes and the crap it is claimed to 'learn' from the engine its on. Disconnecting the battery will not clear this information, only the reset computer can. If the computer is removed from a car and plugged into another engine it will not know, and thus apply its 'known' setting to the new engine, sometimes resulting in something negative untill its done 100 kays of driving and updated its memory and learned its new engine.

try ebay item 280740303472 , it's a code reader, i don't know how to put like thingo's or pictures up.

When the temp sender on mine chucked it in, i thought it would go into a 'LHM' but when disconnected it just belched out raw fuel and eventually just died from too much fuel, so no LHM on SPI Jap specs. Our scan tool doesn't have 'program imformation' for Rover Mini's as they never officially came to Australia. Also, they don't appear to have an 'engine check light', at least mine doesn't.

If that fails you can try Mini Spares UK site, they have a SPI rectifying kit part number FZX3052

Hang on, is this actual reliable source information, or you just saying 'didn't work for me therefor LHM doesn't exist'?

If the sensor was disconnected thats different to it being connected and giving a faulty reading.
I can say from experience, it does exist in Jap cars cause I've done 50 kay journeys with sensors unplugged before. Rough going, but it got there.

My LHM must be broken.
My crank shaft sensor died and needed replacing.
It took the guy 8 hours to test everything and find the problem.