[CARVNIT]

Our MINIs have black boxes correct? Figuring that they do what functions do they posess. Can they tell how your car was broken into? If so, when? Or more importantly in case of an accident can it tell what speed you were traveling? What your location was? And/or what direction the impact(s) happened? Of what force was the impact? The list goes on and on, but you get the point; how much power does this computer have?

I would appreciate all pertinent responses.

Thanks in advance.

[NEMINI]

no 'black box' that I know of

[stryder]

MINIs do seem to have a habit of having the speedometer get stuck in accidents. I've seen more then one picture of a totalled car with the needle stuck at some speed. Not sure if that's the speed the car was travelling, but its certainly stuck. Low tech black box type thing.

As far as data recorders, it seems to be an American car thing, and as far as I know, all the ones on GM cars do is tell speed, and if the brakes or gas were on, its not very complicated in those cases. As far as a MINI I'm with G03 on thinking they don't record such things, but not positively.

[CHRYSt]

Most of these things pretty much record the last few seconds of speed, whether the car was braking or accellerating, and all the info from the airbag sensors. Probably a few other things as well.

The whole point of them (originally) was to provide real-world crash data to analyze airbag performance. There's only been one case in the US that I'm aware of where this data was used in a court. Tho that was sucessful, so it'll probably pop up more often.

[CARVNIT]

I was under the impression that our cars had a black box as I recall reading it somewhere. Although the general opinion seems to be there is no black box in MINIs, I for some reason still believe that it is there. For example, I know the E46 M3 has one, as probably do "normal" E46s and other current bimmers. I know BMW uses the black box in the M3 to check how many times certain transmission modes have been enabled if you have SMG. Or how many times you have hit the redline, etc.

Additionally, they utilize the box if you are suspected to be driving your car on the track. For future opportunities this worries me if I ever do decide to do a trackday or more likely autocross my car routinely. (MINI: autocross is not abusing the vehicle!!!) I strongly believe if a vehicle has a black box the owners should be aware of it. Being knowledgeable just may prevent certain driving behavior. Similar to the situation of known law enforcement presence.

Lastly, some of those domestic products only record and store the information if any airbags are deployed.

Thanks for your input and I will keep an open mind to your opinions.

Any MINI techs on the forum?

[stryder]

I think we need to clarify 'black box' that's such a vague term we shouldn't use it. Even on airplanes the thing you're talking about has a name: Flight Data Recorder, the press just calls it a Black Box (when they're bright orange or yellow) for various irrelevant reasons.

Yes, the BMW M3 with SMG does record such things, but the MINI records such things as well, like if you leave the fuel cap off, it'll throw a code (as per the US EPA regulations) and record that. That's a totally different thing then collecting specific information that's only used in accidents, and I wouldn't be worried about it. I'd suspect the CVT in the MINI for instance tracks a bit more info then the 5 or 6 speed, but its not going to be of any use if someone gets drunk and runs their MINI into a bus full of blind nuns at 100mph.

As far as I know (but you should go read your warranty booklet) there isn't any rule about losing warranty coverage if you race a MINI, so there's little to worry about there.

I agree that if anything is being recorded that matters, we should know about it. Have you tried the obvious source: Calling or emailing MINIUSA? they're pretty obligated not to lie to you, so it can't hurt to ask, just be specific on what you're wondering.

There are/were a few techs around, but they've gotten in trouble for posting, I don't know if there are any left that regularly post.

[Goonery]

The 'black boxs' (ECU and BC in MINI) record loads of data about what the cars are doing, emissions, engine management, fuel con,
basic vital signs of electrics and vehicle functions, its not a civil airliner type of black box, which is a flight recorder. The primary use on cars is is to aid service diagnostics at dealers. In the event of an accident it may well keep some last seconds of info, such as fuel rate, and speed but not stuff like the car was being raced, ASC and DSC info might be retreiveable, but in my experience the retrieval of such data by police or insurance companies would be difficult and unlikely.
There are plans and experiments to make cars, not exclusive to MINI or BMW, with flight recorders, which is what the aircraft black boxes are. But I'm not aware of anything actually on the market. I've heard that some police, emergency service, and military vehicles have them.