Glad you found the problem, but sad for what you found....

Thanks for letting us know.

Ken

So you were on the path because it would not fire on starting fluid or a squirt of fuel

It's the timing chain!

If there’s another relay on your fuse block exactly the same just swap them to see if its bad.

haven't started the car in days. tried this morning. still not firing. check fuel rail pressure with torque app and it indicates its 82.7psi
going to change spark plugs tomorrow but current spark plugs is good, changing anyway.
order a relay from bmw wednesday and they keep saying shipment still hasn't arrived. might go to junk yard to find one.

I'm in Ottawa too! (Bell's Corners area). Our weather has been fluctuating quite a bit. Today is cold again -  a balmy -20C with 41% relative humidity. -6C and snow storm tomorrow!

In the "olden" days when cars had automatic chokes, we would sometimes see at 5pm rush hour, cars come out of nice warm office tower underground parking (they'd start easily there) and go maybe 100 feet. When the carb sucked in cold air the choke would slam shut, flooding the engine.
Something similar may have happened to your MINI - it got nicely warmed up and then a sensor somewhere chilled, making the management system think it was a cold start and apply too much fuel.

Have you tried it again since Saturday morning? Leaving it for a while may have resolved the problem. If the throttle is mechanically connected to the gas pedal, you could hold it all the way open while cranking to allow the cylinders to pull in air to dry out flooding. I don't think this would work if the throttle is entirely electronically controlled.

I'm afraid MINIs in -25C (or -14F) is not something we have a lot of experience with, although I would expect the car to function perfectly normal even in such conditions. However if there were something marginal such as a weak connection, then the cold weather may have exacerbated the situation...

Try a shot of starting fluid into the throttle body or a squirt of fuel, if it starts and dies, you have a fuel problem. Is there gas in the tank?, did they give you a load of water? etc. If it does not start and die, no spark? fuse?, relay? timing problem? etc. It will get you closer knowing the problem by process of elimination.

I'm in Ottawa Ontario Canada. Friday overnight it was probably -25 celcius

How cold is "cold"? What are the other environmental conditions - was it snowing, or was the air humid?

One possibility is that a sensor or vacuum line received some humidity that condensed and froze. (Not directly related but yesterday, my snowblower cut out 3 times due to carb icing. Temperatures were around -2 to -4 Celsius and the air felt raw and damp. My solution was to wait a few minutes until the carb warmed up and the ice melted and it would restart on one or two pulls.) If your car was reading air temperature from several sensors it might have gotten conflicting readings and cut out.

Hello,

i have a 2008 mini cooper s r56. yesterday morning i started the car to warm up because its winter and its cold outside. I had to turn off the car and then when i came back a few seconds later to start the car, it wouldn't start. it turns over but it just wont fire! no warning lights

battery is brand new, spark plugs are still good changed one coil. and still nothing.

thank you
kaye