- Hello To All -

Been lurking around these forums reading up on as much as I can since buying my first Mini, let alone my first new car of my life. I did the whole cash for clunkers thing, trading in my old cadillac for $4500! Got myself (as seen in my sig) a Horizon Blue Cooper. The S' are what I always eyed but when it came down to it, it would have only gotten me $3500 and it is a few thousand more right off the bat, so it was just a bit too expensive. I mean I got my car for 17,650 with the rebate, so you can get an idea of my price range. I will be posting specific questions in the right area but had a few beginners questions that maybe can be answered here...

First off, one problem that I've had this first week of having my car was, I have noticed a puddle of what seems to be water that drips out from under my car after driving it for the day (to work and home), after parking the car in the garage. Is this normal??

Secondly, a day after showing my brother the car while parked in my garage, the next day I came out and the car battery had died. I pushed it out and had it jumped, but could not figure out why it had died. Such a small thing but I just dont know, the "P" light for the car in park does not go off. Is that supposed to be the case...?

As you can tell, I know basically nothing when it comes to cars, let alone mini's in particular. Hopefully there will be some kind souls who will help me out in my endevours, because I will have some more "dumb" questions..

Happy Motoring..!

 

Congrats on the HzB like mine. My MINI is pretty new so maybe one of the more experienced people can help (it helps to post in the Stock Issues forum), but I believe that the liquid issue is just condensation off the A/C unit. As for lights, you can customize the light behavior using the menu on the left stalk. I didn't know that there was/is a "permanent" setting but its a good place to start. I believe that there are combinations of lighting sequences that keep lights on, such as the intermediate light setting, regardless of key position.

 

The stuff dripping from your car is what they use to protect it during shipping, which sometimes they don't wash out well enough.

Your battery shouldn't have died unless it was a floor model or stored at the dealer for a while with nobody to purchase it. People open the doors, play with the switches, etc. and kill the battery. The dealer should have left a battery charge log in your glove box, check it out.

 

The water ( make sure that is what it is, not oily etc) if it is water then skimmilk is correct that's just condensation from running your A/C all cars do this not just Minis. Regarding the battery you may have inadvertantly left on an interior light etc. If this only happened once I woudn't worry about it, but if it happens again and you can see there is nothing causing this, you should talk to your dealer service. Good luck and enjoy your new MINI!

 

The Park indicator light remains on for a few minutes after the ignition is switched off.

 

Hey thanks everyone for the responses. I treid checking/smelling the liquid that was on the floor but it was clear and didn't smell like anything, so I didn't really think much of it, assuming that it was just condensation. I did notice that the park indicator light is not on when I turn my car on in the morning so I knew it did go off eventually, just not sure how long and if that had any slight (very slight) drain on the battery. Once again thanks..!