Im a car guy not a mini owner. My Aunt on the other hand has an 05 MINI Convertable S and she just recently drove it about 10 miles with o coolant in it. The car went into some sort of limp mode and only allowed her to drive 10 mph. She got it home but now it wont start. I did a compression check and its 90psi accross the board. I know thats not very good but its not aweful either. I think the car should still start at least. She probably popped the head gasket but at the moment I have no idea. I know i can use the search function I may be a newb here but Ive been long time members of many other forums.

Couple quick questions.

1. Any idea what may be wrong with the car IE limp mode related. the reason I ask is becasue it would make it a lot easier to diagnose the car if I could get it to start?

2. Where the **** is the Battery? Cause I know if I un hook it for about 15 min it will clear the codes and may allow me to start it. Its getting fuel but seems to have no spark.

3. Is it worth the time to pull the head and have it checked. The car has 40k miles but my aunt is a awful car owner and should have never bought a cooper S so Im gussing her maintanace is no where near the caliber of the mini owners on this site. Money is really not a problem for her though and I already found a long block with 37k for $2500 shipped. In my opinion swapping the motor is easier then replacing the head when fixing the head my not be the only problem.

Any help from you guys would be awesome. Please no bashing or harking of my spelling or punctuation casue I dont care. I may not know much about Minis but I know pleanty about cars. Ive done 2 frame off restores and built myself an LS1 RX7 to play with. I worked on plenty of car and am very capable of reparing this one but i am also humble and know I need to do research before I tear into a car ive never even turned a wrech on.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

batterys' in the trunk

 

1. Get a code reader tool and pull the codes.
2. The battery is in the boot under the floor mat.
3. I would do a little more diagnostics. Drain oil and see if there is antifreeze in there. etc.

 

90 across the board is consistent, but not good.

 

Yeah I know its low on the compression but the Garage she took it to told her it had none. I already plan to check the codes and drain the fluids. The oil was black and not milky and reaked of gas from all the cranking that has been done on the car in the last few days.

Any idea if there is a limp mode on minis that will only alow you to go 10mph maybe just to get you home. Ive heard of cars haveing something like that.