Figures, I make a post bragging about how awesome this new little car is and then yesterday morning it won't start. Day before it had a couple issues starting but nothing bad, and ran fine later that day on the way home from work. Yesterday morning though, turn the key and nothing. The battery is still good (had it checked at wm), and it'll turn lights on in and outside the car, but turning the key fully results in nothing. Not a click, not an attempt to turn over, nothing. We're thinking it might be the starter solenoid because you can see a piece that came off of it, so we ordered a new one and will see if that works. Really keeping my fingers crossed that it's something as simple as that! If that doesn't work, the next order of business will be to check the starter motor.

Any further input would be appreciated.

 

Make sure your ground wires are screwed down good and tight- and no corrosion to hinder the contact. Good luck!

 

pretty much sounds like what mine did when I first got it

turned out to be the block ground strap

mine runs along the top engine steady ... it attaches to the body on the bottom of the engine steady at the body end. The nut is on the bottom and I did not see it was loose. But it was loose, and so sometimes the strap made contact and sometimes it didn't. Everything else would work fine cuz the battery did have a good ground to the body - but the starter not so.

I can get a picture if ya want

 

A pic would be great! It would be awesome if it was something that easy.

 

We're looking down at the clutch end of the block, I've circled the two ends of the engine steady. Between you can see the braided strap - my replacement was a lil long so I've wrapped the excess around the steady. The strap attaches at both ends using the bolts holding the engine steady which is itself just a solid bar (a replacement is possibly an adjustable).

My problem was at the upper circle - the strap attaches to the bolt that goes thru a bracket and the steady vertically. The nut was on the bottom, out of sight and out of mind. The bolt probably would've stayed in place even if the nut was gone completely! The grounding strap was flopping around on the bolt but with the nut just loose; when found it was probably backed off a good 1/4 inch from tight.. Sometimes vibration left the strap with a lil connectivity - other times no. Sometimes I turned the key and the car fired right up - it has always been an easy start - sometimes it did nothing because w/out this path you can send juice to the starter but nuthin is gonna happen - you have an open circuit. But everything else in the car was normal, only the block was missing the ground. I turned the bolt over so the nut is now on the top and if loose I'll see it.

If this is all tight, you can test the starter and sol' easily with a jumper cable

1. Ensure you are in neutral with the wheels blocked and brake set

2. Locate the hot side of the sol', where the cable from the battery comes in. With a meter you can verify that you have 12v here. Carefully attach one end of your jumper. BE CAREFUL WHERE YOU PUT THE OTHER END

3. From the other side of the sol' a fat wire should run to the starter, find that attachment point on the starter. Touching the hot jumper cable to this post will send starter juice to the starter (you bypassed the sol'). It should spin meaning the starter is good (be sure ignition is off so car won't actually start) {you could just touch the other side of the sol ... but I don't like getting both ends of the jumper that close together!}

Your only problem doing this for the average Mini is access because things are so tight up there which is why I feel fortunate that I can put mine in maintenance mode in about 4 minutes

edit - might be easier/safer to do in reverse - hook to jumper to the starter lug, then touch other end to hot side of the sol' .... I forget about the acccess issues ya'll can have. This way you are not waving a hot cable around.



in this picture you can see the starter, and a cable going across the bottom, left, then up and ends with a green terminal at the sol' directly below the brake resevior

 

Awesome, thank you! I will check this out as soon as I get home!

 

Just wanted to update. We checked everything according to BJ's awesome instructions and determined it wasn't the starter motor or grounding. Apparently the solenoid had an incoming wire that broke. We soldered it back on and the car started just fine, so we bought a new one and installed it.

Of course, as soon as we got it running again the car developed a fuel leak where the fuel inlet hose connects to the engine. That created a pretty scary situation but it was easily fixed by replacing the 3-4" section of hose.

Knock on wood...everything is working just fine now. We have determined that he runs *much* better on higher octane fuel than on the base 87.

Thanks to everyone who gave me advice. I absolutely love this car and would drive it every day if I could. He's going to his first car show this Saturday and I have high hopes for him.

 

thanks for the followup ....

sounds like you are tracking along almost exactly as my first few weeks went - I had to replace the fuel pump as soon as I got the car home. Previous owner parked it outside and did not notice the leak. One night in my garage and I was afraid the whole house was gonna blow up from the fumes - fuel pump (mechanical) was spewing fuel all over the place.

and

I tried mid grade fuel in mine once - and only once - I learned what bucking, back firing and run on were all about. Now it is 92 or better all the time.

Sidebar on this point. I got concerned about the ethanol issue and found a couple of places that had eth' free fuel and started using it. I seldom let the tank go below 1/2 and so I suppose it took 2 or 3 fills b4 my octane dropped enuf, but eventually I started to get run on and poor starts again. I checked the timing and plugs (points are gone) and everything was spot on. So I went back to good old Shell gas @92 and everything went back to normal. My conclusion: the eth' free fuel was coming from independent dealers and altho labeled at 92 octane it appears 'twas not. So now I use an ethanol 'treatment' and everything seems to be A OK

along the same lines; without going into details. A few years back the US reformulated motor oils and removed the ZINC which was a very important part of the lubrication equation especially on the cam. I've begun using a zinc additive with every oil change ... you want to replace the ZDDP.

http://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-s-f...nner_fuelguard

http://www.eastwood.com/zddp-oil-additive.html

did you say 'car show'?

 

Awesome advice, thanks yet again! I know of two gas stations in a nearby town that sell ethanol free gas. We put 93 octane in it yesterday and even though it still had half a tank of the low octane stuff, there was noticeable improvement. I suppose now we'll start going to the ethanol free high octane place. Good thing this little car only sips fuel!

The car show this weekend is a small one, but the proceeds benefit the Arkansas Children's Hospital and it was the first opportunity to show him.

Congrats on your first place finish! Hopefully Bosley will do as well!