my 2003 mc cvt is on its third battery. it died on me twice and the dealer put in a new battery each time under warranty. i have two fog lights and two driving lights extra but never use them. any one with similar issues? the dealer claims i dont drive the car enough. i drive 50 miles a week minimum in 5-6 days a week. i would appreciate any imput.

 

Watch the water level. If you are having to add water every month or sooner, then the alternator or regulator may be providing or allowing too much current to charge the battery. In this case, the battery gets cooked.

Another thing to do: place an ameter between the battery and postive battery cable. Determine the current draw with engine off. You are looking to see if there is a drain on the battery that is greater than it should be to run a few accessories like alarm and clock with the engine off. Causes are commonly shorts, but there can be weird things. For example, the capacitors that power the memory in a radio can go bad and not hold their charge. Then the battery has to keep powering them up - much more than normal. Another less weird one: a starter that does not fully disengage.

 

We also own a 2003 MC. It has CVT. Only 19,450 original Miles. I just had the original Battery replaced. I had the Original Battery Tested & was told it was
was weak. After nearly 4 years of use i can,t Complain. I did not go to the Mini Dealer for Battery test or Replacement. As far as the dealer telling you
that you don,t Drive the car enough, well we do not either. So you probably have an Electrical Issue Causing the problem. I would Suggest having the Battery tested at someplace like Autozone or Napa. See what they say. Good luck.

 

I owned a 2003 CVT and when the battery died the dealer installed a new one and then tested the car and found a "parasitic drain" on the battery. They traced it to a faulty power steering motor that, even when the car was off, kept taking power from the battery. So they replaced the entire power steering motor and pump as well. All under warranty at the time.

If new batteries keep going bad so fast, it's likely to be something draining the battery even when the car is off.

Good luck!

 

Your dealer is correct. That means your driving less than 3K miles/year. BMW expect you to drive at least 10K miles/year which is below the average 12K/year for most folks. That is the same reason why they say an oil change when the mileage indicator says (about 10K) or once per year.

My battery went dead at about 4K miles and they would NOT replace it under warranty. Simply not enuff miles driven.

 

Since you never use the extra lights, disconnect them and see how the battery holds up. Also any other aftermarket electronics you may have could be causing your problem. Check it out.

 

well, I am on my original battery, and have less than 19K on my cooper. my car is a 2003 as well. I am going to replace my battery in a few weeks here, but I have never had a problem. The claim from the dealer that you don't drive the car enough is BS, IMHO. Something in your car is drawing your power when the car is off, and it is not on long enough to recharge it. Maybe consider a battery tender....to do a trickle charge on the battery when the car is in the garage?

 

Sorry, but your wrong. MINI batteries aren't the greatest anyway and the car needs to be driven to fully charge the battery. This is a well known issue. Its not like somebody just discovered it.

 

With our weather...who knows. I have went through 3 also. But I am now on a DEKA which just died (my fault). Then, I just bought a 5lb 188 CCA battery! We will see if this thing holds up.....If it does, the stocker should

 

That sounds weird to me. I have a '98 Corvette (in addition to my MINI). My wife drives the vette to work and home (approx 1.7 miles of 25 mph speed limit driving). I almost never drive the car. Even with a few trips we've put less than 12,000 miles on it in 6 years of ownership. The car was used when we got it and I put a new battery in it at about 2 years of my ownership but haven't put another one in it in the last 4 years where the car has only gotten about 8,000 miles total. I don't have it hooked to a battery tender or anything (never have) and it doesn't go through batteries. The main source of mileage on this car is my approx 1x per month of driving it to work 25 miles each way.
I don't think it's particularly good for a car to be driven so little. On the other hand, I've never heard of it being an excuse for eating batteries unless the car isn't started and run every couple of days.
Just my opinion...
POWER to the MINI's!

 

i put an Optima red-top battery in mine, no problems whatsoever

 

I'm curious...what size Optima fits the MINI?
(as they don't list an application on their site).

 

Well then, riddle me this....my car is not driven for 2-3, sometimes even 4 months in the winter, it is 4 years old, less than 19K miles on it, 8K of which were in the first 9 months of ownership....so 11K miles in over 3 years...and my battery is fine, never needed a jump, no issues what so ever. My car had not been started from early December, and I just went and checked...starts up like a charm, no battery disconnect either.

So, from my experience, it has to do with the quality of the battery, not the amount of driving....maybe there are just a run of junk batteries out there, and MINIUSA is not wanting to take responsibility for them? Or he has an undiagnosed power drain....electrical gremlin, that MINI wants to do nothing about?

So, IMHO, and from my OWN experience, I don't think I am wrong, and still believe what the dealers are saying is BS.

From what he is saying, 3 batteries, that is NOT normal, even with minimal miles. From his descriptions, he drives about as much as I drive, but I am still on my original battery. Something else needs to be wrong if there is that much of a battery failure...an electrical draw that is out of the normal. Maybe the wiring of his driving lights is drawing the power, a trickle or something.

If he does 50 miles a week MINIMUM...driving 5-6 days a week....he never stated how many miles are on the car. Assumptions were made here that he is ONLY driving 50 miles a week. If that were the minimum, he does about 2600 miles a year, in the last 3 years I have put on about 3700 miles a year, most miles are short distance, out to dinner, lunch with the car guys, family gatherings, etc. Not THAT much difference between his estimated MINIMUM and my actual. So....for 3 batteries to be replaced, car to die 2 times,.....NOT a normal under any condition. Sorry, but I still call BS for the dealer saying what they are saying.

It would be nice if the author of the question at hand gave us more details, total miles on the car, and maybe if he as attempted disconnecting his aux lights to see if he holds charge longer....he says he does not use them, so why not disconnect and see what happens?

It is too easy to focus on what is said in the forums (which is NOT always right, we all know that), and give the "canned" answer....but his issues sounds different, maybe besides just saying "yup...you got yer-self a broke battery, dude" (not quoting there, just making fun of the situation)....someone can help him to see that his condition is out of the norm....and maybe trouble shoot other problems.

Chows...read the first 3 responses in this thread....maybe he has a parasitic drain similar to what boognish had. Don't just say someone is wrong, that is quite flippant...help him out, don't just make an assumption like you did. If he finds an electrical problem while under warranty, that might solve his issue, but once out warranty, it is his cost. He needs more diagnostics on his car, and his dealer needs to step up...because if they leave it at "you don't drive enough"...that is total BS, they should be better than that and do some electrical testing. They owe him that.

 

thanks for all the replys. the car has 19758 miles as of today. i have disconnected the auxiliary lights. since i went to the dealer and had the new battery put in everything is fine. back in june 2005 when the secon battery was installed everything was fine too until january 2007. the june date should be 2006.

 

You have to understand the grueling conditions where we live. AZ heat plays the devil on our batteries. Going through 3 batteries is not uncommon here. I am on my 4th in 4 years. Though 1 1/2 was through attrition.

 

uksuv i understand what you are saying, but the other Minis in my area dont have this problem so i have to say i have a unique situation. i lived in so cal for 43 years and never had this kind of battery problems and except for the altitude, the weather in so cal and sierra vista is very similar. so my feeling is that this problem is not caused by my lack of driving nor the weather.

 

We are in the same boat...I grew up in Northridge. The AZ climate is very different I think. Anyways, if you don't think it is your battery giving you problems...the only other thing I could suggest is that you have a power draw cominng from your driving lights. P.S. - Just to let you know..since being here in AZ I have went through 2 batteries in my old Jetta, 3 in the Mini and 1 in the BMW.

 

lil late in this convo but I must say I had the same problem since new. took my 03 cooper back to the dealer three time and they found no problems. (just looked at me as if i was mental lol) knowing i wasn't crazy n I do have my own garage, I found time to look at my cooper n the only thing I came up with is this.
I keep my cooper in the garage out of the weather, so i leave the key in the ignition (car is off, everything is off but key is still in the slot) within the WEEK the battery would be completely dead.:impatient Now If my car is sitting with a charged batt n I pull the key out of the ignition (keep it on the seat or something) it will start right up, even sitting for a month. (13k on '03, it sits a bit). my dealer told me there's a chip in the key so maybe when its in the ignition slot its always reading it, therefore draining the batt....idk

sounds crazy but that's my story. The batteries must be good quality because I still have the original in my car, n still will go dead only if the key is left in its slot. otherwise its good. see if that might be whats going on with yours.
-john-

 

MINI batteries are hit or miss it seems, but definitely short lived compared to other makes. After three years my original started weakening if left usused for a few days (slow cranking, dimming interior lights when cranking, etc). I checked the system for excessive parasitic draw, after a couple minutes the draw fell to a couple milliamps, so that was not the case. Eventually the car would die out completely if it sat for a week. I fitted an Optima Yellow Top battery last year and things have been fine.

I set up the original battery in my garage with a charger/maintainer, voltmeter and a load tester. After fully charging the battery I let it sit, disconnected, for two weeks. After that time, the charge indicator eye on the battery was dark, the voltage was 10.9 volts, and the slightest current draw dropped the voltage to about 4 volts. In other words, a stone-dead battery that died on it's own and not from any parasitic draw. While most would say that the approximately three years of use I got out of the battery was decent, nothing I have owned previously had a factory battery that died so soon. My Dodge Stratus had over seven years on it's original battery when I replaced it, and it was still going strong. My feeling is, once you go past 5 years or so on a battery, it's on borrowed time. Three years or less, it's a defective battery.

MINIs with battery issues fall into two camps, either parasitic draw from some part of the electrical system not shutting down properly, or bad batteries. I feel the vast majority of them which experience problems after about a year are battery related. You should be able to mothball a car for over a month without having battery problems. If the car has a large parasitic draw by design, then it's faulty design.

 

I've got less than 10,000 miles on my '03 MC. Got a letter from MINI about this time last year saying the next time I was at the dealer I would get a new battery. Took it in last Sept. for it's 3 year check-up and they also installed a new battery under warranty. Don't know why they wouldn't replace some folks battery under warranty.

 

Wait, your's is a Non S, right? If it is, than you just answered a question that's been bugging me for a while.
And to answer, if the above quote is in regards to a Non S MINI, the r34 Optima should fit.

 

Lets see I'm on my 5th windshield, third battery and second Altenator I think when the last battery fried in the summer heat here it took the altenator with it. $650 from the dealer BTW. Not that I paid that but was it still pricey and half that much.

 

I'm on the 3rd battery and second windshield on my 02 and it only has 7,400 miles on it. All were replaced by the dealership prior to my buying the vehicle. batteries were replaced due to sitting around and not being driven much.

The Windshield just cracked again in the middle of the windshield at the top (just behind the rear view mirrow)

 

My 03 MC battery mysteriously just failed on me this weekend at approx. 45k miles. I had started my car three times that day with no problems. Next time - just a bunch of solenoid clicking. New battery is installed and the car is running fine again.

In case you're stuck needing a battery for your MC (non-s) on a weekend as I was, you can find a battery manufactured by Exide with an 84 month warranty that fits at Checker Auto - Part #4784. Unfortunately, the top of the battery is a bit different in shape than the original, so the original battery hold-down bar will not work. (I have yet to fabricate a new one.)

Here's a link: http://www.partsamerica.com/productd...artNumber=4784