So this Sat, I went to Randy Webb's pully party in Oakland. Drove home, all is great. Sunday, drove around, all is still great. Then Monday morning go out get in the car sitting in the driveway, turn the key, and no start. It makes a pronounced humming noise but never actually kicks the starter motor at all. No clicking either. Battery power appears to be fine, and I tried the ecu reset, unlocking etc.

So I had no choice but to call MINI roadside assistance. Car is being towed to the dealer now.

Here's where it gets interesting though. I have 49,840 miles on the car. So I still have 160 miles of warrantee left. The main question is if MINI is going to claim the pulley had something to do with this...and if they will give me a rental car. The other thing that sux is the towtruck guy thrashed the rear towhook mounting hole trying to put a hook in there before asking me for the MINI one. About 1/2" of paint around the hole is chipped off.

Anyone have this 'no start' problem before?
Scott

 

Have you tried calling Randy? Odds are he'll have a good idea of anything that could have gone wrong WRT the install. In watching the installs he didn't disconnect anything electrical, but something may have been jarred loose by moving the engine. Strange that it wouldn't happen for two days, though.
Any power drains that could have sucked down the battery? (I know you say it looks good, but if the solenoid doesn't click...) Do you have a voltmeter to measure the output?

 

Possibly a loose battery cable from when the install was done . Thats the only guess I have. That is the only electrical connection that is delt with when doing a pulley install. Strange, very strange.........


Nik

 

Check the engine ground connection. It's the only thing I can think of that would have been disturbed during the installation. The ground cable is attached to the enging mount next to the pulley. Thick black cable, only about 5 inches long. Make sure both nuts/bolts are very tight.

 

It's too late now, as the car has been towed. but I do find it strange that nothing happened for 2 days, and then all of a sudden sitting in my driveway it failed. We did have quite a bit of rain yesterday also...so who knows, it could be anything.
I kinda wish I woulda checked all the things mentioned here before getting it sent away, but now it's too late...it's in the hands of MINI now.....unfortunately.
scott

 

Scott,

You have within a few miles +- of what I had when I got my waterpump replace at Crevier MINI in Santa Ana and they did not claim any problem because of

ALTA PULLEY, ALTA INTAKE, THROTTLE BODY, PLUGS,
WIRES, COIL PACK, SSR COMP WHEELS, MILLTECK SPORT CATBACK, H-SPORT LOWERING SPRINGS, P/S FAN COVER, H-SPORT REAR SWAY BAR, H-SPORT CONTROL ARMS, UNICHIP ECU, WEBB’s STAGE ONE BRAKES,
AUTO UP WINDOWS, VOICE OPERATED GPS SYSTEM, M7 OIL CATCH CAN, UPPER AND MID GRILLS, ALTA SHORT SHIFTER,
WHALEN SHIFT ****, DRIVER’S KNEE PAD

Mine was done by Randy Webb also and I have never had a problem.

The battery may be the problem. Back in 83 I had a 57 Olds J2 and I pulled into a gas station, used the bathroom, got back in the car and it would not start. I took off the battery cables, cleaned the posts and cables, and it started right up.

Good luck.

Earl

Forgot to mention: They always give me a loaner even when I had a hole poked in a boot under the front of the car and it was not warranty.

 

Thanks for the reassurance, if they did warrantee work with that many mods, I should be fine I hope...

I'll be sure and post the results, but regardless, it's gonna waste some of my time for sure, and there's always the chipped off paint on the bumper that I'm gonna have to try and touch up myself to avoid more time away from the MINI...

 

If MINI's roadside assistance tow truck guy damaged your bumper, MINI should take care of that as well!

 

 

I mentioned the paint damage to them, but really don't want them to keep the car for a week while they repaint the entire bumper. (they'll tell me what they think when they see the car.) It's about 1/2" by 1" worth of paint. I guess I can touch it up, but it won't be pretty...

 

Mini called to inform me the 'clutch start' switch is defective. You know when the car won't start withoug pushing the clutch in? Apparently that switch thinks the clutch is not being pushed in, thus the no start. They say they have never heard of this before, and mine is the first car that this has happened to. I guess I believe them, but I sure would have liked to check that ground strap before I sent it in...
scott

 

Good to hear this had nothing to do with the install...

BTW, don't believe a dealership's advisor when they say they've never heard of the issue before...it's a stock answer even when they've seen the problem before.

 

I'm sure I'll know more tomorrow. They have to order the part, in the meantime they have provided me with a rental car.
scott

 

Well, the end result is that it WAS the clutch 'start switch'. Not pulley related. So that is done. The sad part is though they need to keep my MINI for about a week to get the bumper re-sprayed to fix the damage caused by the tow driver. duh. Oh well, at least they upgraded my rental to a new 328i. That should be fun for a week.
scott

 

I've got about 42K on my car, I had the car not start once, then I had the same symptoms as you, but was able to get it started, after pressing the clutch several times.... hope that other are not going to experience this.

 

Our project '05 had to have the clutch switch module replaced just two weeks after purchase due to a bad pin. I was experiencing those same startup problems.