My 7+ year old battery was feeling rather weak. Didn't leave me stranded, but nearly so. Went to BatteriesPlus, they tested battery and confirmed it was low (64%). Picked up this Duracell direct replacement. Fit perfect and now my Mini is happy again! Plus $10 instant rebate and $10 mail in rebate and free install made this purchase over half of what the dealer wanted ($300)!

http://www.batteriesplus.com/product...ercharged.aspx

 

My daughter has a 2006 mini cooper (VIN WMWRC33526TK72691). She replaced her battery with a commercial battery last year. Her radio (Model CD53.R50) displayed the code "Disabled"and has not worked since. The fuse in the behind the radio is good and the display is illuminated with the word "Disabled" displayed. Can you explain this problem? 12 volts is 12 volts - what gives?

 

Older US model radio's (the one with the CD) (pre 2004) had a antitheft code that had to be entered...
Not sure which radio you have, your location, etc....

 

DURACELL batteries are made by EastPenn. They're also available at Sam's Club. Last time I checked, they were something like $86.95 for the Group 47.

 

I have not had the radio "disabled" wording with my radio. I have change my battery and have disconnected many times for this or that. My MINI is a 2003 purchased Dec 7, 2002. Can someone elaborate more about the radio issue? Should say that it is the standard radio due to the fact that the Harmon radio was not an option at that time.

 

Good luck getting Batteries Plus to honor any warranty on that item if you have problems. I tried on 3 different occasions at 3 different stores to get defective batteries warrantied by them and was essentially told to go pound sand. I would never give that company another cent.

 

wow ... my neighbor owns a B+ store ... I'll have to show this to him . . .

or

if I read this right ... why did you go back and buy from them twice more if they failed you the first time?

 

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The date on the radio is 06 Sept AP. It does have a CD player. She lives in Shreveport, La. She bought the car in Dallas, TX.

 

at the time I had 3 motorcycles, so after having one B+ battery for 6 months I figured it was safe to buy 2 more. They all went south between 6 and 11 months after purchase. These all 3 sat on Battery Tenders rated for AGM/Glass Mat batteries when they were not in use.

I work at a motorcycle dealership and I have a multi thousand dollar battery tester that all 3 batteries failed, but they all passed B+'s in shop test. I even brought my tester to one of the shops to show them.

 

The new CAR battery has worked in the Mini Cooper for about a year. Getting the radio to work again is the problem.

 

The disabled state comes from the radio being unable to detect the CAN data bus on its connector. It's what BMW/MINI did for anti-theft in cars of that era (the radio must be connected to a CAN bus). My first thought is to try resetting the car computer by disconnecting the car battery for about 30 minutes, then reconnect it.

 

I will try your suggestion of disconnecting the battery for about 30 min. I have been told that the code that was initially put in the Mini Cooper to discourage theft was discontinued by 2006. I don't know if that is true.

 

The radio will say DISABLED if the iBus is not present behind the radio. There is no code ever.

 

I am not familiar with the term iBus. All the connectors were pluged into the radio except a white/creamed color connedtor with about 10 connections (a double row).

 

The ibus is a one wire data bus. It is present on the 40 pin radio connector. The 12 pin white connector is for the Cd changer amongst other things. If you google images "BMW 40 pin pinout" you can get the pinout of the connector.