I am trying to track down a mild electrical drain on my car and noticed something unusual.When I open my door the nav screen lights up and displays the mini logo. This is before I even get in and insert the key. I dont recall if it was always like this or not. We do not have another nav car in the shop so I thought i would put the question out to you all.

Thanks,

Randy
m7 Tuning

 

I noticed this in Sean's car as well.

I opened the doors to grab my phone and his NAV displayed the MINI logo, even after closing and locking the doors again. hahaha - I stood there a bit making sure it turned off before going back inside...

 

That is normal behavior. It fires up the Nav system (including spinning the CD/DVD drive) as soon as you open the door.

In fact, that exact behavior is what sometimes causes an "invalid" map disc to get stuck in the drive and refuse to be removed, even after hitting the eject button over and over again.

Allow me to segue into a tech tip refresher on this, since I discovered the solution myself. It's a heck of a lot cheaper than asking the dealer to replace the Nav computer!

IF you ever put in an "invalid" map disc in the system, and it refuses to eject it... open the car doors, and LEAVE them open, and WAIT. Wait several minutes. Don't hit eject, don't push any buttons, and definitely don't open or close any more doors. You need to wait until the Nav computer goes completely back to sleep. Once it is asleep again, THEN hit the eject button, and PRESTO it will eject the bad disc.

It took a long time to figure this out, I was torn about it and ready to get my dealer to replace my Nav... but then I realized that every time you open the car and reach under the seat to try to eject it, you have already "awakened the monster", and it clings onto that bad disc with razor sharp claws. Obviously it keeps trying to read the disc, over and over again, and any "input" you give the Nav computer only makes it continue to try. Keeping the doors open means that you can still get to the eject button after the Nav gives up and shuts down again, without waking it up.

Anyway, long tech note, but I thought it was worth mentioning again, if only for the NAM archive.

 

Excellent info, Edge.
I've done a few upgrades without issue, but it's nice to know the secrets if something does happen.

I did notice that after I upgraded to the British voice hack the MINI logo takes a few additional seconds to show itself after opening up the door.

 

Thanks guys . I won't waste any more time looking in that area.

Randy
M7 Tuning

 

I don't know if this will help, but I think the alarm is a source of a mild drain on the battery. I have found in the past that on BMWs the OEM alarm seems to have been at fault for running down the battery and it appears to be the same on the Mini. It seems to be the only common denominator and I vaguely recall someone else tracking it to a combination of that and the stereo headunit on a bimmer.

 

I will look into that as well. My drain is substantial, 50+ ohms. The one thing we are sure of it is not audio amp .

Randy
m7 Tuning

 

Allright... seeing as to how you alls turns off when the car is left alone for a bit... well.. mine does not.
i moved my seat forward and opened the disk door so i could see the red l.e.d. and sure enough it never went out.. even let it sit over night.. i looked through the windows before i even touched the car, still on.
been having to jump the car daily.
now, how the %&# do i get the thing to turn off? ive looked for fuses but i cant figure out which one is for the nav. also i would like to solve the problem but i got no clue where to start.
any one with schematics? or have had similar issue?

 

The Nav is connected to fuses F10 and F22. See whether the LED stays on when you pull those. Schematics can be found here: http://www.bmw-planet.com/diagrams/release/en/index.htm

However, I wouldn't have thought that the Nav computer alone would use so much power that you have to jumpstart the car. Some other electronics may be staying powered up as well. Does the Nav screen stay faintly glowing?

Also, what is the condition and age of your car battery?

 

no. the screen goes completely out... i do agree that the nav not using all that power.
just so happens there are other electrical issues, got me a lemon...
low speed fan not working, no a/c only regular air, tire pressure sensor and dsc lights are both on, and other with the nav.(ill explain)
when you turn the **** to make a selection on the computer screen it seems to double turn. like if your trying to just go down one selection it will skip the one below it and move to the next.... visually it looks kinda like this

-selection1- (<--- this is the original it is on)
-selection2- (<--- this is the one i want to select)
-selection3- (<--- this is the one it skips to)

it skips every other selection.. thats the best way i can explain it.
i do believe the computer is bad. but once again i am baffled lol..

 

oh and the battery is about 8 months old. tested it at an autozone, they said it was fine.