I bought my 2015 Mini Cooper S Coupe with 35k miles on it, haven't had any issues up until the past week or so. I was backing into my parking spot at my apartment when a transmission malfunction warning came up on my stereo (No lights are on on my dash). The light popped up and went right off so I didn't think much of it. But within the following days, I have had 2 ABS Break System warning lights (again, warnings on my stereo popped up and right back off) and today on my way home I got a "Hood is open" warning light when my hood was securely closed. Not only that, my car feels like it wants to die at a stop. RPMs drop, but never completely. My A/C also stopped working on the ride home from work today (It blows, but NO cold air) . Any advice or info is MUCH appreciated. Thanks all in advance! I'm really hoping its just electrical issues.

 

Sort of brings to mind there is problem of insufficient electrical power. The alternator supplies this and it is acts up can intermittently fail to produce sufficient power. It can start out ok -- my experience with another car -- then after some minutes (~30 in my experience but the time can be anything really) its output can drop off to the point the battery is supplying some maybe all the car's electrical requirements.

Weird and seemingly unrelated warning lights can come on, messages can appear. If the situation becomes too bad the engine can run poorly misfire even, at which point the CEL can come on, and the engine can even die.

Now if the ignition is turned off and the car sits for a while upon restart -- if the battery is pretty good condition -- the behavior is gone and everything appears normal.

With a battery voltage gauge one can observe the battery power level and note if it falls too low. In my experience the voltage reading started out a bit over 13V but in around 30 minutes was down to 12V. I just aimed the car for the dealer and there the diagnosis was the alternator. I elected to get a factory rebuilt one -- it came with a 2 year, 24K mile warranty -- installed.

If there is no battery voltage gauge in the car it is a bit of a pain to carry a volt/ohm meter and just happen the car starts acting up and you can pull over and open the hood and get out the meter and start probing and checking voltage levels at various points. And with the engine running if you drop a meter lead down and it gets caught in the accessory drive... Oh oh.

Really unless you are a rather experienced gifted DIYer as best you can know under what circumstances this behavior appears and then get the car in a shop and let a pro tech reproduce the behavior and make the diagnosis.

 

Get your battery and alternator checked at local advancedauto or autozone. Your car appears to have low battery charge.