I own a 2009 Mini Cabrio with 8,000 miles. I had my one year service (a couple months late) on Wednesday. I drove the car home directly from the dealer, and everything seemed fine. The next morning, the car would not start. After getting the car jumped, I drove back to the dealer. They told me that, since I often leave my light switch on "on", the battery had drained, despite the fact that all the lights go off as soon as I lock the car. I have a friend who knows cars who is dubious and thinks the dealer probably just accidentally drained the battery or knocked something loose during servicing. At any rate, the dealer kept the car for five hours, recharged the battery (no charge) and told me to always turn the light switch to "off." (Note that there is no alarm to remind me to do this.) So, has anyone else had problems with the battery? Do any of you leave the light switch on "on", like I used to?

 

I too have a 2009 and I have never had a battery problem whether I leave the lights on or off. And how could the battery drain if you left the switch on, when the lights go off when you turn off the engine

 

Austin: Thanks for your reply. I asked the service rep the same question: "How could the battery drain if the lights are not on?" She claimed that the switch being "on" somehow drained the battery. So I'm supposed to believe that, after 15 months, suddenly the switch being on happens to drain the battery the night I bring it home from the dealer? I've parked the car for a month at a time with the switch on, and the car always started right up. The more I think about it, the more I think this is yet another in a long line of bad experiences with this dealer. I wish there was another dealer in the state, but there isn't.

 

2010 Horizon blue cabrio 7600 Miles

I thought that by leaving the switch on, when you unlock the Mini, all the lights would come on which is great when it's dark. Have to check the manual about that. But I'm pretty sure.

 

Since daytime running lights are required in Canada, do you leave the light switch on "on" or do the lights just automatically come on every time you start the car? Although I'm not in Canada (far from it), I like driving with my lights on. That's why I leave the switch on.

 

I leave the door open and key removed when detailing and after 15 minutes or so everything turns off . It's called " power retention system" or something close to that. The reason for it is to prevent battery depletion. The switch causing draining as BS.
My $.02 worth

 

i agree. i got mine in july of '09 and the light switch has been on auto for as long as i've had it.

 

TOTAL B.S. from the stealer

 

I think I see the answer in your second post...

Sorry ladies.

 

Same here. I'd gone 18 months with the driving light option on. Since I have the NAV, I recently went into the options and decided to turn that off and just turn the light switch on. Idea here was to prolong the life of the xenons by not always using them.

Lately though, I have decided, due to traffic safety in the Washington DC area, to turn that auto feature back on. My car had the courtesy pathway lighting or leave the lights on feature after keys out and locking for 23 seconds for this entire time. And still, never left me without battery to start the MINI.

It's been into the dealer for service and checkups total of 5 times.

I'd say the dealer had something to do with the battery not performing as expected.

 

Some batteries go bad prematurely.

Also, operating the top without the engine running will drain the battery very quickly.

Lights that are not turned on will not drain a battery.

There might be something else draining the battery.

 

BMW cars are notorious (modern ones) for draining batteries if they're not driven over 1000 miles per month. My mother has a 325, it's two years old, it's on it's fourth battery. It has 7000 miles on the clock.

I find it ridiculous that modern EEs cannot figure out how to stop the draw. Other than an alarm, nothing else needs to be running these days. Hell, use flash memory for storage instead of electrical charges if that is what's using it.

 

mini replaced my battery after two years and 15,000 miles, they said it had a bad cell. What started out as an occasional problem became a regular problem that required a jump just about every time I used the car. After that first jump start at home, I did not have a problem the rest of the day. Where I usually had problem was when I went to a show or the races and opened the car door repeatedly without ever starting the car. Between the door lights and the window going up and down a bit every time you opened the doors, the battery would eventually drain. Another battery drain is the cooling pump that continues to circulate oil through the turbo after the car is turned off, this will run for as long as needed to get the temp down to whatever the acceptable temp is.
You can find other posts here that refer to where you keep your key fob when the car is not in use. Most of these seem to refer to the comfort access system (that I do not have), but the common theme is that the key fob is stored near the car when it is not in use. It seems that not everything shuts down, (the headlights always turned off if they were in the auto mode for me) and whatever is still 'on' causes a drain on the battery. Remember that with the comfort access system, the car "knows" when the fob is near the car and the car can be started without actually putting the fob in the slot.
I now store the fob further away from the car, and time will tell if I have the problem again. Fortunately my 85 year old mother and her red low mileage BMW have not had the same battery problems and she often keeps the fob in the car, in a locked garage, when not in use.

 

Your mom is lucky - mine doesn't have the comfort access (bmw equiv), no high tech goodies, just bluetooth in her mostly stock-ish 325. Been ridiculous.

 

Well, it was clearly the dealer's fault. I've never had another battery problem. What a crummy bunch of people.

Incidentally, during the same service appointment, the rep pressed me to rotate my tires. ($100!) She said it was "factory recommended servicing". I said "no." Since then, I've discovered Mini recommends against rotating tires. If I ever live in Hawaii again, I'll find a way not to patronize that dealer. From the day they took my money for my car, they were terrible.

 

$100 for a tire rotation. That is the highest I have ever heard for that easy service. I would get a refund if it does say not recommend in the owners manual.

 

Six months after I bought the car new, I couldn't start the car. Drove it the day before and then nothing. They replaced the battery. Friday night, after driving it all week, went to start it and it wouldn't start and the electrical system went crazy. Got it jumped and drove it to the dealer. Then it wouldn't start again. Waiting to hear from the dealer on Monday. I've never had this many issues with a car battery.