Yesterday morning I went to the garage, jumped in the car to go to work. Pushed the starter button only to be met by silence...dead battery. I called roadside assistance and they were here within the hour...no problem.

Sidebar: My CM is a 2012 just over a year old (took delivery last October), it's my daily driver and I drive 70/30 highway/secondary roadways - usually a minimum of 20 minutes per trip. So a dead battery was a surprise - knowing that I didn't/couldn't leave the lights on.

Drove to the dealership expecting a bad battery. They ran a few checks and the service advisor soon came to explain that there was a bug in the software which never let the electrical system go in to power-down or hibernate mode thus constantly having a nearly full-on power drain 24/7. They had to completely re-image the main computer - and radio system. We'll that took about four hours - with the download crashing with about 20 minutes remaining - that was at 5:45 last evening.

They finally gave me a loaner - a nearly new 2012 Cooper S Convertible - so it's time to drop the top and go have a little fun today. Hopefully the download will work and I'll get the call this afternoon to pick-up.

 

Well, it has now been two days and still no car - hope to get the call today.

 

Any updates on this? I'm wondering if anyone else has had this happen. It just happened to me this week and has the dealer stumped.

 

liveSTRONG (Interesting handle since the Livestrong organization is just down the street from my office). The problem was resolved by reimiging the primary computer system and the radio of all things. Everything works fine now - but it did take the dealership 3 days to completely resolve the issue(s). I say issues because after the reimage, the computer was showing a bunch of fault codes - which all turned out to be false.

 

Did you have any rough idle issues first thing in the morning before this happened? I have an idle issue that continues to stump the dealership and am wondering if it is a precursor to this.

 

I didn't. Te vehicle was fine one day, no issues, and then wouldn't start in the morning due to a dead battery.

 

Thanks for the additional info - I had the exact same thing happen. Roadside Assistance came to jump my car, I drove it to the dealer and my batter had recharged on the drive. Dealer checked the codes and said my computer seemed to be in a constant "on" state never allowing it to sleep, thus draining the battery. They have no idea why...they think it was related to the key. They slow charged the battery overnight and had me get it the next day. I'm worried that it isn't fixed and that it'll just die again since they didn't do anything but make sure it was charged back up. Time will tell I guess.

 

My 2011 car has the same problem as well.

 

several times over the past 2 weeks my countryman dispays a "check accessory battery drain" warning. the speedo shows a yellow mini on a lift, and the connected car status says some accessory need to be dissconnected due to battery drain? i dissconnected the y-cable and it hasnt happened again. it says if the warning continues to contact mini service. did anyones car show this symbol? i cannot find it in the manual. could the y-cable connected drain the battery? weird

 

Mine would not start last week. Dealer said the diagnostics showed there was a draw on the battery and would do further diagnostics. They kept it a few days and decided I had left "an accessory" on and killed the battery. They replaced the battery as a "one time good will" gesture.

Funny, my car is minimally optioned. The radio and lights shut themselves off when you take out the key... I don't have any other "accessories" on my car.

 

Hi all -

We had this very issue. See this thread.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...n-warning.html

At the end of the day, it was the amp malfunctioning (wouldn't turn off) that was draining the battery. Haven't had the issue since they replaced the amp.

 

I am dealing with this exact same issue right now...with only 15,000 miles on a 2012, which I bought brand new. Car was fine, then nothing...just a couple clicks. The dealership is trying to blame it on me...the diagnostic machine is telling them I leave the key in the ignition and I don't turn anything off. It's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. If I leave my key in the car, how do I lock it!? So I'm so very happy I found this thread which I will be sure to share with the MINI dealership once they call me back.