I have a 2004 Mini Cooper I bought a year and a half ago. The last couple of months when I shut my car off I sometimes hear a buzz sound near the center console and my trip odometer resets to zero, and my LED clock resets to 12 Midnight. Sometimes it happens when you open the door after turning the car off. In the Mini's there is a feature that the windows automatically lower a 1/4 inch when you open the doors, allowing air to escape when you shut the door after exiting. When this happens, sometimes that triggers the "buzz" sound and the reset thing happens. This doesn't seem to effect anything else, its just bothersome because I keep track of my miles with the trip odometer, and I have to keep correcting the clock. Oh Yeah!

one more thing that happens, when i am lifting/lowering the emergency brake there is what I would describe as a flicker power surge. All the dash lights go off for a split second then come back on. Anyone have any ideas what could be going on? Thanks

 

Perhaps some sort of communal ground that the interior components share is failing.

Does it start okay? How old is your battery?

 

starts perfect. i've just recently purchased this car used. 3 months. battery seems fine to me.

 

Remove any non-factory items from the vehicle electrical system. Check all wiring for damage that moves including the door harness, headlamp harness and trunk lid harness. Lift the carpets under the door entry area and check for water ingress and corrosion on the fan connectors. Reseat the connectors on the instrument cluster.

 

Try popping the e-brake cover up and make sure your e-brake isnt contacting any of the wires for your tpm button on the console, if thats good I would pop the console up and check there too

 

Did you ever get this sorted out? What was the issue? I have a related issue and I am curious.

Thanks much,

John