I have an 03 Cooper S. I was driving home today going about 60mph when all of a sudden, the car just went dead. No lights turned on or anything, the car just went completely dead. I could not turn my turn signals on, the emergency flashers would not work, just dead . . . I coasted to the side of the road, and tried to start the car. Nothing worked. The car was completely dead. The speedometer still read 60mph and teh rpm said 4000. It was very weird. I called Mini and they sent a tow truck to tow it to the dealer 100 miles away. I am so angry! I am very lucky I didn't get hit and I was able to get to the side of the road! Has anyone else experienced this? What is the matter with my baby?

Thanks for your insight, Jonathan

 

Interesting. Were you by any chance driving in the vicinity of Groom Lake, Nevada at the time?

 

No I live in Columbia, MO.

 

Or Roswell, N.M. (sorry, you beat me to it)

Freaking weird thing. Glad the brakes worked. If it had happened at night you would have become a statistic. I sure hope someone on NAM can puzzle this out instead of announcing that this malady was also fixed in the 2005s.

 

I'm just guessing... It sounds like a electrical issue. It could be that your alternator died and thus your battery ran out while driving but I don't think that would create a sudden loss of power...humm maybe it does Well it could be that or maybe some wire in the link between the battery/alternator to the car got cut or some fuse blew. Oh! one more possibility (that I can think of) maybe, very unlikely, the battery cut-off safety mechanism (in event of crash) switch and those cut out battery power...

 

did you check the flux-capacitor? seriously though... once the problem is fixed, let us know what the heck happened, please.

 

Thanks for all of your responses. I will let you know what happened. I feel like my car is cursed. In December, I made an appointment to take the car into the dealer, and the next day I was rear ended. Yesterday I made an appointment to take the car into the dealer on Thursday, and now this . . . uhhhh! I will let you know what Mini of St. Louis says. Because of previous experiences, I don't have much faith in them . . . we'll see.


Jonathan

 

This option may be what happened. A sensor misread the data and cut everything off, perhaps.

Have you had any work done recently that required disconnecting the battery? I had some work done on the driver seat of my first MINI, a 2002 Cooper.

They had to disarm the battery to not trigger the airbag as they worked on a seat rattle issue, and when they reconnected everything, one of the battery connections wasn't tightened down properly.

I drove over a bump in my driveway and everything died. Had her flatbedded back to the dealership and it was the loose cable connection!

Hope that is "all" it is with your baby, Jonathan. Good luck! :smile:


Clover

 

Did you have any sensor lights come on prior to it stopping i.e. ABS etc? Did you notice the Clock turn off just prior to the car stopping?

 

lol and to think I did the same thing to myself when removing some aftermarket lights. I reset my car 3 times in one day trying to make sure the battery cables were on tight.

 

Crash sensor couldn't be it. Keep in mind, the hazards kick in on that, and the engine will still turn, just won't turn over. The crash sensor kills the fuel pump (from my recollection) not the battery.

Very troublesome problem though, my vote is a fuse/alternator/electrical gremlin.

Paging Dr. Lucas, Dr. Lucas please

 

Now I'm no expert,but if the alternator goes bad,and the car is running on the battery only,lights will dim,radio volume will drop,and the battery idiot light will come on,as it is not charging,then stop stop running as not enough current to create spark for ignition.
Now if the battery goes dead,but is still hooked up right,the car will run,the battery idiot light may come on,but the car should keep running,especialy going 60MPH.It won't start if you turn it off though.
Hope you get this figured out,let us know.

 

Did the bolt holding down the (+) cable to the front fuse box under the
bonnet loosen up or something?

 

I still haven't heard any news about the car. Mini of St. Louis evidentally get to it today. I'll keep eveyone posted.

Jonathan

 

I just got my car back the other day. The lead going to the positive part of the battery came off. Has anyone else heard of this happening? They said they haven't seen it before, but I don't trust the dealer. I think it happened because they didn't attach it right after the fixed my car when I was rear-ended in December. Thanks for all of your thoughts.

Jonathan

 

^^ Thanks for following up with the cause. You may be right about the last service. And the battery is not somewhere easily seen either.

That may become a problem in future service visits. You may have to check each time. I had a similar problem with a hood release latch--only once every 6 times would staff remember to reset it after service and that was regardless of my telling them. Not good service.

 

Actually happened to me of day 2 of ownership, tightened that mother down like no body's business.