So I go to get in the Mini and before I put my key in I look at the needle on the speedo - it is bouncing on the "0" peg. I put the key in, turn it and the bouncing stops.

Anyone else experience this?

 

yeah, it does it to me sometimes when i turn my radio on while i'm working on the car. no key in the ignition, just turning the radio on with the car off.

 

I've only ever had it happen once. Was a little worried about it, but so far it's never happened again and everything still works.

 

OK, at least that confirms that I'm not nuts (I wanted to make sure it wasn't my eyes bouncing or something) and that it's not a major problem. I've had the car 10 months and it's the only time it's happened.

 

The bouncing speedo needle has been around for a while Both my MINIs have done it on occasion. It's the MINI's way of "bouncing for joy" after a great run Seriously, I don't think anyone has really figured out why it happens but it doesn't seem to do any harm.

Lois

 

Mine did it just the other day - scared the hell out of me. I've got the Chrono Pack, so ALL the gauges were bouncing! ISTR, I had switched on the radio the night before, after I had turned the car off, before I opened the door. (I wonder if the gauges were bouncing all night???)

With the Chrono Pack, I've got the speedo and tach on the steering wheel - I also noticed my digital clock had stopped. (Either that, or my MINI is so fast, it got me to work instantaneously!)

 

No bouncing speed-O but my clock freaked out recently on a cold morning (IT WAS either the cold or pay-back for not buying Girlscout cookies from a friend's daughter at work...).

 

I'd go with the Girlscout cookie theory.

 

This happened to us in the wife's '02 Cooper CVT. In early 2004, the speedo would "rattle" every time the car was started and then the instruments would work fine. After a while, the problem dissapeared. Dealer told us "This is the nature of the beast" (Yeah right!)

Then later last year, the Bouncing/rattling speedo became an everyday occurrence and we got used to it. One day, the car started to drive erratically and the CVT transmission was either downshifting or upshifting out of sync with the speed of the car and the RPM's in the engine. It was like riding a rodeo cow or something like that

Well, we took the car to the dealer and while there the original factory battery died completely on them while in the service bay. It turns out that the battery was not supplying voltage "within factory specs", thus causing widespread electrical current failures within the different modules (ECU, Motronic, etc). If you attempt to run a computer using lower voltage you will have problems, crashes, etc, so the same thing happened in the MINI.

So, the dealer replaced the battery under warranty (Factory batteries in South Florida don't last more than 2-3 years because of the high heat) and presto! The car returned back to normal and to my surprise...the bouncing speedo needle went away as well!

So my theory is that the bouncing/rattling speedo upon startup could be a sign tell you that the battery is about to go south! In analog battery operated wrist watches, the seconds hand skips a second or two when the lithium battery is low, so the MINI seems to give you forewarning that your electrical system voltage is lower than it should be.

You got to love the electronics in these cars!

No problems ever since the battery was replaced. Get out a voltmeter and make sure that bettery is churning out the correct voltage!

 

i dont think this is the type of bouncing were talking about. mine only last 3 or 4 seconds after i turn the radio on with the car off then stops, never had it happen while driving or anythng.

 

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...haunted+gauges

hmmm...

 

and double-hmmm....

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...jumping+speedo

 

CORROSION IN THE LINESSSSSS

Oh, whoops. I just checked. I'm a girl, don't listen to me!

I drove a thunderbird and a Ram that had this problem. Bugged the crap out of me. Then my battery died and wouldn't recharge itself... i got a new battery, wouldn't charge. My grandfather said there was "corrosion in one of the lines" and he some how twitched his nose and fixed it.

Man, i'm wrong again. I'm the nose twitcher.

-Samantha.

P.S. My mini is famous for catching all the bugs people post. I'm scared that because i found this post, it'll happen to my mini in a week. My dealership calls it the "me too" bug. Somehow every problem i have is something i saw posted on this site and claim "But other people are having this same problem too!!" "Oh, it's just the 'me too' bug" Grrrr.

By the way, i'll be back at the dealership for my 3rd service in 2 months for 4 problems... yay! Oddly enough, 2 of the problems are things that they broke upon my last service visit. They're catching the "My fault" bug everytime i go now.

 

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ghlight=gauges

3rd time's the charm!

 

Off-topic but, Here is the magic nose-TWitcher for dealing with gunk on battery terminals and terminal-clamps.

 

:( all this time i thought he knew magic.

 

Mine bounces but only when the car is off, key out of the ignition, and i turn on the radio or press the button on the odometer. The speedo needle will jump off the peg a hair then drop back down and stay there. I though it was kinda wierd but figured it was probably a minor power surge resulting from the radio or odo being turned on when everything else is off.

 

The needles bounching and 'rattling' is from the car recalibrating guages. If it just pops up for a second or less, then its just a power blip from turning on something while the car is off (lights, stereo), and it dipping the current below 12v.

 

Awww, I didn't mean to rain on your grampa magic mojo... I was selfishly going for the rush that comes from revealing the secret to a trick... <pout><sorry>

Everyone knows grampas DO have powerful magic, and (though I expect less buy-in on this one) even some dad-in-laws have been known to cop a little bit of this "big medicine" from time to time. Mine always seems to have just the right tool for the job, whatever the job is, AND he knows right where to find it (which I WISH I could say the same about MY tools lol) .

I'm learning from the master magician, though,
Tatt

PS you all may now have your thread back , and thanks.

 

I didn't know anything about cars when the t-bird was doing that. Heck i didn't know the difference between manual and automatic transmissions. Anything fixed on that car was magic to me.

But i'm glad someone told me about this site... and even more happy that people post as soon as they find an issue. Alot of times i'm dumbfounded, but don't think to ask on here about the problem

 

OK this is bouncing speedo deja vu all over again, I realize... Disclaimer: I am not complaining, just reporting on observations FWIW.

I unlocked the MCS with one click of the keyfob this morning, got in (key not in ignition yet), and the center speedo needle was bouncing, accompanied by some kind of soft buzz/whirrr sound...

I started the engine and the needle stopped bouncing. Digital clock said 7:35am. I hear on the radio that it's "22 minutes before 8 o'clock", so I scratch my head and drive off (I knew it couldn't be 22 minutes til eight, since my clock said 7:35 right? ) Read on...

Ten minutes (11 actually) later, the clock hasn't changed, still stopped at 7:35am.

I check my ancient but trusty wrist-mounted Timex, and by golly it's 7:48am. So, as I pull into the middle school parking lot, I adjust the MCS clock forward to the correct time and curse my shall we say Obsessive-Compulsive side. I shut down the engine, locked the car with the key fob, and went inside the school to complete my drop-off-the-forgotten-violin errand...

10 minutes later (correct time was now 7:55am) I return and unlock with the fob. No bouncing speedo (whew) but the clock now says 8:05am . It had "gained" 10 more minutes, on top of my initial 10 minute correction.

I should have left well enough alone to see if the clock was again "stopped", but I corrected it for the 2nd time and drove on to work. At least for the 15 minute drive to the office, it appeared to be keeping time.

Bamboozled, because unlike some around here, my clock has kept perfect time since new,

Tatt

 

Oh my gosh, tatt, I had the exact same experience about 2 months ago. I've had the bouncing speedo thing several times but the clock issue was new. I did almost the same thing with the clock as you did with the same results. Since then no problems although my clock is a little fast but I'm afraid to touch it My Cabrio is an 05 also

Lois

 

Curiouser and curiouser, huh?? If our ODOMETERS start acting scratchy, let's hope they at least go BACKwards, not forward... I could see that particular discussion taxing even my most excellent Service Advisor .

I had a hunch I wasn't alone, thanks Louie,
Tatt