I parked the Cooper in the driveway after morning errands. I planned on giving it a nice wash this afternoon after a little lunch. Before I had finished my lunch there was a knock on the door... my neighbor said she had just watched my Mini roll backwards down our fairly steep driveway.

The e-brake was set, but I did not put it in gear because my hands were full (lesson there).

It crashed into some large bushes and the left rear rolled up onto a tire-sized rock. Broken taillight, gas cap cover torn off, fender molding torn off, driver's side mirror thrashed. Multiple dents and scrapes.

Mini roadside assistance is on the way, but they've said that no one will do this extraction without a damage waiver.

No one was hurt and there is no damage to anyone else's property... but my baby is in bad shape. The car is up on the rock but it looks like most the the weight of the car is on the left rear tire and the spare, but towing the car forward will certainly tear off the rear bumper.

I've got tons of pictures and I've had the police fill out an accident report. Insurance has been called, but they are closed today.

 

:-( That sucks!

I can feel your pain and hope your MINI will be back soon and in a great shape.

 

aw. i hate that. my fiance had something similar happen while he was visiting me at my house. i live on a hill and he parked his old car (nissan sentra spec v...he no longer has it) in front of my house on the street. we also had a knock on the door and lo and behold...his car rolled down my street. luckily, he ran into a large truck and the front license plate holder on the front of the truck caught my fiance's car. amazingly the only thing that had to be replaced was the rear bumper and no damage to the truck. i am sorry about your situation. it is one thing to have a nice car..but it really sucks to know that it has been wrecked. good luck with everything. so sorry....

 

Mini Roadside Assistance (AAA) won't touch it because it's not a simple tow and extracating it from the rock it's on may cause additional damage. They've advised me to arrange for my own towing help (for which I'll likely have to sign a damage waiver) or that I wait until Monday and get my insurance agent involved. I believe the car is fairly secure where it sits, so it looks like I may be waiting until Monday.

There's no question that towing the car foward would rip the rear bumper off on the rock... but if we can jack up the driver's side another 2-inches I think we can "tow" the rock out from under the Cooper, getting it back on all fours.

 

If it was me, I'd get it set back on the road by a crane. Luckily, I'm an engineer and I hire contractors with cranes often. Let us know how it all turns out.

Rawhyde

 

Yes, I was going to say, the average MINI owner does not generally have easy access to a crane.

Sorry to hear about that. Hopefully the damage won't amount to all that much and you'll be motoring about soon.

 

time to put a rock behind your rear wheel when parking on that driveway :(

 

that really sucks. sorry to hear this.

 

This is sad, indeed. A potential lesson for all...set your e-brake fully and leave your MINI in gear.

Same thing happened to me once, and the e-brake really should have sufficed.....but it didn't. Fortunately, I was in a restaurant w/ a wall of glass. I saw my MINI start to roll, got up (rather quickly), ran outside (also rather quickly) and caught the car before it crashed into the row of bushes that were soon-destined to be it's resting place. Whew...........but lesson learned!!

 

You should post one of those pictures so we can give you some advice, I work with rocks but without seeing how big it is and where it is located, we can only speculate.
If the rock is of a movable size by hand and the car can be lifted with a jack then it's a no brainer but of the rock is 5000 lb, then you might have to lift the car with a heavy duty tow truck, they do have a crane system and since the MINI is so small, even a medium duty tow truck can strap it and lift it over the rock, I've done this once with my backhoe actually, I had to lift the back of a car to swing it over a concrete barrier one wheel had climbed over the wall and the car was driveable after I lifted and moved it off the wall.

 

Same thing happened to my fiance. Has anyone checked with NHTSA to see if this is a bigger issue with ebrakes being set and not holding the weight of the cars?

 

Sorry to hear that...

Not that you need to hear it again, but on any incline always set the e-brake AND put it into 1st gear. Sometimes the brake rotors cool and contract, rendering the e-brake completely useless.

 

Until reading this thread, it never occurred to me that this might be a bigger problem so I went and checked NHTSA.gov to see for myself if there are other incidences of ebrake failures. I found one report but am now curious about how many others have experienced the same problem. I found the dealer comment interesting.

Link: http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/pr...in/results.cfm

Complaint summary:
Make: MINI Model: COOPER Type: PASSENGER CAR Year: 2005 Complaint Number: 10127588 Summary: DT: CONSUMER'S WIFE PARKED THE CAR ON A SLIGHT INCLINE IN THE DRIVEWAY, ABOUT 3-5 MINUTES LATER, SHE HEARD A LOUD CRASH. THE CAR WAS IN THE WOODS. THE CAR HAD ROLLED DOWN THE DRIVEWAY A TOTAL OF ABOUT 150 FEET. DEALER SAID THERE MIGHT BE A PROBLEM WITH THE PARKING BRAKE. THIS WAS THE FIRST FAILURE. CONSUMER FOUND SEVERAL COMPLAINTS ON LINE ABOUT THE SAME THING.*AK *JB

 

I do find that on really steep hills, even if I pull the handbrake up as far as I could muscle it to go, it doesn't hold the car's weight entirely. But then again on hills that steep I always park it in gear.

Still, perhaps if we have this problem with the hb not holding the car, we should go get it adjusted before something like this happens.

 

My parking brake doesn't always hold fully. I've never had an accident like this because of it thankfully, but I hardly ever park on an incline. Is there a way to adjust the e-brake? I know you can on older cars... I'll check it out.

 

Let us know how it turns out.

 

In spite of the incident I mentioned several posts backed, I've never, ever felt there was anything wrong w/ the MINI e-brake. When fully engaged, I've actually been very impressed w/ it. People just get lazy/preoccupied...I know I do. Fully engage the e-brake, stick it in 1st, walk away....you'll never have a problem.

 

Sorry to hear about it man. I hope your MINI looks like new again very soon. Thanks for the valuable lesson in the importance of leaving the car in gear on any incline.

 

oh noes! Not a Solar Red

I hope this all turns out well and your baby is safe again.

 

Best of luck with the car but I can't understand why so many people leave the car out of gear. I always leave mine in reverse if I will be backing out and in first if going out forward. Been doing this for many, many years with no problem.

 

I left mine parked in a relatively flat lot. I was so shocked to find it 30 feet from where I parked it, that I didn't check whether brake was pulled tight or not.
The brake seems to hold well, but definitely not trustworthy. I still have a hard time remembering to leave it in gear (and not letting out the clutch too soon after restarting)

 

Yeah, I grew up in the mountains of NC. Lesson #1 was "never rely on your parking brake to hold your car". I don't know if the MINI is mechnically different, but I know on older cars I've had, the brake could be tightened but it would slowly loosen up over time and you couldn't fully trust any of them.

The brake should really be thought of as something to help keep the weight off the transmission rather than a complete car holder of it's own.

I still remember my driver's ed course from high school (15 years ago) teaching us that if you're on a curb, you should additionally park with your wheel turned so that if your car does start to roll, it will just roll into the curb and likely stop there.

e.g. if the direction of the roll is "down", then you angle your wheel like so:
wheel --> \| <-- curb

If it rolls, your cars goes a few inches and hits the curb rather than, say, flying through the intersection at the bottom of the hill, through the ally, through the bakery shop, off the cliff, etc... Ah well, lessons learned.

 

Sometimes life just sucks I'm so sorry to hear of your mishap.

 

My ebrake failed too and rolled into the community parking lot. It started when the alarm suddenly went off. I took it to the dealer and had the ebrake fixed. I haven't had any problems since. Good luck!

 

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