Hi all,

I have a 2006 Cooper that is suffering from intermittent connection to the battery. When the battery loses connection, I can get the connection back by moving the battery cable slightly, but it is unclear if this is due to the connection at the battery. Though I do have the Bentley manual on the car, it does not show where the positive cable routes and where the connection terminates, so I'm not sure if the bad connection is farther down the cable.

Looking at the part online, it seems that the battery cable is quite long (sure can't tell by looking into the cramped quarters!) so I don't see how slight movement of the cable at the battery would effect the connection on the other end of the cable. Anyone have any ideas on this?

Thanks in advance!

-l-

 

is this an original battery or a replacement? some have reported minor problems getting the cable clamp to grab the terminals on replacement batteries.

if you are impacting the connection by moving things at the battery, that's where i'd start. Absolutely FIRST is to simply clean the connection. Then, if the clamp is 'tight' but you can move it, it is possible that clamp is bottoming out b4 getting tight enuf. the easist solution is to fabricate a shim to place between the terminal and the clamp "thickening" the terminal and giving the clamp better bite. a piece of copper is best, something the approximate size of the terminal, wrapped around. (altho you want to add a shim, you still want the full contact area of the terminal to the clamp. reducing the contact area by say, sticking a nail in there to let the clamp grab, would force all the juice into a small contact point and that would result in heat...potentially a LOT of heat. (physics....think lot's of amps and a small wire...)

by the wiring diagram (if I read it correctly) the plus off the battery splits to 3 places: the starter, the alternator and engine compartment fusebox. i'm reading the diagram in the haynes .... the THICK cable goes to the starter; the alternator connection is how the battery gets charged, and the line to the fuse box is how everything else can run off the battery...

 

Thanks for the reply...

If the cable splits, then I'm guessing it must be a bad connection at the positive post since there is no power to accessories, starter, etc.. This is the original battery and the connection seems firm, guess I'll crawl about and look more closely... might even have to drag the old Fluke meter out. I was just being lazy in not wanting to start tearing things apart to get to the connections.

Thanks for the tip...

-l-

 

You need to listen to capt bj and do what he says first which is to remove the cable clamp and clean the connection and put it back on nice and snug, and never hammer the camp on. This is very easy and is most likely your problem, even if it is not, it needs to be done anyway. This just may save you a lot of wasted effort tracking down the wires.

Pull your fluke the next time you loose your connection and measure the voltage drop between the bat post and the cable clamp, it should be virtually 0 volts drop.

YD