Hi all;
I have a 2004 Cooper S with a little over 145k miles on it. I guess that means I drive a lot....

This last Monday morning my car would not start. Knowing the issue was not my battery I called the dealership inquiring about a new starter. According to the dealership they have almost never seen a starter fail. They told me to try jump starting the car and if that didn't work tow it in and they do some diagnostics, one being ensuring the spark plugs were good.

Thinking along those lines I changed out my spark plugs immediately and the car started right up.

Tonight the car won't start again. On a whim I replaced the spark plugs a second time. Unfortunately this didn't fix the issue and I'm at a loss.

Has anyone seen this type of issue before?

Are there any ideas as to what could be the problem?

Any type of suggestions would be very helpful.

Thanks.
Will S

 

If no maintenance done, just install a different battery for **** and giggles. Cold weather tends to weakens battery.

 

You say you know it's not the battery, but don't tell us why you know this, Mini's are "very" power hungry @ start up, many cars with battery issues have had power enough to show a charge & run almost all the accessories, but still not start the car.

 

Nope not true.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ml#post3659648

 

Have you checked to see if the connector terminals are corroded? This could be a simple fix... look for white/blue chalky substance around the terminals

 

You need to post more info....
Since it "will not start" and you inquired about a starter, that implies it will not crank....
But the sparkplug change implies it will crank, but not start?!
What is the issue? Does it crannk? Fast, slow or no?

 

Ground wires all tight?

 

When Mini batteries start to go weird things happen, I also would not rule the starter out just because the stealer..err..I mean dealer said that he almost never sees them go bad.

 

I had a starter go bad at 94K miles and I've seen several stories on here of peoples going bad at around that mileage as well.