Well, the car gods are starting to get angry. Its been almost a year since I've had my Mini and nothing has happened to it, which just can't be true. When I had a bonneville the thing was just falling apart and then when the headgasket blew it had constant problems I got a new car. It was a BMW and in the 8 months I had it I hit a deer, had a suspension failure, a blowout, a hit and run, and had constant electrical problems. I got my Mini last April to replace it and have had great luck with it.

When I came home last night (this morning at 4am) from work, I weaved around my van to park in the garage. My roommate had some friends over so I was looking forward to chilling with them for a while. At about 5am I went to bed and just didn't feel right. Something was wrong. I felt that I had left the garage door open and went to check on it. When I did, the door was wide open and the Mini was gone. I just stared for a few seconds in shock thinking someone had come in the house and taken my keys, but I would have heard them. I looked around the corner and saw my Mini sitting in the driveway in front of the van, which was odd since I always parked in the garage. Then I found out it physically rolled out of the garage and hit the van, and probably at a decent click because I'm on a steep driveway. I pulled it back up and set the ebrake to check the damage. Only 2 dents and cracks in the chrome trim, and a crack in the bumper. It could have been a whole lot worse had the van not been there, because there is a 10 foot deep ditch across from my house, and the Mini would have torn up the whole undercarriage hitting coming out of the driveway, and then who knows what if it did go in the ditch.

Now, I KNOW FOR A FACT, that I set the e-brake and put it in gear and I KNOW that I closed the garage when I came in. I talked to my roommate about it when I woke up and he knows I do all of that when I come home everytime. The only explanation I can think of is that I forgot to set the brake, and when I put it in gear it popped back out, and when I closed the garage I hit the button twice like I do sometimes and didnt catch it this time. My roommate will talk to his friends at work because I figure they would have seen my car against the van like that. I still think its the car gods at work. I've always had bad luck with cars, but this is just ridiculous.

I'm about to wax my baby up to make it feel better and will have pics of the minor damage and everything around the house to give you a better idea later. At least I know that it would have been worse without the van there.

Anyone else have freak accidents they want to share?

 

Wow! So LUCKY that it didn't go into the ditch! I forgot to engage the e-brake on my Isuzu Trooper when it was fairly new, and it rolled back into the street! But luckily, it didn't touch a thing, nor go too far into the street, either! Better make some sort of sacrifice to the car gods ASAP!


Clover

 

Well believe it or not, a similar thing almost happened to me at a restaurant once. I parked my MINI in my normal (very visible) spot, which was on a slight incline. The e-brake was engaged but I guess it was not in gear. So I'm sitting there about to start eating and I see my MINI start to creep backwards. I jumped up and ran as fast as I could, stopping the car (easily) after rolling backwards about 10 feet. Fortunately there were no other cars around...my MINI would have just bumped into a chain-link fence covered in bushes....but still. Once back in the restaurant, the few other patrons who had seen the whole thing (remember...visible) laughed, and so did I. However, had my MINI hit that fence I definitely wouldn't have been too chipper.

Sorry that happened to you Darkness...if the car-gods weren't smiling, I hope the repair-gods most certainly are!

 

Something seems fishy to me. Forgetting to put the e-brake up, garage up, and it pops out of gear seems too much of a stretch to me. I would be talking to your roomates' friends if I were you. Glad it wasn't worse. Did the van get damaged?

Good luck

Goat!

 

I agree here - you didn't finish the last of the beer and didn't get more, did you?

-Paul!

 

Omg I almost had the same thing happen to me 3 times. Lucky enough, My driveway is mostly flat. It also happened 1 time at work(also a flat surface). I forgot to set my ebrake. Yikes. I also had a dream the other night that I left the ebrake down and it rolled out of my carport and into the ditch on the side of my house. Scary!!! Thankfully you didn't get more damage than that. Good luck with getting her repaired.

 

Same. My roommate and I can't belive that a.) all three things went wrong, or b.) I forgot all three things. I know that his friends did not do anything. They are both friend of mine and love the Mini. We are going to ask them if the car was already outside. I figure they would have at least said something if they saw it out there. At some point while I was asleep I heard a loud bang, but I can't remember if it was before or after I found the Mini.

We tested the garage this morning and where I pulled it up to the car did not roll when in neutral. I moved it up a few inches, then it started to roll back. If the car did move when I got out, it was moving so slowly that I didn't notice when I got out.

In saying that, another friend had his car broken into in my driveway (didn't lock it because he was only here for 3 minutes). There are some kids that hang out in their treehouse across the street, but I can't imagine they were out at 5am. Everything was still in the car so if someone got in they didn't take anything and didn't bother to steal it because it was a manual.


Since I was coming home from work at Fedex, alcohol wasn't involved.


Just got done detailing. Pics coming soon.

 

UPDATE:

Just talked to my roommate and our friend said my car was definitly NOT in the driveway when he left, but he can't remember if the garage door was open (there is no light in there so I can't blame him). So that would mean that a.) the car sat still for over an hour before it moved or b.) someone saw the door open and was up to no good. My roommates car was unlocked as well as mine, but nothing is missing out of either. I'm so confused.

PICTURES:

Here is an shot above the bumper showing the cracks



And another showing more, and the scuff marks made by the van bumper



I can't really get the camera to focus on the chrome, but you can see the dents in this one, but not the cracks in the chrome.



This one shows how steep my driveway is. My roomates car is normally parked to the right of mine. I steer around the van and park directly in front of it on the left side of the garage.



What no driver should ever open his door too



Why is my mini down there?



What I found, obviously the mini was touching the van



This is what is directly behind the van



You can see that it is very steep



And this is the path the Mini would have taken. I can't image what would have happened.



At least my car is shiny now

 

Sorry to say this, but physics (mainly gravity) dictates that your MINI would have rolled before 5 AM if it were to do so by itself (AND you left the e-brake off, AND you left the door open). Plus, bases upon the configuration of your garage and house, your roomate's friend must be extremely unobservant not to notice a DOUBLE garage door open (albeit that there was not light).
Unfortunately, this looks like a prank gone wrong: the friend probably was going to move the MINI into the drive to scare you, it got away from him, and it hit the van.

Of course he's your friend and you trust him.

 

I thought the same. If its true my car was not in the driveway when he left an hour later, someone helped it out. I just won't believe it would sit there then decide to move.

His was parked in the street, so his back would have been turned the the house the whole time. He would have noticed my car because he would have walked right past it, but not the door being open because he would not have looked that direction.

We're still waiting to hear from our other friend. I completely trust both of them and it wouldn't be like them to play a prank.

edit: yeah, I just went out to see. It is possible to walk out to the street without taking a glance at the garage, especially where his car was parked. He wouldn't have been looking for it open and he was probably fiddling with his keys or something

 

wow, thats an interesting post, thanks for sharing the pics. it would be funny if instead of the woods, it was just an open field. you wake up to get the morning paper and find you mini, staring back at you 70 yards away in that field. awesome!.


on the other side, imagine if your mini rolled out RIGHT into an oncomming car. They would be like...i hope this persons gonna stop...WTF?!?...then theres NO ONE in it! haha

 

i agree with raider, sounds like prank gone bad. but from the pics the damage doesn't look to severe, i'd say just make sure u lock ur door next time

 

What is that keg sitting in the garage?

Sorry it about the accident.

 

empty

 

Is this one of those cases where the e-brake WAS set, but the rotors cooled and contracted thereby letting the car roll back after some time passed?

i read about this happening to someone before on NAM. in a parking lot. the e-brake uses the car's main rear brake pad (on one side or both??) and if the rotors are really hot when the e-brake is set, they can cool off and cause the car to roll due to the brake not being in contact or applying enough friction to the rotor... get the idea?

Patrick