I've had my clubman since the middle of February, and am getting the "Not enough power" error when I start my car. Of course, it decides to do this on a Saturday.

Any ideas on what this might be and anyone else have the same problem?

 

How far do you typically drive? I know of several cases in which the owner only drives a few miles each day and the battery doesn't have a chance to charge. More options impacts this more.

 

Surfblue says: I've owned my 07 MCS for two years. I put my battery charger on the battery once a month, no matter whether driving short hops or long drives. I have NEVER found the battery to be completely charged, even after a long drive. I don't run my air (Northern California) and the stereo is just the factory unit. No other big power draws beyond normal. I encourage ALL Mini owners to put a good home charger on their battery at least once every thirty days to top off the battery charge. BTW, when I picked up my car, I drove it 80 miles home, then another forty miles or so. I put my charger on the battery the next day and it took at least half an hour to top off the battery. I'm not saying this is necessarily your issue, but it's someplace to start. Any comments??

 

I drive about 7 miles both ways to work, normal bopping around town. I drove my husband to and from the airport this last monday, and that's a good 45 minute drive on the interstate, both ways. Battery charge I wouldn't expect to be the big issue. It's been hot here, so I have been running the a/c more frequently, but that's all I've been running. I don't have any super fancy options on this car, so there shouldn't be much residual power being used.

 

Just this - in a stock car, if you have to charge your battery with anything other than the alternator already in it, there's something funny going on with your electrical system.

There could be something wrong with your battery, or you could have a short somewhere that is slowly draining it.

There's no reason that your battery should need additional charging unless you leave the car sitting for weeks at a time.

Brad

 

"Not enough power" error

Is this an idiot light or a code or a graphic or what? I've never seen or heard of this before.........

 

It's one of the idiot lights... gives you the engine symbol in yellow on your tachometer.

 

[quote=MINIdave;2753666I've never seen or heard of this before.........[/quote]Actually, now that you mention it.......I don't think my friend who has had the battery recharging issue had seen this one either!!!

If it were me, I'd be calling the dealership at least to document the problem for now. Hopefully they can take steps to fix it, but in any case, documentation is important to MINI when it comes to "issues."

 

I already did, only crappy part is I can't get the car in until Monday with no other transportation, so I'm stuck in the house until the tow truck driver gets here. The mini dealership is 30 or so miles from me, and there's no way I'm driving with an error for that far.

 

BMW is also telling owners of X3s the same thing. you don't drive enough. what BS.

 

It is complete BS. At least once a week I drive for 45 minutes or an hour -- just not on my daily commute. That should be more than enough to charge that battery again.

 

I had this happen a few miles after taking delivery of my car
Mine was the VANOS solenoid that needed replacing.

 

Yeah, I don't think that is the problem in your case. My friend drives maybe three minutes to work and back. Must be something else. I hope they get is sorted easily.

 

If it was me, I would charge the battery to see if that was the problem. If it is, then you have transportation for the weekend and then have the dealer check it out on Monday. Do you have a battery charger? Or do you have an Auto Zone or something similar close by? They can hook up the machine to tell if it's the battery or something else.

 

After doing some searching, that sounds about right. How long did it take the dealer to repair it?

 

Before it goes, just make a check of the battery terminals and give them a good tug and twist to make sure they are tight.....

Write back after MINI takes a look. We are eager to hear what this ends up being.....

 

Sounds suspicious. During the winter, we didn't drive our MINI for a good 3-4 weeks (terrible snow and no winter tires). And during this period, there were several sessions of me-sitting-in-the-car-deprived-of-driving-fiddling-with-the-stereo. Didn't think to hook up a battery maintainer, but when we started it up again, it ran like a charm.

 

its an easy swap if they have the part in stock. Mine needed to be brought in from Germany and it took 3 days, but they gave me a brand new BMW Z as a loaner for a few days, so I didn't complain

 

I would also doubt it has to do with minimal driving unless it really is so few miles to do an adequate charge. If driving it a few times a week and at least one drive is an hour, then you should be okay. Since the car is under warranty it does pay to have them check it out for a multitude of reasons. the solenoid as was indicated above could be one possibility but it could also be a bad cell in the battery which happens occassionally and has nothing to do with the reliability of your MINI, just the luck of the draw with the battery. I know I once bought a DieHard battery years ago and had to bring it back the next week - It had a bad cell.

The thing about the battery not getting to full charge...well there is fully charged and then there is really fully charged. The closer a battery gets to being fully charged, then the longer the charger or alternator needs to be on to get the last say 5% to fully 100% charged. This is much more common to see on a boat that goes a week without being used or during the winter months when not used as much for those that use a boat year-round. I have a sailboat and utilize it all year-round. I use a solar panel to charge the battery because I generally use the outboard (which charges the battery) but only for a short time in and out of the marina/docking area. Since it is not long enough to provide an adequate charge, hence I use a small solar panel and that charges for many hours most days. That has worked out fine for many years.

But I have never had to use a battery charger on a regular basis for a car. A car is generally used each week and generally for more than an hour each week. The battery drain each day in the summer on a battery is a little less than 1/2 amp/day and in the winter/battery in cool temps the drain just sitting around is about 1/4 of an amp/day. Even my little 9.9HP outboard charges at a much greater rate to square away that trickling amohnt of amps if used for an hour or more a week. A MINI with an engine that produces in excess of 1ooHP has got to have a decent alternator for charging....nless something is wrong. So...have the dealer square it away - battery w/dead cell, solenoid defective, alternator defective, or whatever.

 

Surfblue says: Car was just at the dealer a couple weeks ago for routine two year checkup and the entire electrical system was normal. Again, would a bunch of you mcs owners try putting your home charger (I mean a real charger, not some trickle maintenance job) on and checking and posting your results? BTW, sometimes it only takes ten minutes to top off, but sometimes it goes longer. I'm not concerned, but do find it interesting. Also, terminals are tight and ultra clean. I'm a NUT about battery maintenance. I should also say that I found the same to often be the case with my Grinnall Scorpion and even my original 62 Mini. I don't think charging systems ever totally "top off" a battery like an external charging unit will do. I've had no funny warnings, no overly large discharge, no problems with my electrics at all. I don't think my situation is a problem, just interesting.
Brad, did you try this on your car? Try it after it's sat for a couple days and see where it's at.

 

On average I drive My Clubman 2.5 miles to work and 2.5 miles home. Local shopping errands on Saturday and Sunday. I have Never had any indication of a low battery.

.

 

You're going to have to wait a bit for me to try this on my car (see .sig)! (It's just coming out of the paint shop today. The wait is killing me.)

I'm curious, though - what happens if you don't use your external charger? Does the car start? Car batteries are usually sized to provide cranking power to start the car. The alternator should be sized to provide juice for everything (including charging the battery) once the car starts. That part of the electrical system should be a closed system, if designed properly. I know that's a lot of "should" and other qualifiers - I don't doubt you have some problems there.

What do you mean by "real charger not trickle charger"? I use a CTEK 3300 charger/tender on my project car to keep the battery up, but I'm not sure if that fits your definition.

Brad

 

So... slight update.

I'll have more info when I pick my car up from the dealership, they had to order parts.

Apparently one of the CAM pieces broke. My service advisor said that he's never seen that happen before, so it must have been a bad part when I bought it. Just took ~1800 miles or so for enough stress to cause it to fracture.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel though... 1. Mini roadside is awesome. They were there on time this morning . 2. The SA loaned me a green hardtop S I didn't buy a turbo for a reason (lead foot), but it's sooo fun to drive!

Once I get the full story when I pick up my car I will update again.

Thanks again everyone for your advice!!

 

So the light had nothing to do with electrical system?

(Interesting to me because my driving scenario is pretty much identical. Picked up the car mid-February, 7 mile one way commute, occasional 45-minute airport runs to pick up / drop off my girlfriend.)

Except last 3 weeks I drove girlfriend's car and the Clubbie set in the garage. Started up on first push like it was driven yesterday.

 

Nope. Nothing to my understanding. I'll do the full write up of what they do to it when I pick it up tomorrow or Wednesday.