Our 08 MCS has needed a jump start twice in the past 2 weeks. Has anyone else had this problem? The last time I had to drive around with jumper cables in my car was when I was a teenager driving the obligatory junker. We're going to make an appointment with the dealer this week to have it checked out.

 

The dealer should sort it out.

 

Was the dealer able to figure out what was wrong? My wife's 08 MCS needed to be jumped this morning... now she has the jumper pack in the back. Ironic, since that was one of the reasons we got rid of her old car.

 

knfx, the service department ran a diagnostic from the car's computer and the printout said that the parking lights where left on for almost 12 hours. One of the battery cells was dead, presumably from leaving the lights on. There is a feature, that we weren't aware of, that turns the parking lights on after the car has been shut-off. My wife must have hit the turn signal lever when getting out of the car one evening. My Mini dealer was kind enough to replace the battery under warranty. Good luck!

 

thanks for the update. i wonder if my wife did the same thing... i guess we will never know...

 

The computer is apparently quite the tattle-tell .

 

That's interesting. So if you accidentally bump the turn signals and shut off the car and get out you're screwed?

 

It would seem so. Keep in mind that they are pretty small batteries compared to "normal" car batteries.

 

The last couple cars I've had you couldn't leave any type of lighting on very long without turning the key back on. WUWT?

 

But the curb-side parking lights are a "feature". A feature you should be very careful with.

 

From other posts, I've learned that the parking lights function is a vehicle code requirement in several European countries (Germany one of them) when parking on the street.

I've gotten used to checking the lights when parking. For instance, my 1995 Honda Civic would "bing-bing" when the key was in the ignition, but (for some odd reason) the car was silent when the lights were left on. It was common for me to return to a dead car on rainy days.

Interesting that draining the battery killed a cell. Usually that doesn't happen, but it's not inconceivable. My dad has always said that factory installed batteries are never any good and can't be expected to last more than 4 years.