Howdy,

First post here, but I am at the end of my rope on this issue. So to start off I took my Mini to a shop to get serpentine belt tensioner, friction wheel, and water pump/pulley replaced about 2 weeks ago. The car drove great for a few days and then on my way home from work one day I got an error message on the tach (was driving and didn't see it before it went away) and I smelled burning electronics (I work on computers, amps, projectors, etc...I know the smell very well) and the stereo stopped working. I had no check engine lights on at this time.

I pulled over and turned the car off. I checked the manual for stuff and what not and decided I was good to go since the smell was gone. When I attempted to turn the car back on the stereo turned on, but the car would only crank about 1/2 a second and not even make a full rotation it seemed. Well after about an hour of troubleshooting on site without any progress I got some friends to push start me to see if it would work, and it did without issue. I drove straight home and parked the car. Wouldn't start after I shut it off. After multiple attempts at starting a check engine light came on. This is well after failure has taken place and I have driven it home without any errors. I ran the codes and got 5 results: Multiple Misfires and then 4 codes, one for each cylinder, saying each cylinder had a misfire.

After a good 3 hours of troubleshooting at the house checking all the fuses and checking the battery I settled on it being the starter. I ordered a starter and replaced it pretty easily, if not painfully for my hands, and tried to start it again. No such luck, I still only get a 1/2 second of start and it stops. I can do this infinite amounts of times and it doesn't change anything.

Starter is brand new known working. Moving on to the battery, yes it is OEM Mini from 2009 battery. It tests at 12.4 volts. I do not trust things in the car easily so I changed the battery out. Still no luck. Luckily I live at a house with plentiful sources. I tried 4 separate known working batteries from working vehicles, one of them a brand new battery I just bought for my Subaru, with no luck.

So in all I have ran check engine codes in a reader, tested all fuses, a total of 5 batteries, and 2 starters in this car. I cannot get it to start and it is a real pain. Any insight other than taking it to a Mini dealer would be great. Closest dealership to me is about 2 hours away. Forgot to mention, I tested the cable at the starter and it read same voltage as battery (12.4v).

Thanks,

Naizur