2008 mini cooper S... 78, 000 miles

My wife was driving to work and the mini died. The lights on the dash went out the engine wouldn't turn over and the battery was dead. There were no warning lights before hand. The battery was so dead the windows wouldn't roll down and the Hazzard flashers barely worked.

We towed the car and I replaced the battery. The car now turns over but will not start. I had the battery removed for over an hour, tested all the fuses and they are good. What could be wrong? I used odb2 and got the codes p173b and p0342. From what I've read these can pop up with a dead battery.

Any suggestions? Nearest mini dealer is 5 hours away so hoping to figure this out. What could a dead battery cause or be caused by that could stop the engine from starting?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

hey Chuck, does the car sound like it is turning smoothly or it turns with force? Did you check if there was oil in the car? lastly, can you pull the valve cover and take a look at the chain and guides. keep us posted

 

It turns over like normal just never starts. I didn't check the oil because I assumed it would trigger a light if it was that low but I can check for sure. As for the valve cover I can do that but it'll be a day or two until I can get it towed home. Right now it's at my wife's work because we assumed a new battery would work so I had it towed there.

 

Try NOT to start it until you check all of that. you dont want to cause more damage, IF any, without knowing. Removing the cover might reveal alot.

 

to me sounds like a fuel issue, perhaps your fuel pump went out. definitely remove the valve cover to see if anything is odd, make sure you have spark on spark plugs too.

I received the code p0342 before after changing spark plugs, I just took them out and put them back in and made sure the coils were pushed in all the way and it worked after that ok. It did start with this code but was rough.

 

any updates? what was the issue?