We got our 2010 Mini Cooper S towed last night because we didn't have a parking permit sticker, and had to park it in our apartment lot for the street sweeper (otherwise we get parking tickets). Prior to this, we knew the battery drained down so it would have to be jump started, and the CEL was on (dont remember the codes, but nothing serious), but those were the only issues. Everything worked.

When we picked it up today, we first noticed that the drivers side door would not open, even when manually unlocked, or unlocked via the fob with the battery hooked up to a power source. The locks were working on both doors, they just wouldn't open. The guy at the yard was able to pulled the door handle from the outside with a jimmy stick to open it. After starting it, the passenger door would open and close like normal but the drivers side would only open from the inside. When we left, I noticed that the windows no longer worked, nor did the turn signals/hazard lights, hi-beams, or any of the interior lights. The low beams and brake lights works, but that's about it. There was also a red "Mini on a Lift" light on the dash (no brake light), which after some searching, seems to be linked to at least the light issues.

My question is;

A) Is there either some anti theft system that they could have tripped, that's just disabling all this stuff?

or B) Is the door not opening from outside separate from the dash/light issue, and could they have done anything to cause either.

or C) Can the light/dash be a result of the bad battery/alternator (or whatever is causing the batt drain, haven't had time to troubleshoot it yet), and the door is unrelated. I find it hard to imagine this all 'just happened' to start right after being towed though.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

Take it to your local auto parts house and ask them to read the OBD codes for you. Might give you some idea of where to look for problems.

 

Also get the battery checked. A marginal battery in these cars cause all kinds of weird problems..

 

We left the car at their lot while the damage claim stuff gets started.
Figured it would look better than if we brought it home knowing it was damaged. So we can't really mess with it atm. I was planning on having the charge system tested at the very least when we got it back anyway.

I think the electrical stuff may well be the battery, but it wouldn't explain the door not opening from outside. That's gotta be a mechanical thing, linkage got broken or something. Unless there's some anti-theft thing that got tripped, which can disable the handle somehow. It would be the first I've heard of such a thing, but I dont know much about the computer's on these BMW/Mini's, I'm mainly a Mustang guy.

Door opened and worked fine the day before it was towed when I put it in the parking lot. Next day, go to pick it up and we couldn't even get in the car until the guy at the yard jimmied the door open. Obviously something must have happened between those two points in time.

 

I wonder when it was initially towed if someone jimmied the door open to get the brake off, take the car out of park, whatever, and knocked something like an actuator rod inside the door off? If they went between the window and the door from the outside, I could see that happening. Just a thought.

 

Thats a good point, never thought of that. It's a manual, so we always have the handbrake engaged when parked.

We got it back today and they just blamed everything on the alternator being bad (which it's not, I'm 99% sure it's the battery). If it was the alt, it wouldn't have made the 40 minute drive to leave at my parents farm after we picked it up.

We're going to be in England for a week, then when we get back we're going to take it to a Euro car shop and have them inspect the door, and hopefully get some kind of statement saying it's likely the result of tampering or something from being towed. I could just check it myself, but I get the feeling a neutral pro shop's word would carry more weight then mine.

 

Good idea to have it documented by a shop, for sure. Let us know how it all works out.