Good morning all. My wife's Mini (2013 Roadster S convertible, manual trans) stopped dead on her yesterday while she was stopped at stop light on the way home from work. Engine just stopped. She tried to start but nothing (no sound she said). Waited 30 seconds, tried again and heard it try just a little. Did this again a few times and finally started after 2 minutes. She was scared as hell as other cars zoomed around her little car. She finally was able to get to the side of the road and into a shopping center. Waited a few minutes and then drove the ten minutes to get home and car was at 50% limp mode speed. I finally got home and started car 1 hour later. Check engine light was on at first but then went off as I drove to Auto-Zone. They attached their scanner and no codes came up. I drove back home (aggressively) with no issues and no limp mode.

Since wifey took my Benz to work today, I'm driving her car. Plan is to drive the car a bit and observe. Once I have an opportunity, will drive to dealership. My understanding is that I give them the Mini key fob and their specific scanner can see the code history. Not certain if I have this right.

With all of the above information, any further advice or thoughts on what is happening?

Thanks, Will

 

The first I'd check before going to the dealer is the battery. Poor battery condition will create all sorts of weak power condition. If the car sit for a few days and has low juice and can't recharge well it may create an in-between power condition. Normally the battery symbol should pop up but I wouldn't trust battery voltage conditions.
I've had similar issues with my other car and the battery did it. Sometime it's electrical such as corrosion or loose wires, etc... causing the battery condition to fail some.

Other than that I'm not too sure what you could check before rushing to the dealer I can think of at the moment...

FYI: often once a limp mode condition pops up it stays in the system for some time before it reset or is reset manually. So it's not always a sign of a serious condition. Sometime something triggers it and the system goes into safety mode.

 

TG - thank you for the response. The Roadster is Wifey's daily ride to/from work and is driven at least 6 days per week. Do not recall last time battery was replaced but don't think it was too long ago. In May the oil was changed and the invoice shows a courtesy battery check stating it was fine. I'll take it to my local guy to test the battery even tho he does not work on mini's. I drove the car the next day (she's afraid to) and had no issues to and from various short term destinations. I've got to come up with some defined issue for her and "fix" it otherwise I'll be cramming my 6' 3" frame into this sucker for the rest of the summer while she drives my Benz.