I have an 03 Cooper S. Recently it's been acting strange... I go to start it and it does absolutely nothing! No cough, no light, no nothing... just the sound of the key turning in the ignition. After a few tries and choice words it will magically come alive. I wasn't too worried since those few times it did that it eventually did start and no 'idiot' ligt has come on.

However, today I was driving along, the engine was warmed up, I came to a stop light and it just died. Doing the same thing it did before- no warning, and when I tried to restart it was totally dead. Almost like there was no battery in it at all or something. It did eventually start, but does anyone know what might be causing this??? AND how I should go about fixing it??

PLEASE HELP! I'm a college student and just can't afford to have MINI take a look at it!

 

Sounds like the battery terminal is the place to start, make sure they are clean and tight!

 

i had this same problem i found a short in my driver side rear tail light

 

X2, I've had this happened to me a few times with different vehicles, start with the battery terminal as frenchie said and check all electrical connections around it.