Hey Guys,

i've been having this issue with my 06 S....

Occasionally it won't start.....dead battery, dim lights no horn ect. I jump it with my battery box and she starts right up. I can shut it off and it'll start right up again with out the jumper box. This is very intermitant....at first I thought I was leaving something on....but no chance.

Anyone else having this problem? Any ideas?

Thanks much
Bobbyn

 

OEM batterys are crap.

Probably have a bad cell. Try the dealer, should get a new one.

 

Yep, get it replaced.

 

Thanks guys but I don't think that's it....

I'm talking stone dead...then jumping with the battery jumper box, shutting it off within 30 seconds of start....and it restarts with no issues on the stock battery alone....

Bobbyn

 

Bigshot: "OEM batterys are crap."

You seem very sure of yourself, but unfortunately you are wrong. Some OEM batteries are crap. I sold my 7-year old Toyota Tacoma earlier this year. The OEM battery was the original. We lived in Colorado and that battery went through 7 harsh winters with nary a hiccup.

 

If the battery is dying, it could act like that. It can hold a charge for a little while - 30 seconds, for sure - but it can't hold it for very long.

If you want to run a test, disconnect the + terminal from the battery while you're away from the car - that will eliminate the possibility that there is some other drain on the battery. It sure sounds like a failing battery, though.

Good luck,

Brad

 

First of all, don't run an engine on a jumped battery for only 30 seconds, then shut it off. That's bad for the battery, puts it thorough two deep cycles in a short time period.

It could well be that you have a battery in marginal condition. Car batteries consist of a series of cells made of metal plates suspended next to each other submerged in acid. As the battery goes though charge/discharge cycles, the metal of the plates flake off and drop to the bottom of the cell. If enough of these flakes stack up, they can touch the bottom of the two plates in the cell, shorting the plates out and reducing the battery's output by 2 volts.

It's possible that recharging the battery jolted the offending flake away from the cell's plates, which would immediatly return the battery to full operational capacity. The battery would continue to work correctly, until another flake shorts out the cell, which would immediantly kill the battery once again.

In short: get a new battery.

 

Get your electrical system checked out, might be the battery, the charging system or both...

 

Since when are we on a Toyo forum..........

 

Bigshot:

Why, ever since you said, "OEM batterys (sic) are crap". OEM stands for "original equipment manufacturers", which includes all manufacturers. If you had said, "All MINI original equipment batteries are crap", I wouldn't have responded. (Because, of course, I'm not as familiar with all MINI batteries as are you).

 

It's more accurate to say that some batteries are crap, regardless of where they came from. I've seen both OEM and aftermarket batteries fail anywhere between 2 and 7 years. My experience (not all of it in MINI's, sorry about the topic drift Bigshot) is any battery should be replaced after 4 or 5 years, if battery failure will result in major problems (like long distance towing).

Having said that, my Dad would agree with Bigshot: he says that all batteries installed at the factory are cheap and never last 3 years. I tend to have a more moderate view.

 

My 03 just died after storing it over winter... so I figured 6 years ain't bad. Replaced it and smooth sailing!

 

I wonder what the comparison would be between the new gel-cell batteries (which my MINI has) and the old lead-acid, in terms of OEM longevity.

 

We are on a MINI forum, why would I want to qualify my response when most of us already know where we are.
But thanks for trying to help.........

As to the life expectency of the new batteries, we don't have any info on failure as yet. I would guess that they would be much better than the first gen ones simply because of the design.

 

my thoughts exactly

do you mean you put in an aftermarket gel-cell? MINIs do not come stock with them.

MINI HAS changed battery manufacturers to Exide but it's still a wet battery.

 

My mistake. I just went and checked and verified that my 09 MCS has a sealed lead-acid battery. I thought I remembered reading on this forum that the 09s had gel-cell batteries, but I was obviously mistaken.