Hey All,

I hope one of you Miniacs can shed some light on this situation...

The low down:

Last used the car on May 17th and it ran as usual - perfect. It has been sitting in the garage since then except for moving it out to wash it and then back in. Nothing out of the ordinary......

Last Thursday when I was backing my motorcycle out in the morning to go to work the engine fan kicked on for a few seconds and then off. I pulled the cover off the car and checked that I hadn't left the key on or something stupid all this time - nothing, everything was fine and the key wasn't even in the ignition. Last night I go to load the car up for another track day and shortly notice that the interior lights are not working......uh oh. I try the ignition and not a thing happened. Extremely dead battery. Won't even take a charge with the charger...

Today after work I try jumping the car with my beater car. As soon as the jumpers are hooked up the MINI's engine fan kicks on again and doesn't shut off. After a minute or two I try to start the car and it cranks fine but doesn't fire. Several attempts are made with the same results but the fan did end up stopping while the cables were still hooked up.

I pulled the battery out and will get a new one tomorrow that I hope will solve the problem. But here is my disclaimer tho....When I washed the car a couple weeks ago I also cleared a code that had tripped (O2 sensor) and to do this I had to turn the key to the "on" position. I ended up leaving the ignition on over night but the car started up fine when I discovered that. I did not use the car after this - merely put the cover back on and walked away - satisfied that it started.

Could the battery have been depleted enough after this to have failed to the point of it not even being able to take a charge?

 

might be the ignition switch

 

I have heard that the electrical gremlin comes out as the battery begins to fail. All sorts of things including dash lights/instruments going on/off.

If the battery was delpleted badly, a bad cell will develope preventing a full charge.

What was the O2 sensor code. Running Lean on bank 1 ?

 

Soooooo, a new (free) battery did not solve the problem. Car now cranks of course but won't fire up. I guess a call into MINI service is my next step...

No spark >> coil pack??
Ignition switch??

 

Are you getting fuel too? Should be able to check that by cranking for a bit and and then pulling one of the plugs to smell for fuel.

No spark could be the coil pack, it could also be a host of other things. This is the point where I usually plug the laptop in and start looking at the voltages on the sensors but that need only apply to stand alone ECU's. I think you might be stuck taking it to the dealer if you arent getting spark.

 

No sparkie....? My guess would be an alignment issue in between DME and EWS(the rolling code is mixed up), or a problem with either the EWS or DME itself. My autoenginuity program would be able to tell, but that probably wont do you any good.

Wait a minute...did you actually check for spark? If so then the above stands, if not, it's on to checking Fuel Pressure and power and grounds at the pump.

 

Maybe a short in the wiring harness.....since this all happen with no real warning, and especially since you described other electronic gremlins, like the fan coming on for no reason....

Any issues with rodents in the garage ?

 

No rodent problem in the garage...ever.

The car was flat bedded to the dealer today and they hopefully will get a chance to diagnoss it before the weekend. Fingers crossed it is a relatively easy (i.e. cheap) fix but I'm not gettin my hopes up...

 

what ended up being the issue?
Im having a similar issue, as my car will not fire. It turns over but wont fire, even tried spraying starting fluid down the air intake... nothing

Thanks

 

Post #8...

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...module-do.html

I ended up getting a new DME module (computer).....