Drove the car about 3 miles in town. Parked it, ate dinner, got back in the car and it started. While deciding where to go with the girl friend, the air conditioning shuts off and the radio blinks. The battery and ABS light came on. I wanted to turn off the engine and crank it again. Stupid decision. Car won't start. Try to get the engine to turn and all I got was clicking. Played around with the AC, radio and lights and they were beginning to fade. Called up my MINI friend. He came to the rescue, we jumped the car and got it to start but the battery can't seem to hold a charge as the battery and ABS light came on again and the headlights won't turn on. The power steering was also dead. Decided to leave everything off and drive home with only headlights with my MINI friend behind me. On the way home, the tachometer, speedometer and all other meters were not functional. My MINI stalled half way home and had to jump it in the middle of the road. We jumped it again and this time the power steering worked but no headlights. Tachometer worked but no speedometer. Drove home and tried to turn on the head lights and the power steering died.

Going to bring the battery in to Autozone tomorrow. Anyone want to guess if it's the battery or the alternator?

 

Battery is easier and cheaper to replace. Start with the easy stuff. Since you have a MINI buddy, borrow his battery as a test?

I went with an Optima Red when my lead acid became tired. I didn't have your severe symptoms, but sometimes when cranking the radio would shut off and then back on once started. Indicators. And cranking was taking longer.

 

I'll definitely be starting with the battery first.

Forgot to mention the previous symptoms: Longer cranks as well and really bad idling.

 

Could be Battery, Alternator, Dirty Battery Cable Connection, Bad Cable or Poor Ground. My guess is alternator. If you have a battery charger charge the battery before having it tested. If you have a volt meter check for 14 volts or so at a fast idle 1500 to 2000 rpm at the battery connections. If you voltage is low (that's my guess) then the Alternator or it's wiring are most likley the problem.

 

My guess (from experience) is bad alternator. It sounds like you were running on strictly battery power once the alternator died. If you took the battery to the point of no return you may be replacing alternator and battery.

 

Alright, well place your bet guys, taking the battery out and bringing it to Autozone today.

 

Well if you haven't pulled it already, check the "bubble" on the battery, I'm guessing it's going to say insufficent charge (I believe it was black) and not defunct battery (I think was yellow).

My bet is going to be place on a loose/poor ground connection. I had very similar symtoms a while back, thought the battery had gone (It was more than 3.5 years with the OEM battery between 120F and -6F starts and prolonged use) replaced the battery with a red top and had the same set of issues, inestigated the starter made some repair to the wiring harness still had the issue, took the alternator off (not a fun process in the dead of a northern winter with no garage) alternator tested fine, put it back on put everything back together and the car actually ran much better but at too low a voltage, replaced a corroded ground strap and the charging voltage is now in the proper range for more than a year. I attributed my issues to a loose alternator connection and a corroded ground strap (the one on the passenger side of the engine bay in front of the motor mount). Battery replacement masked the issue.

In your case it sounds as though the battery is not getting a fulls charge, it's ok for an extremely short trip as you can drive a little ways, but the demand for power slightly exceeds the level of charge and you're taking the difference from the battery until the car dies. If you get someone to jump start you and take a voltmeter to the battery I think you'll see a sub 12v reading when the battery leads should have 13.5-14.5 volts when the engine is running.

Easiest thing to check is the ground strap (in addition you may want to take a look at your engine battery lead and ECU ground), then the serpentine belt to make sure it's not slipping which would cause the alternator to lack output, and then I think it'll be time to closely examine the alternator, and even then you may have a good alternator but poor connections.

Richard (Octane Guy) had something very similar and his was a ground strap as well, if you search you can find his first hand accounts and for how easy it is to visually inspect and cheap it is to replace it's where I'd start. Also anywhere with a winter and road salt I've found the corroding process to be accelerated.

Also something to be aware of is the OEM battery unlike the Optima and several others out there, is not a "deep cycle" battery so if you've gone through repeated battery death and short charges it's not going to be able to charge back up to full capacity that a deep cycle battery will.

 

do this

1) Bring battery to sears/autozone/PBs..... have it checked if bad replace

2) if good charge on changer and put back in car

3) using a volt meter measure the voltage across the battery while the car is running. If the voltage is less then 13.5V it is your regulator/alternator so you then replace the alternator.

if the battery is bad still do #3 to make sure both battery and alternator are in fact bad. (ask me how I know to to that)

 

Good plan to pull the battery & have it checked. The eye on the battery only shows the condition of one cell. It can look good & your battery can still be toast. Depending on how old your MINI is it might be wise to change out the battery anyway.

 

Usually if the car is already running, it should be fine with a bad battery (the load will be high with it trying to charge a battery with a dead cell, but the car SHOULD keep running...just not re-start in the short term, long term...it WILL cause the alternator to fail from running at 100% load, but the battery starts going downhill so fast, this usually does not happen)....so I think you need to look a bit deeper....
I'd recharge/test the battery, and re-install it. Next I'd do as suggested, and test the voltages, (with everything turn on and turned off when running) and then check the grounds, etc.
I'm thinking your alternator may have died....and it ran off the battery for a bit...and when the battery died, so did the car.....
Good luck.....Hope to see you at the Tech session at MINI in RI on Sunday AM, and the RI/CT drive!!

 

Battery is recharged and holding the charge. I installed it back in the car and the car started fun, but there is a weird sound noise in the front of the car, almost like an electronic spinning hum. The rev is also a bit high on the idle, around 1.1K - 1.2K RPM. My theory is the alternator or some kind of bad connection because the battery is not charging. I remember revving the car last night and the lights flickered so I'm hoping it's a bad connection.

I'm having a friend over and we're going to start by
-Going to inspect the wiring
-Inspect the belt to the alternator
-Inspect the alternator itself.

@MotorOn The battery is a Duralast battery from Autozone. How do I go about checking the wires and ground connections etc.? Is there anything I should be looking for specifically? I'm going to have a friend come over and measured the voltage and see if he can inspect some of the wiring.

 

I thought that too from my younger days but in modern cars you need a charged battery to keep running. you can test this buy starting and disconnecting I was surprised too.


start simple test the voltage using a volt meter across the + and - terminals when off it should be 12V or less. when on it will be 13.5-14.5 with a good alternator. anything lower and its time for a new one.

 

That extra noise and high RPM sounds like there may be something wrong with the alternator itself.

Check that the connections are clean and the bolt tq's are to spec. THe ground strap I had issues with was covered in black spots and the bolts had developed rust. and if the connection isn't tight your ground will be arching which will dirty up the conneciton in a hurry in addition reducing the electrical flow.

 

Alright so we confirmed it's the alternator. But now I have a problem and am a little stumped. My friend is able to change out the alternator for me for a beer and dinner which saves me a load of money. But after going to Autozone and Advance Auto Store and going online both of the vendors don't have any in stock. Anyone know of any vendors that can sell me a alternator with warranty for around $200?

 

try a junkyard. pick-a-part here they go for 15 bucks. its not like any car is junked for an Alt.

otherwise try napa or pepboys

 

Pepboys online wants $400 and NAPA doesn't seem to carry it.

 

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/raframecatalog.php
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co.../12093/cat/all

 

Thanks. I think I might order it from rockauto if I don't get anymore input. I did stumble on this page after a quick google search.

http://www.alternatorpros.com/Alternators.htm

I just don't know how reliable they are...

After another quick google search, several forums say their good and legit. Anyone else heard anything about them? The price isn't bad...

 

They're reviews are pretty good. No core charge is always a plus. I always recommend RockAuto since they have lots of MINI parts for half the cost of what a dealer would charge.

 

Thanks Oxy. I just also did a google search and saw a couple car forums posting good things about them. I think I'll call them Monday and make the order. Wish me luck

 

So what happened?

 

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-me-crazy.html

 

I am having the same issue. Just changed the battery & the alternator and still the battery is not charging? any suggestions

 

If the serpentine belt is slipping the alternator won't charge. Have had that problem on a different car

 

+1