My Mini did something odd this afternoon... I drove it to work this morning as I always do, left at lunch to run some errands and took the afternoon off, so I drove home... Parked the Mini around 1:00pm and didn't need to go anywhere until around 7:00pm... When I was walking out to the car, I noticed that the parking lights were on!!! I didn't leave them on and when I got into the car, the light switch was off!!! I put the key in the ignition and the car had enough juice to power the electronics, but not enough to even get a click out of the starter... I jumped it off and it seems to be fine...

Even with the parking lights being on for 6 hours, that shouldn't be long enough to kill the battery... The battery is less than 1 year old...

Weird stuff... Has this happened to anyone else or does anyone have an explanation???

 

Mine did the same thing the other day, except the headlights stayed on as well. Put the key back in it, turned it to position 2 and cycled the headlight switch & everything went off.

Hasn't happened again, but I'm watching it closely. Fortunately I noticed it as I was walking away from the car.

 

If your signal light is on, either direction, when you shut off your car, that side light will stay on. It is a European curb parking feature on your MINI.

Are you sure BOTH sides were on?

Since you had the battery replaced within the year double check the cable attachments as GROUND issues can cause all kinds of Gremlins. I had a GASP 1984 Fiero that had corrosion inside the fuseable link cable that caused all kinds of problems for almost a year. The cable looked fine (especially the ends) until you peeled back the insulation!!!

Bob

 

Well, so far, so good... It hasn't done it again, yet...

All the parking & marker lights were on... It seemed odd as I approached the car, so I did a walk-around... The light switch was in the off position... I'm aware of the signal switch turning on the markers as I've had other cars with this feature... Perhaps the headlights were on too and ran the battery down to the point where only the markers were on, who knows... It's just freaky...

I may be having a signal / light switch stalk problem... I have noticed lately that when I turn on either turn signal, the high-beams come on, then turn off when the signal switch centers after a turn... Do these have a history of problems???

I had the battery connections off today and everything was tight... I loved on it a little today by installing Craven strut defenders and a DDM Works CAI, so maybe it'll be happy for a while...

 

Well, it did it again this afternoon... Went out for a ride and stopped by a restaurant on the way home... Parked the car, got out and glanced back at it on the way in and sure enough, all the lights were on... I unlocked the car with the fob and the lights stayed on... Cycled the ignition key without starting it and the lights went out...

Anyone have any ideas on where to start looking or what to look for???