Wednesday, I drove my MINI to school in the morning, to work in the afternoon, and home in the evening. It sat in my garage for about 20 minutes while I prepared for Bible study that evening. Up until then, all systems were normal. After that 20 minutes, I got in the car and started it up...holy crap. The first thing I noticed was the temperature gauge, which was all the way up in the red zone, my tachometer was at 0, although I could plainly hear and feel the engine running. the outside temperature display was totally off, the tire pressure light was on, the DSC light was on, and the speedometer didn't work, either. I drove it around the neighborhood just to see what's what, and every once in a while, everything would flash for a second or two to its normal state, then go back to the "problem state." I unplugged the battery for a while to reset the whole system, and when I plugged it back in, everything was perfectly normal for about 15 seconds...then it went haywire again. I feel like something has just come unplugged or loose, if someone could tell me just what that might be, I would greatly appreciate it!!

 

How old is the battery?

 

I think it's the original. Also, thanks to some advice from another forum, I've determined that it is the culprit. When put on a charger, all systems are normal. Looks like I'll be spending some bucks later today...

 

Not that - after buying a new battery, everything is still acting up. Alternator is putting out plenty of voltage, so it's probably not that, either.