2007 Mini Cooper S Convertible

Yesterday my wife took the mini after dropping me at work, she failed to turn off the headlights and the battery was dead upon her leaving work to pick me up. She got a jump and away she went...no problems. After switching and letting me drive, I continued the next 30 miles to the garage and parked the blue beast.

Flash forward to this morning 6:55 am. This is one of my favorite times of day. Hope in press the clutch, turn the key....nothing! I have dash lights, but now my Battery, Oil, check engine and EML lights are all on. Radio will come on, top will not go down. We have been driving this car for 3 months with no troubles.

I can;t find the freaking battery or the alternator! I am not much in the way of wrenching, but I am not afraid at all to do it. Am I looking at a battery issue, an alternator issue or something I am not thinking of?

 

The battery may have been discharged to the point where it cannot hold enough charge overnight to crank the starter.

The battery is located under a cover at the right rear (in the US, passenger's side rear) of the engine bay. The plastic cover is just in front of the cowl. The owner's manual should describe and/or have pictures of where it is. Check in there for more info.

 

Thanks. I am gonna go take a look. It is a US version. I did not get an owners manual with the car, but have access to one online. Have it hooked up to a jump now, trying to get it to go. It doesn't click it just has nothing when I turn the key.

 

Ahh the battery is in the trunk! Wouldn't the 30 mile drive home have been enough to charge the battery? I am thinking either the battery is toast or the alternator isn't doing its job. :(

 

2007 s cabrio is a gen1
Battery on an s is in the trunk....

 

Sorry maybe I mis-informed. New to the whole Mini scene. Love the car though!

 

No problem!! It takes a bit of time to learn about a new car...
A 30 minute drive to charge a deeply discharged battery is likely not enough...
Enough to get a start at a store with a warm motor....not likely enough after sitting overnight.
A couple of hours of driving should be OK....but often a deeply discharged battery will be damaged and not accept a full charge....so might be worth getting it tested (usually for free) if you are unsure of the age, or if you have any more issues IMO.

 

OK this is the kind of week it has been. Wednesday is when the battery died. Charged, drove home, went to work next day, drove home, dead this morning....I lost a day somewhere, maybe that is what happened to the mini

 

If it's the original battery, I would just go ahead and replace to see if it solves the problem.

 

It is the original. We are going to replace it. Is it normal to still have dash lights even if the battery can't crank the engine? Even the radio will work but the top will NOT go down.

 

Also can anyone point me to where I can find the alternator? I can't find anything on this! I was not furnished with the owners manual when I bought it so I am kind of in the dark.

 

Look at the us pax side...there is a belt...this belt runs the SC (and the water pump through gears off it), the alternator, and the ac compressor....
Most under the hood engine work on the gen1 is done by putting the car in "service mode"....the bumper cover, etc comes off and the radiator etc can be pulled forward with a few bolts to give you space to work...
There is a few guides here online...
Not hard... About 30 minutes to do...30 to put back on, less with practice.

 

When a cell goes bad in the battery, folks have had lots of odd issues....these cars are just big computers....so a bad battery can make lots of things act weird....
Remember....batteries are about volts AND amps...a battery with a bad cell might be able to provide great volts, but not provide enough amps to start a car or provide extra power to run a electric motor that is stronger than the alternator's output can provide...remembrrva whole battery is only as good as the weakest cell....a plate in the battery cracks...and now the battery becomes a giant sponge soaking up 100% of the alternators output.
You can have the alternator load tested (usually for free) or just try swapping it with a seconds car battery for a test....see if the issues go away...
When you get a new one...be sure it has vent tubes or is a agm (like a optima redtop) battery.

 

One tip...
The electric power steering pump has a "sense" wire from the alternator....
If the voltage from the alternator us "insufficient", aka, it fails, it will turn off...leaving the car drivsble , but harder to turn.
So if the PS pump is operating, it should mean the alternator is working, keeping system voltage up.

 

okay, nothing wrong with the PS. I installed a new battery, still nothing. Checked the switch on the clutch mechanism, the one I have read that you can test with a magnet. It engages normally and appears to be working.

I am left with only two things to look at. Ignition switch and possibly the starter....

 

Does it slow crank /fail to start or no crank?

For a no crank there is a antitheft sensor....reads the key...prevents the Car from cranking...the car should make a bit of a "ding" when the sensor is first read...like when the key in within an inch or two of the lock....the key basicly has a RFID tags in it...about the size of a grain of rice...seoerate from the circirut board for remote entry.
So try a second key....maybe one is flakey.

 

One other tip/bit of info...
The mini (for safety reasons) actually has two positive (+) battery cables coming from the battery.... One, unfused, goes to the starter...so for safety reasons this cable has a explosive charge that is like an airbag...blows if the airbag deployment happens....the other cable goes to the cars regular fusebox. The explosive charge is in the box next to the battery...sometimes a water leak can corrode it.
Likewise, safe to say the ground wires are tight and clean? Including the engine mount one under the hood?