Hi guys,

I've been having problems with a cooper base not wanting to crank. When pressing start, I am seeing lights, the headlights do their adjustment thing, I even here the throttle body moving, but no crank.

Bear with me, the post is going to cram a bit in.

Long story short, I spent two weeks trying to figure this out. So far I've replaced the battery because it lost charge quickly and it was the original. I was able to get the car to start once after testing the starter (check to see if I got 12v via the battery feed, and 12v at the solenoid lead after I had someone push the button). However the car at the time was being jumped, and when I removed the jumper cables, I noticed the car only saw about 11.8 volts. Took the car for a test drive to see if that change anything. Auto was in limp mode (only had reverse and 3rd gear). When I got the car back to the house in the driveway, it died. Couldn't get it to crank.

Decided to chase the alternator issue. Got the alternator out and couldn't get it to tested as no one has the proper harness to hook it up. I then decided to chase the no start issue by pulling the starter to have it tested. Turns out it tested just fine and was operating as expected on a tester at O'reilly's. So now I'm a little stumped and wanted a little feed back.

What I do know:

• Battery is new. I replaced it as I noticed issues with it's charge level. It was the original battery and figure it wouldn't hurt to replace it.
• Starter tested good. I also had 12.6v at the battery lead, and 12.6v at the solenoid lead when someone pushed the start button which sounds like the connection might not be good.
• Car had no symptoms leading up to this. Transmission shifted fine thru all gear.
• I do get a yellow gear sign with an ! when attempting to start.

Anyone have any ideas what else to check? Also with the alternator, is that unit self regulated, or ECM controlled?

Thanks,



S

 

Bump! Any thoughts?

Thanks!

S

 

Well you definitely have a charging problem. whether that is a bad ground or lose connection somewhere to a alternator that is bad. If you have a new battery make sure its fully charged. Is there anywhere else you can bring your alternator too, to have it tested?

 

Unfortunately I've gone to 5 different places including a Mini dealer today, and was told they could not test the alternator.

Tomorrow, I'm going to get the starter back in, the alternator back in, clean up the grounds and see if the car will start after all that. If I can get it started, I'm going to check voltage from the alternator. If I still can't get it to crank, I'll try to validate that I have continuous 12v's at the battery feed when someone presses the button.

S

 

Well I hope you find whats wrong. I would say pop in a new alternator but one hates to throw in a costly item like that to find out that wasn't it. maybe someone else will chime in for you on this. Wish I could of been more help. If you can get it to run I would test at the battery what the voltage is while its running.. I think you should be running around 14volts. Good luck!

 

Thanks a bunch Zippy.

 

Good luck! keep us posted on your out come!

 

Well, I have good news, and I have bad news.

I cleaned up the electrical connections for the starter, the alternator and the ground. Reinstalled everything. The car starts and starts reliably. The alternator is charging. So I attributing this to either the battery being toast, or poor connections.

However a new problem did surface. The car starts up, runs fine for a few seconds, then idle goes rough, almost stalling. You can keep it alive, but then the intake gets really noisy. Got a check engine light and got a P0015 which appears to be B cam shaft timing over-retard. I double checked the solenoid connection since it was unplugged when I had the intake manifold off. That seems to be fully seated.

The car will run. When you drive it, it's really unresponsive and sluggish. Also I get the occasional rattling from the motor. Decided to park it and research the issue more.

Has anyone dealt with a P0015 before?

Thanks,

S

 

maximase-
Did you ever figure out the issue?

 

So the no start issue was solve with the combination of cleaning up all the electrical connections and a new battery. As for P0015, that came as a result of the intake cam hoping timing. Turned out the timing chain tensioner was completely wasted, so I retimed the motor, replaced the timing chain, guides, tensioner, and cam sprocket bolts. Car has been running like a champ since.

S