My wife was sitting in line waiting for gas when she heard an audible "pop" from under the hood. Suddenly, the engine began running rough and nearly all of the dash indicators lit up.

After 30 seconds or so the engine died. She tried restarting it but it wouldn't turn over (as in the battery appeared to be dead).

I towed the Mini home and was able to start it up. Just as she said the engine ran rough (much like it wasn't timed properly) and most of the dash lights were blazing away. Eventually, the engine died and just as before it wouldn't turn over.


I was thinking/hoping it might be an electrical issue where the altenator isn't putting out enough voltage to run the computer, but that doesn't make sense. The engine would at least turn over . Perhaps, it's the battery somehow drawing down the electrical system, but that wouldn't make sense either.


The car is a 2005 Mini S.


I've done a forum search and couldn't find anything.

Has anyone heard of or experienced something like this?

 

Is the belt still intact?

What codes are stored? You need a quality scanner, either Auto Enginuity or equivalent to dealer software to pull the codes. A generic scanner won't tell the whole story.

 

I'll do a more in depth look and post my findings when I return home from work today.

Life would be very good if the problem was a simple serpentine belt. :-)

 

Sounds like it could be belt area issue, maybe the harmonic balancer or belt tensioner. Hopefully nothing major.

 

Sounds like it could be the belt tensioner

 

Open the hood and see if you smell burning rubber. Crank pulleys falling apart have been really common lately. We've seen an average of 2 a week in the past month.
If that is what it is replace it with an ATI Damper and you won't have it happen again.

 

Plus one point to all who suggested the harmonic balancer or crankshaft pulley.

The harmonic balancer was completely broke in half. The rubber between the two halves separated and the pulley section was left dangling. This accounts for the "pop" under the hood that my wife heard last night. It also explains all of the indicator lights blazing away.

So now I'm off to search the net for a replacement harmonic balancer.

Thanks for the assistance. Hope this helps someone who encounters the same problem in the future.

 

ATI fluidamper. Stock size. Get one.

 

Thanks for the helpful advice.

I just ordered an ATI damper with the 2% oversize (p/n 917993) for $369. The difference in cost between that of the normal sized damper (p/n 917992) and the 2% oversize was $20.

The extra 2% will spin my supercharger faster which (more or less) alleviates the need for me to fork out extra bucks for an undersized SC pulley.

 

However your only running 2% vs say 15% so the performance will be minimal.

 

And will overdrive your A/C and Alternator. That's why the stock size was recommended. It's not that common of a mod due to the extra stresses it adds to the rest of the accessories.

Make sure you get the correct size belt as well.

 

Thanks for the suggestion on the belt size. I, too, thought about the need for a longer belt so I called ATI and spoke with one of their techs. He confirmed that the 2% oversized ATI damper uses the OEM sized serpentine belt.

He also said the faster speeds on the alternator won't matter as the voltage regulator will maintain the proper voltage throughout the RPM range.

As for the supercharger, the extra RPMs are less than what others encounter after installing an underdrive pulley on their superchargers so I should be okay there.


With all of that being said, an oversized damper isn't going to give me dramatic HP gains. If I am VERY lucky I might get an extra 5 to 7 HP. That's not much compared to what others are getting with an undersized supercharger pulley. But since I need to replace my damper anyway, I figured $20 for a little more pep was a worthwhile investment.

 

I would still add the charger pulley for a good hp boost.