2009 MCS R56 MT


So last week, on the morning after a long drive home from work, my battery light turned on after I started the car and drove away. Had no time to deal with it then so I turned around and took my other car.

In my spare time I tested the battery with the car off and running, and always got 12.5v (with the battery light still on) I did this on a few different days with the same results.

Then 2 days ago, I started up and decided to let her run in the driveway while I tried to get acquainted with my MINI’s tachometer menu system.

After about 5-10 min of idling, all of a sudden I noticed the the revs pick up, and the battery light went out! I tested the battery with the light off and running and it read 14.5v !!!

Over the course of the rest of the day I came back out and checked a few more times getting the same positive result.

Since my mini had self-healed, I decided yesterday to take it to work again (60 miles round trip, S&G traffic + highway speeds) which we completed without incident.

...and this morning the battery light came back on after I left the driveway...

heard this could be belts, a connection, or the alternator it’s self.

I would like to start by testing the connections but can’t figure out if there are any other connections between the plug on the alternator and the battery itself.

Thoughts anyone?

Thanks for reading!

 

Change the alternator and don't buy from autozone, their alternator pulley spacing is wrong, you'll be shredding your belts. OReiley and NAPA has the correct ones, not sure about advanceauto.

 

Thanks! I’ll keep that in mind!

 

Do you have any suggestions on what else I should replace while I’m in there? A new belt make sense, but any other high failure parts? She has ~75k miles