Car: 2006 R53
Condition: No Start

I checked the ignition switch. It was clean but I cleaned it any way to make sure.

I purchased a new starter and of course got the wrong one. Swapped it and got the right one. Pulled my old one and had it bench tested to make sure. It failed. So, I installed the new correct starter and the car fired right up. Before buttoning everything up, I tested the starter several times. When I thought I was finished, I put all the tools away and went to fire the car and nothing! No click, nothing. Battery is brand new, tested out at 12.6v.

Put the car back on stands. Moved the heat shield away and the starter fired. I put the heat shield back and it did NOT fire. I pulled the heat shield off altogether and it did NOT fire. I checked the connections. They were tight. I disconnected them and sanded the contacts to ensure a good connection. I reconnected the wires and tried to fire. All I get is a small hum. It's not the fuel pump or the injectors.

I also checked the clutch safety switch as I was not aware of this earlier. I was connected and undisturbed.

Finally, I got fed up and pulled the starter back out. Maybe I have a bad one? I suppose it's possible but it doesn't seem to make much sense.

I'm going to pick up another replacement this morning, but figured I'd post here to see if anyone might have an idea of what I could be missing.

Any ideas are welcome.

 

Took the "new" starter back to the store and had it bench tested. It tested good.

Had them give me a replacement starter and benched that one too before I left the store and it was good as well.

Going out to install. Hopefully, everything will cooperate.

Second Install:
Put it in, tested it, it work and spun like it was supposed to. For good measure I put the battery on the charger while I finished.

Wrapped it all up and all I get is clicking noise like a dead battery would usually make. At this point I'm at wits end.

Ignition switch "appears to be good" - it's clean
Starter is good
Battery is good
Connections are good
clutch safety switch is connected
fuses are all good
Grounds are good and clean

What the heck am I missing?!?!?!
All connections are clean

 

Found that there is a magnet "trick" for the clutch safety switch. Going to try that next.

Anyone have a test for the ignition switch? Hate to replace it if it's not bad.

 

Magnet trick did not work
Checked BST and it's fine
Hooked my Autel Scanner to the car and there's no outstanding codes.

Not sure what else to try.

 

81 views and no ideas?

I really don't want to take this to the dealer- They charge $100 to do an oil change!

I know the first thing they'd want to do is put an official MINI starter for $408 + core. That does not include the labor...

 

My next steps would be:

- check the ground cable by the passenger side motor mount again. It’s usually the connection on the frame rail side, but I would make sure both sides are clean and re-torque the nuts. This has been the reason for a lot of mysterious starting/electrical issues in the past.

- try another key in case the ews chip inside started having a problem by coincidence.

- check the battery to see how far the voltage is dropping when trying to start the car. MINI’s seem to be really finicky when it comes to batteries and voltage. Even when the car seems to start and run fine, a new battery often solves a lot of weird electrical issues.

 

I would keep pursuing the ground idea. Seems to fit with your cause/effect story on the heat shield. Maybe you have a bad cable? Check for voltage loss across the cables during starting, maybe it has broken strands inside. Just guessing . . .

 

Thanks for the replies!

The battery is brand new AND I put it on the charger to top it off while I worked.
I checked the wires and the "appear to be good" - but they're in their sheathings.
I'm thinking that when I zip tie them back to the body of the starter (as the original had, it somehow pinches something)

I'll be checking the voltage drop later this week when I have some help.

If anyone has any other ideas please feel free to post here. I'm sure I'm not the only one that's run into this.

Thanks!

 

Ok, I just checked for voltage drop when cranking. Battery tests at 12.6v and when cranking, Solenoid measures 11.63v. That does not feel significant enough to prevent starting.

Also checked grounds, they are solid.

Need to find my spare key and rule it out (don't think that's the issue)- as the car started as soon as I installed the unit. And decided to not crank after it was all buttoned up.
All I get is a strong click when I turn the key.

Any other ground sources I am missing? (Just to be safe?)

 

Been lurking on this thread a while. No codes, starter good, battery good, grounds checked and rechecked. Sounds like you've covered the basics pretty well. At this point maybe after checking your spare key, voting to Easter egg the clutch switch and ignition switch, take your pick which one first but there were some similar symptoms found in this thread, in which it turned out to be the car's ignition switch.

 

Ok. So I went back and checked everything. I was leaning toward ground issues as I had read that voltage drop should be .5v or less and I was at 1.0v...
Pulled the main body ground. It was spotless. Wire brushed everything and tried a new nut and it worked! There was not a bit of corrosion on any of the wires. I'm not sure why the issue. Nevertheless, I gave everything a good scrub and tightened it all down and it finally cooperated.

Thanks to everyone who contributed here. Maybe this helps someone else in similar situation.