Alright guys I try not to create a new post unless I actually have to but Im having what I bet is a pretty unique problem with my 2003 r53 mini.

Every time I cold start the car the power steering and alternator doesn’t work but here’s where things get interesting.. After about 20-35 minutes of driving the alternator and then power steering start working again. Then every time I start up the car everything works just fine.

You may be able to see now why I decided to make a post about this as its a fairly hard problem to diagnose. Im mostly hoping someone else has had this issue or knows what could be causing this strange issue.

A few things I should mention I installed a 17% reduction pulley as well as a larger crank pulley and a new water pump and alternator about a year ago though I have a few cars so theres not too many miles on them.

I have also had a power drain on the battery as long as Ive had the car where if I don’t drive it every three days or so the battery will be dead. Instead of fixing this problem I installed a 120 watt solar panel with a progressive 12volt controller that adds more amps of charge the lower the battery gets until it reaches 12 volts where it stops charging.

I monitor the solar panel controller to keep track of my battery voltage which is how I know when the alternator is working or not. I should also not that without the solar panel you cannot drive the mini for 30 minutes without the battery dying so I cannot currently remove the solar panel hence why Ive never tried fixing the battery drain problem.

Sorry for the long post but Im hoping someone can help me figure out what might fix this as I currently cannot cold start and drive at night and always worry the alternator may just decide to not turn on while Im on a long trip and leave me stranded which used to happen before I installed the solar panel.