Help!

Woke up this AM to a dead batter in my MCS (shocked, eh?! )..

Im not, but the problem is, i cant get to it to pull it out and replace it.

Car's dead dead. Not even enough juice to pop the hatch. No problem I say, I will climb in, lower the rear seat, and pop it from inside. WRONG. Rear hatch cover is in place, and I cant remove it with the seats up and hatch closed.

How the heck can i get this hatch open with no power?

 

Haha! Been there, done that!

Check under the bottom of the rear seats, there's a little ring to pull and pop the hatch. Should be detailed in the owners manual.

Good luck!

 

also, if you have a car parked next to it, you can jump it from the bonnet.

use the (+) for red wire to the left of the intake and use one of the
strut tower nuts for the (-) ground.

should be able to pop the boot like you normally do.

 

An excellent point!

 

That pull ring isn't present on all MINIs. The 2002 models for instance don't have it, although the 2002 owners manual does talk about the pull ring (don't drive yourself mad looking for it if you can't find it easily).

 

I did not know that!

 

im not sure if I have that ring either (03'). I don't remember seeing it when
i removed my rear seats while i did the InfinityBassLink install earlier this
summer.

but again, i wasn't really paying much attention to trunk release when
i was working on my speakers.

 

I thought the battery was in the boot.
Annette

 

Yes, on the MCS it is. With the battery dead you can't pop the hatch though, and with the top shelf in place you can't reach to the battery over the top of the seats or to pull the releases on the back of the rear seats. The way to get to the battery would be (if your MINI even has it) to remove the rear seat bench, then pull the handle to release the hatch manually (cable actuated).

The other option would be to pop the hood and use the jump terminals next to the intake to get power to the battery.

 

Ken--

I had an april 03 delivery and the ring is there. I had to use it once before.

 

And if yours doesn't have the pull ring, I've heard that your dealer can retrofit one.

 

My '03 didn't have it (first week of '03 production, I think - 9/6/02).

 

cool! i hope mine does too. i know my car came with excessive chassis
sealant... must have been a Friday afternoon 4:58pm production vehicle.

 

You can also push the parcel tray out of the way and lower your seats and take it out that way as well...

Believe me, I did this 2 weeks ago because I shut the boot while I had the battery disconnected....

 

<a little tangent, but...>

on my car i have a connector to power my Basslink above the
trunk floor so I just plug a new battery or power source to dat.
actually, that's where i plug in my charger to top off the battery
every 2 weeks so i don't have to move anything in the boot.

i tried charging my battery from the front (+) once, but the charger
gave me an error message so..

 

Thanks for all the helpfull hints guys.. I let the car sit for 20 minutes or so (after posting) and was able to have enough juice to pop the door locks.

I didnt have the ring as mentioned by some. So had the thing not came alive, and had i not seen the post about jumping from the front, i would have been stuck!

As for the manual. Stupid me had it in the hatch, so the manual was no good for me!

Off to costco to get a new one. Hopefully they got a red top in stock in my size.

 

cool those optimas are very good.

 

I would get yours retro fitted asap. It's a safety issue. Jumping from another battery will work, but if you don't have cables availible you can't do it AND if you don't connect the cables correctly, to both cars, you could seriously damage the electricals on both cars.