2003 MINI Cooper CVT, 45,600 miles on the odometer

Car has driven fine last few days, although slightly hesitant to start each morning, but only like a second or two delay...not exactly a "hard start".

Anyway, wife drove home this afternoon from work, parked car to pick up some groceries. Got back in car (after sitting in lot for 10 minutes) and it started right up. She drove to the bank, stopped car, went to walk-up ATM, got back in, tried to start the MINI and this is what happens:

Won't even crank. Lights on dash dim and intermittent (some light up, some don't). There are two HUGE relay fuses in the driver side footwell that are clicking crazily when we try to start the car or if key is in "ON" position they just click click click crazily.

Anyway, I'm having it towed to dealer. What does this sound like, the battery?

Thanks.

-boognish

Also, the sunroof was open but I figured out how to manually close it with the allen wrench. But the door windows are down a 1/2" and won't go up...the weather forecast is for rain, any idea how to put the windows up?

 

Sounds like you might have a parasitic draw that occured recently. Hopefully your dealer will figure it out. Or your battery just isn't holding charge anymore

 

From your perspective I assume "this is bad"

but,


must opine, that this is 'normal'.

This opinion only based on this happening to me a couple of times....with and without an AMP guage

What you describe is a classic battery failure, from what I see. Not a warranty issue et al. Check your time line and all that, but bottom line is I think you have an EARLY but otherwise battery crap out. If other comes to b true; pls post.

Things go really wierd when the system puts out other than 12 volts.....

 

Yup, normal. BUT not early. OEM batteries last 3 years usually. Its not like BMW is putting quality batteries into these things

 

i should start thinking about putting my yellow top in pretty soon.

 

yellow or red?

Yellow is a deep cycle - red is a standard starting bat:

Optima starter type batteries, and Optima dual-purpose deep cycle/starter batteries. The Optima starter type batteries are superior replacement units for your car, truck, boat, or other vehicle. Optima deep cycle/starter batteries serve dual purposes: They function very well as starter batteries, but they also are designed to withstand repeated deep discharging (down to a charge level of 10.5 volts) without having their life span shortened. This ability makes them especially useful when electrical loads exceed recharge rate (including times when the battery cannot be recharged at all, such as for marine trolling motors, or for running car audio equipment with your engine turned off.) Optima deep cycle batteries are very popular for marine trolling motors, winches, special lighting, portable power, and emergency backup systems of all types. If you need high performance power for car audio, the best battery for you is one or more of the largest Optima deep cycle/starter batteries you can fit in"



I put a red top in my classic a year ago and all starting problems are GONE. My 2 cents is don't use a yellow when a red is the right one....

but either way....OPTIMA is recommended

 

I have optimas (Yellow tops) in every car I own, 4 at this time, and have been using them since 1996...absolutely nothing better, period.

 

My MINI was towed to the dealer this morning.

They said that the power steering motor is draining the battery, and they need to replace the PS Motor, but they can't do that until Monday.

So now I am out a car until at least Monday evening.

But what bothers me is that they said they will "Hook up the battery to a charger and recharge it completely."

I said I don't trust a battery that's been completely drained (parasitic drain from PS Motor) and recharged will last very long. They said they will check to see if any bad cells exist in the battery. If, after a recharge, there are bad cells, they will give me a new battery along with a new PS Motor. But, if there are no bad cells, tough luck, you get the new PS Motor and your old (it's 36 months old) battery back with a recharge.

Anyway, what do you think? Last August, they replaced the Power Steering PUMP. Monday they're replacing a parasitic Power Steering Motor. Sounds wierd...PS motor/PS pump...are they one in the same?

So that's it for now. I'll give more updates on Monday when the dealer calls me.

-boognish

 

My battery died...kaput...at 33 months. Replaced under warranty/maintence (whatever). Let's hope for a dead cell so they'll give you a new battery!

 

The pump and motor are an assembly. The whole unit gets replaced.

 

It's possible that the first time the pump part of the assembly was bad & now the motor side has gone bad. Two different parts in the same assembly. Strange yes, but very possible. Have them do a load test on your battery once it's charged back up. That will tell them if it's toasted or not.

 

The deal they are offering sounds fair to me.

 

This is the warranty work I've had on my 2003 Cooper CVT so far...delivery date was June 6, 2003:

New steering wheel (the leather peeled off the original one)
Driver door: new door lock actuator motor (crapped out after 1st year)
Passenger door: new door lock actuator motor (crapped out after 2nd year)
New HK amplifier (old one crapped out at 20K miles or so)
New Power Steering Motor (replaced last August at around 36K miles)
New Power Steering Pump (to be replaced on Monday)


It now has 46,000 miles and will be out of warranty in 4,000 more miles.

I wonder how much all the above warranty work would have cost me if it was out of warranty expenses?

I'm anxious because in 4K miles I'll be out of warranty...wondering what else will go!

It needed to be towed twice...once last August when the PS Motor failed, and on Friday when the PS Pump failed, which also caused a parasitic drain on the battery.... I love this car but the warranty work alone woulda put me in debt...

Interestinly, just last week I just got a note from the dealer saying they have a 48,000 mile warranty for $1,950 with a $200 deductible. They said it must be purchased before 50,000 miles for that price. That'll cover the car until 98,000 miles. Even though I've had this bad luck with the car, I don't think I'll go for the warranty...do you think that's smart?


-boognish

 

Dealer called. They replaced the PS Pump today. Last August they replaced the PS Motor. So I guess now my MINI pretty much has a fairly "new" PS Pump/Motor assembly...at least newer than the rest of the car!

The problem is, they originally surmised that the PS Pump failure was also what caused the battery to die (parasitic draw).

But now they tell me that even with the new PS Pump installed, there is still an unknown current draw on the battery that should not be there.[/SIZE]

So they want to keep it another day to search it out.[/SIZE][/FONT]

I do know that from day one of delivery (nearly 36 months ago), there has always been a loud buzz from behind the center speedo when the key is in the ON position and engine is off. Just a loud, continuous hum, sorta like what you would hear from an amplifier turned to 0 but with a guitar plugged in...you still hear a hummmmmm....

I suppose they will keep testing all electrical parts until they find the correct part...this could takes days, right? Tomorrow I'll ask if they know what the current draw is...maybe that can help them determine which parts are causing the battery to drain, based on amount of parasitic draw? Who knows, I'm not a mechanic... anyone have ANY ideas?

-boognish

 

have ANY ideas? = nope

but sure would like to know what they found wrong with your car.

 

Before I sold it, there was a letter from Miniusa telling me of a battery Recall (cells dying on 2003 MINI)...they replaced it free of charge! Then I got an 04 MCS and the same thing happened...They replaced that one too. Yes, the BMW oem battery is not the greatest. I am now Miniless since i refuse to own a vehicle where problems are explained by "it is normal for a Mini" The last straw was the PS pump and fan...sold it, but still miss it (only 20k miles too). No more Minis OR BMW's for me unless they change their attitude on such defects such as
PS systems
Windshields cracking and the infamous pen test (Honda lost a class action on the 03 Element with the Pen test!)
engine bay fires (that one also scared me pretty good)
Strut mushrooming
Power window problems forever
and the list goes on so I will not bore you anymore.

I buy a new car about every 2 yrs and have never seen the number of problems that the Mini seems to have built in to it. Luckily I had a good dealer!

Still miss the little bugger!

 

i just wanted to let you know that theres only A ps pump. not a pump and a motor. if they call it a motor(which would be the wrong term) then they replaced the pump twice.

also the speedo(IKE) is the main gateway of communication between a couple of computers in your car, so if you are hearing a humming noise from that area you may want to let the shop know that. it may be staying on after 16minutes from when the key was removed, which is when it should had gone to sleep.

 

My 03 MC battery mysteriously just failed on me this weekend at approx. 45k miles. I had started my car three times that day with no problems. Next time - just a bunch of solenoid clicking. New battery is installed and the car is running fine again.

In case you're stuck needing a battery for your MC (non-s) on a weekend as I was, you can find a battery manufactured by Exide with an 84 month warranty that fits at Checker Auto - Part #4784. Unfortunately, the top of the battery is a bit different in shape than the original, so the original battery hold-down bar will not work. (I have yet to fabricate a new one.)

 

the autozone replacement I found on some of the other threads was a slam-dunk exact replacement right down to the vent tube - just as the poster said. don't have the recipt nearby. will post later this eve.

but my battery fell on it's sword quickly at 45k also. I'm in so. fla. with a 2005. 2-3 years on a battery down here with so many electronics - probably just about right.

H5-DLG
I think it was $113 all said and done. if you're closer to the dealer, I think it's the same or within a few bucks.

 

I have a 2003 mini -no battery problems (everything else, including steering column, driver window motor, sunroof motor, etc. -- all replaced under warranty) until today. Drove car to and from work (no problem), stopped at grocery store -- in for 10 minutes, came out and wouldn't start. Electrical barely worked -- lights, no clock; overhead light, no horn;, etc. Friend with Lexus tried to jump-electrical improved but Mini engine wouldn't turn over. Tow-truck jumped engine in 30 seconds. (Driver said some chip prevents battery charging from other vehicle)

Car has 35,000 miles, manual transmission, no after-market products, used every day. Battery now seems to be working, but still strange repeated "clicking" when lock and unlock doors, etc.

Does this seem likely an early "crap-out" of battery? If yes, why wouldn't Lexus battery to give me a jump? Can I (or a friend) install a new battery or should I let the dealer -- assuming I can make it 40 miles there -- or another car shop do it?

 

Not unusual for a battery to work one time then the next time it's dead. I've had many cars and many batteries do that. Just replace it and be done with it, nothing worse than getting stuck because of a dead battery.

retroom

 

Also, the MINI draws quite a bit of power and it may take five minuets or so for the dead battery to get enough charge on it to jump the car and get it started. My wife's forester took about 5 min or so but it did finally jump it. I replaced the MINI battery with a German brand and have had no problems since.