Had a '64 VW with the battery under the rear seat. Of course, sooner or later it leaked and did serous damage. The VW as driven conservativily. My MCS is not. Any thoughts about an orbital battery? They do not outgas, and will not leak.
They are readily available(Exide etc). Any experience with leaks, these batteries, and are there warranty issues.

Paddy

 

I am sure the battery in the MINI is a sealed type of battery and if you get worried you could always swap out the batter for a Optima batter with spiral gell technology. You can mount optima batteries up, down, sideways or anyway you want.

 

BMW uses specially encased lead-acid batteries that have a vent going outside the body-shell; this may be the situation with the MINI also. Azwed is right about the Optima batteries, they are completely sealed.

irishman, I would not worry about the OEM battery in your MCS, however, as materials technology has slightly improved since 1964

Cheers,
Ryan

 

Geeze, I thought Paddy's question was pretty reasonable; and I've had OEM batteries leak a lot more recently than 1964

I just looked at my MCS's battery, and it seems to be of the sealed type. I'm not sure that it's sealed 100% or that it's of the orbital/spiral type that allows mounting in any direction -- but it looks like the standard "maintenance free" design that will not leak unless damaged. So long as you mount it upright (where it is) it should be fine I'd think.

 

I had part of my shift linkage break last week! Evidently the battery vent tube was blocked somehow and battery acid leaked down onto the linkage and fritzed it out.