I was in Houston this weekend having a 17% pulley installed on the MINI. Everything went fine with that. I left the car with valet parking at my hotel overnight and the next morning the car was dead. When I tried starting it most of the electrical stuff would go dead, the airbag light would come on, and some other electrical stuff would start to go all screwy, like the driver's window rolling down. We tried jumping it off of another car, but that didn't work. AAA came out and tried jumping it but nothing there either. When it was hooked up to the AAA jump and we tried to start it the headlights would flash and all we'd get is a clicking noise from the engine. Finally a guy with a flat bed tow truck showed up, but he was able to push start the car. So I drove the car back from Houston to Corpus Christi last night, about 250 miles. The battery never charged, and it's in front of my apartment right now dead. While I was driving it was fine, but if I had to stop, or slow down for something, now and then the gauges would go flat, and sometimes the power steering would kick off for a few seconds.

So it sounds like a dead battery to me, but the timing with the pulley install and the weird things it would do while trying to start it make me think it could possibly be something else. Any ideas anyone? Bad ground, or maybe bad starter? I'd just take it to the dealer but my warranty ran out 500 miles ago (which is why I had the pulley installed in the first place.)

 

When my battery died the guages behaved as you describe. Sounds like a likely culprit.

 

Is the alternator driven off of that same pully belt? If the install did something funny there, it would explain the lack of charging...

 

I'm pretty sure the alternator is fine, because that's what was giving me power on the way back home.

I put a new battery in it this morning. Everything seems to be fine. I can't think of a way to tell if the battery is getting recharged though. Is there any way I can tell? I just want to be sure when I go to start it up tomorrow morning that it'll be fine. The other thing that's bothering me is if the valet ran the battery down, how did they do it? The dome light turns off by itself, they didn't leave the keys in it or anything. I guess they could have left the lights on but they weren't on when I went out there to try and start the car (obviously they could have turned them off before I got out there)

 

Sounds exactly like MDBS (MINI Dead Battery Syndrome).

For some reason, MINI batteries give no warning of impending death. And once they're dead, there is no reviving them with a jumpstart. Seems to me it either works or it doesn't... with my previous cars, they would always give me warnings of impending battery failure, like dim lights and hesitant/slow cranking at start-up. Not so with the MINI.

My original equipment battery (the one installed during build at the Oxford plant) died at 37 months young. Dashboard lights went crazy, clicking sound from lower left kick panel (lots of relay switches are in there) when trying to start car, plus ONE of the headlights would go on and stay on. When MINI batteries die, crazy things happen to the electrical system. A new battery seems to make everything right again.


rock on,

-boognish

 

I recently got a letter from MINI saying come to the dealer and get a free new battery.

 

Aha! Finally a scenario where the Auxillary Gauge setup's Voltmeter would be useful! I'd still rather have a temp gauge.