We picked up my husband's 2006 MCSa this past Saturday. All was right with the world. He had the JCW Shifting Indicator (he likes LEDs), lighted doorsills and driving lamps installed at the dealer once it came in and he had it programmed so the keys don't make the windows go down.

We started the drive home and stopped for lunch about 14 miles from the dealer - at this point there were 28 miles on the car. He got out and tried to lock the doors, the lights flashed but it wouldn't lock, I got in (I'm a pro, I've had my 05 for over a year...I've been trained, I'll make it work), and the toggle switch wouldn't work. So we call the dealer and the SA - told us to bring it back to them. After about 15 minutes, he came out into the waiting area to let us know that a fuse had blown. My husband wanted clarification because fuses don't just blow, especially not in a new car. He told us that if it was going to break, it would be now, that the car had been through lots of programming and everything should be fine. So we left - drove home (97 miles away) and drove it all weekend.

The car now has 168 miles on it.

Yesterday morning we got out into the driveway, I got in my MINI, he got in his, I rolled my window down to make a smart comment as he turned his on and I got a face full of wiper fluid. The headlight power washers extended themselves and sprayed until the resevoir was empty and then continued to run even after he removed the key, I raised the hood, he reinserted the key and turned the car back on. Nothing we did would make them turn off. I called my dealer and was sent to the BMW folks who tried to send me back to MINI who flipped me on and off of hold for the next 10 minutes. When I finally got someone to answer, she wasn't in service and told me that it would be a long time before I could talk to someone, so I asked if I should just call roadside assistance, and then I think I hung up on her.

Anyway, roadside assistance told me that they couldn't do anything other than send a tow truck to take it back to the closest dealer (which is where we bought it). The entire time I was on the phone we continued to play with the car to try to get it to stop. It finally did while the hood was still up and the car was off, but the minute we closed the hood, they came back on - at this point I had one of the dealership's service guys (but not a tech) on the phone and he heard all of this going on, he had a tech to tell me to disconnect the switch that tells the car the hood is closed to see if that would work, it didn't.

Finally, after about 20 minutes of turning it on and off, opening and closing the hood, the washers retracted and stayed that way, we moved the car to get it ready for the tow truck and the washers stayed put...and so they have for the past 24+ hours. My dealer cannot make it reproduce the problem and there is no record / error message on the computer.

Several people have said it's probably an electrical problem, one has offered that it could be a loose ground wire. When my husband offered that as a suggestion, the SA told him it couldn't be that. My hunch is that it has something to do with the JCW indicator or the sills - when we took delivery, our MA told us that the indicator was the first one their dealership had done.

No one at the dealership has ever heard of this happening...I think if I hear that one more time I'm going to poke my eyes out. It's just so frustrating that they can't find anything wrong with the car when we saw it do things that made my husband want to change it's name to Captain Howdy or Regan to reflect it's Exorcist-like behavior!

 

Just curious - what dealership are you talking about? I'm in VA also...

 

OMG, a nightmare indeed. be sure to document everything iwth time, date and what youve done as a responsible owner.

well this is good for any dispute you'd like to present to a company.

 

Alright, so advance 8 hours and here's where we are...

The car never duplicated the problem for the techs, the dealership reloaded the BC1 which, I've been told runs nothing but those power washers. They put the car back onto a truck and sent it back to us tonight. As the tow truck driver turned the car on to back it off of the truck, the washers started spraying again....and continued to do so for about 5 - 10 minutes. I am out of town, my husband is dealing with this situation...and doing a fine job. I think I would be pulling my hair out at this point.

The driver was very nice and told my husband to let the service people know that he saw it happen.

We'll see what tomorrow brings....hopefully it will be someone that will be able to figure out what is wrong with our new little guy.

 

Today's events have me feeling a bit better about the situation. Here's the rundown:

• Husband called the SA to let him know it happened again
• SA was "flabergasted", couldn't comment, repeated "it happened when he went to back it off the truck?!?!"
• SA suggested we drive it for a week and keep notes of when it happens (environment, situation, etc). Husband said he didn't want to be stuck with a car acting up like that away from the house, and expressed concern that if it is something electrical, what if the car would just stop or give up an important part of it's electrical system.
• SA then suggested that we just start it everyday to see how often it happens, husband didn't like that idea and told the SA that he would rather they keep the car and run the tests until it repeats the problem for them
• SA agreed and said they will probably bring down a field tech from MINI to look into this, as no one they've spoken with has ever heard of this problem.

Husband then called the MA and let him know what was happening. He said he'd be checking in with the SA to stay on top of the situation.

The car will go back to the dealership this evening to stay until they can get the car to duplicate the problem for them.

Hopefully it will be sooner than later.

 

Wow. Here's an update (I am the husband in question here...) I called Mini Roadside assistance when I got home from work. She asked for a brief rundown of the problem and I let her know what was going on. She told me that if the car ran they wouldn't tow it and I needed to drive it down. I explained to her that they towed it for the same problem on Monday, and that I didn't feel safe driving it because I was afraid that motor was going to catch on fire running constantly like it does. I also let her know that the car hasn't been right since I picked it up on Saturday. She put me on hold I assume to talk to her supervisor, and came back and said sorry, if it runs we won't tow it.

My next call was to my SA that has been working on the car. He suggested that I tell Mini roadside assistance a story about trying to drive it down and hearing a popping noise coming from the car and being afraid it was going to catch on fire. He said as long as you tell them you don't think it is safe to drive they will tow it, I told him that I told them I didn't think that it was safe to drive and they told me the bottom line was if it runs at all they won't tow it, I also let him know that I wasn't comfortable calling them and telling stories, so he agreed to call them and try to get it worked out. I don't know how he did it, but they came and got the car.

I have to admit I was dissapointed in Mini Roadside Assistance, you would think Mini would stand behind its cars better than that, its not like its two years since I bought it and it developed a problem, it hasn't been right since I picked it up...

 

Well, Mini Roadside Assistance is actually supplied by AAA, so I'm not sure there's a whole lot Mini can do besides go up the AAA food chain and go to bat for you. It's most likely AAA's policy not to tow "working" vehicles. I hope everything gets resolved for you soon.

 

With the various electrical options you have installed (shift indicator, door sills, driving lights) I would make sure someone revisit those connections to make sure they didn't splice into the wrong wiring somewhere. Who knows? These upgrades are typically done by the dealer or a subcontractor hired by the dealer. Good luck and elevate your problem if it doesn't get better.

swizzle

 

Yeah, it may not really be Roadside assistance's place to be towing my car in a situation like this, if it truly is for emergencies only perhaps the dealer should have made arrangements to get the car down there. I just didn't feel that under the circumstances I should be driving it down there. But it is there now and hopefully when it comes back it won't have to go back down.

No updates to report, they have had the car all day and it has not duplicated the problem for them. I think we have both mentioned all the options we had added to the SA, but he is convinced the two are not related. He says the options I had put on are on a totally different bus and don't affect the headlamp washers at all. I however am pretty much convinced that it has got to have to do with all that extra stuff... A friend at work suggested it might just be a loose ground somewhere and told me a story of a VW Bug owner that had a bad ground and when he turned on his turn signals the dashboard lights flashed. He said that if something can't get to ground the way its supposed to it will take whatever route it can... Makes sense to me but the SA didn't think it could have anything to do with that either.

They are just going to keep it and try anything they can think of to get it to duplicate the problem. At this point I'm getting worried, they had it all day Tuesday and all day today and haven't gotten to do it for them... I don't know what I'm going to do if they give up and can't ever find the problem.. I guess I'll try to be patient and give it a week or so before I start worrying about that...

 

I didn't hear anything from the dealership all day, despite leaving a message for the SA at 9:00 and the MA at 10:45. I tried to call the MA twice more and got his voice mail both times. At 4:00 I called the SA back and managed to get through. "Oh Hi, I was just getting ready to call Mini Motoring Assistance and have your car shipped back" And no, they still haven't figured out the problem. They replaced the BC1 instead of reprogramming it, but that's all they did. I'm not really sure why they won't just keep the car until they can find the problem instead of sending it back to me. I told the SA I didn't feel safe driving it, and that I wished they would keep it until they could find the problem, and so he sends it back anyway.

Well, maybe it will work now.

 

Liability. The longer they keep your car without really knowing what the problem is, and tinkering with it, the more likely they might do some damage they will be responsible for.

 

What a nightmare! Good luck and I hope it works out for the best... Sounds to me like a relay is getting stuck open/on causing the headlamp washer pump to run continuously like that... very bizarre!

 

That sucks! I hope they can fix the problem. Just tell them to disconnect the darn things. (I don't forsee a time when we'll be using the sprayers) But I don't blame you for wanting the make the car "right". You're paying for it.

Good luck!

 

OK, here I sit enjoying my new hobby of waiting for tow trucks.

I got Eric (a.k.a Beelzebub) back last night around 9:30. We managed to get him off the truck without incedent and I was actually able to enjoy driving him 10 feet down the driveway with no problems. My wife called about 1:00 this afternoon to see if I had started it yet and I hadn't so I went out there while I was on the phone with her and started it up. And oh yeah, it went nuts and started spraying headlight washer fluid everywhere. This time was a little different because I couldn't get it to stop, so maybe it is getting worse. I got off the phone and called the dealership. My SA wasn't there but I talked to the guy my wife had talked to on Monday when it first happened. He heard the loud sound of it running and told me to call Mini Motoring Assistance and have it towed back down. I got off the phone and did everything I could to get it to stop, turning the car on and off, opening and closing the hood, unplugging the plug that they told us should make it stop, and nothing. I called the dealership back and talked to the other SA again and he finally had me unhook the battery before the motors caught on fire. Well, at least I could honestly say my car wasn't running when I called motoring assistance.

And in case anyone is wondering, yes, I did try hooking the battery back up for a second to see if it would immediately resume its infernal spraying, and unfortunately it didn't.

One thing that struck me as slightly dissapointing was that the SA I spoke to today had no idea what my SA had been doing to the car. I have no idea how many people they have down there, and I don't know how service people operate, but I am a network engineer, and I know that if there is a huge problem that really has us stumped, we put our heads together and everyone in the department looks at it. Maybe I'm way off base and they don't do that sort of thing at car dealerships, but it made me feel like perhaps they weren't doing everything they could.

So any advice on what to do next? I've been reading up on the Lemon Laws in North Carolina (assuming they apply to me since I bought the car in NC even though I live in VA) and they say that I need to contact MINI themselves. I'm wondering if I need to go ahead and do that. I'm also wondering if I ask the dealer for MINI's address if that would let them know that I am serious or just tick them off. I've also been in contact with thier Prime MINIster of Motoring (whatever that means) on the advice of someone that is friendly with him, maybe I need to update him on the situation.

Thanks for all the encouragement and advice!

 

Possible good news to report. I noticed my window was rolled down a little (not sure how, I didn't touch it and I had them program the car so it wouldn't roll down by holding the button on the key...) but it was. I hooked the battery up long enough to roll up the window, and the washer motor ran the whole time! I had another oppurtunity later to hook the battery up, and it ran again that time. So hopefully they will be able to duplicate the problem.

It was a fun experience with the tow truck driver. The car was parked pointing down the driveway, so I got the tow hook out and put it in the back. The driver showed up and said "the tow hook is in the back, that's a bad sign" and explained that there was a bulletin saying not to tow them backwards because the air will get behind the mirror caps and blow them off. So i said well, I'll hook the battery back up long enough to turn the car around. I tried to open the trunk. Either it just doesn't open period with the battery unhooked, or somehow locked itself. So we couldn't do that. He said just put some tape around the mirrors so they don't blow off, which I did, I hope it doesn't mess them up, but they are easily replaceable. So of course I had to put the car in neutral so he could pull it up on the truck. Ah, can't do that either with the battery unhooked. Well, in case you are wondering, it IS possible to get the boot cover out of the back without the trunk open. After some fiddling I managed to get that out and folded the seats down and crawled back there long enough to hook the battery and take the car out of park and we got it pulled up on the truck. I then had to crawl back up on the truck and unhook the battery again.

When the truck driver gets to the dealer he has another fun challenge on his hands. You can't get the key out of the ignition with the car in neutral and you can't lock the door with the battery unhooked. And the dealership is in a bad neighborhood and he said the last time he was down there at night it was swarming with kids. "Kids" as in juvenile delinquent teenagers of course. So he is going to have to hook up the battery get the car in park, open the boot, lock the doors, and then unhook the battery and shut the trunk. And hope that the trunk still locks.

I am assuming even with the battery unhooked you can open the drivers door with the key, but if you can't, I guess the dealer will have to deal with it.

So I am just hoping that it keeps up running that motor now whenever the battery is hooked up and they can fix it.

 

OOHH...WHAT A NIGHTMARE YOU HAVE HAD...!!!

HERE'S WISHING YOU BOTH A QUICK RESOLUTION TO THIS
PROBLEM SO YOU CAN GET OUT THERE AND ENJOY YOUR
NEW MINI..!!

 

Yay, little Eric has finally acted up for the service department. He is sitting down there in the service bay frantically trying to wash his headlights as we speak.

 

I'll check on him today while I am there if I have a few minutes. I'll be picking up my new MINI today so I'll see if they are working on him. :-)

Drew

 

What a nightmare.

Isn't there a lemon law in your area? Don't you have 30 days to return your car if it's not working properly from the get go?

I'm surprised you don't have a courtesy car to drive as a replacement while your dealer service is working on your car.

I hope they get it all sorted out in short order.

 

Please keep us updated on this. I am curious about the cause.

Here is my understanding of how headlight washers work:

If headlights are on AND washers are activated AND washers have NOT been activated in the previous 8 minutes, THEN headlight washers will activate for X number of seconds.

Seems like it'd have to be in the body control computer, or there's an intermittent short between a wire that was tapped into for your accessories and the wire that feeds the headlight washer pump. It's definately strange.

Best of luck getting it fixed.

Rawhyde

 

What a story! It seems to me ... considering all the probability, by that I mean the problem showing itself three times whenever you try it but doesn't at the dealer for days and days, the dealer didn't try very hard. They maybe just checked back once in a while, but didn't give it as much attention as you would expect. Thats just my logic. What are the chances?? Please let us know what happens.

 

Alright - so they were able to replicate the problem at the dealership, they called yesterday at 7:40am to let us know that they "hooked it to the jump box and it started freaking out". Then I don't remember if L33t called them or if they called L33t, but around 11:30 we were told that they still didn't have a clue what was going on, but they were going to replace the battery because it seemed to have been rundown with all the power washer activity.

L33t: "Replace the battery?"
SA: "Yeah, it's really low."
L33t: "Did you plug it back in?"
SA: "Plug it back in? It's unplugged?"
L33t: "Yes, I unplugged it because I couldn't get it to stop and SA #2 told me to unplug it before it burned up the motors. And thru some experimentation between that time and the time the tow truck came, I figured out that plugging the battery back in usually resulted in the freaking out of the car."
SA: "Oh, I didn't know the battery was unplugged."

Wow, I can see you've really got that fine-tooth comb out...

So, throughout yesterday afternoon L33t became completely over this experience, he's ready to turn his car back over to them, and ask for his money back. Their lack of interest in getting this problem solved has been really disheartening. During all of last week we were being told that they were running tests on the car, and giving it a complete check over to make sure things were right under the bonnet. L33t offered a loose ground wire as problem, "Nope, it's not that." He offered the relay theory, "Nope, not that either."

So, around 3:45pm the SA calls L33t to tell him that they've figured out what was wrong - it's a bad relay that was testing good, but getting stuck in the on position. DaveTinNY - you take the prize on this one!

Anyway, the car was brought back to us last night by some crazed, angry young man that was out for retribution from a CB-talking truck driver that had cut him off in the fast lane. We were watching for him and some how he snuck by us and our dogs (thanks for the work guys) and was able to get the car off of the truck and into our driveway without us knowing it. I looked out a window to see a guy walking away from a CR/W MINI and yelled for L33t. He ran out there and the guy started telling him about the other truck cutting him off and how he passed the guy and was "this close" to his bumper and if he'd just tapped his breaks he'd have "all this up in his grill". He wanted the driver to pull over so he could "give him some of this". All I could think was - you were doing that with my car on the back of your truck, you dork! Save your bravado for when you don't have a payload in back!

We did a walk around of the car, they didn't wash it, L33t opened the back because the tow truck guy had not replaced the tow hook. The back seats were down, the boot mat was gone and all of the fixins for the roofrack were missing. When we looked under the seats that were still down, we found the mat and all the tools for the roofrack and made some snarky comment about "wow, way to send it back to us in 'ready-to-motor' condition". Needless to say we're a little less than starstruck by the experience with the service department. L33t took a breath and turned the key, it just started up, no spraying this time. Then he turned it off, removed the key and did it all again...nothing but the perfect hum of a MCS and the smell of a new car. Later, I came back out with my Dad on the phone and tried using the washers. Everything worked as it should. The real test will now be if L33t will finally be able to drive his new car to work after a week of ownership without some electrical system fouling it up.

The paper work was with our boot mat - looking it over, it seems that they only ran a software diagnostic on the car the first 2 times it was down there. There was no mention of someone actually tracing wires or checking indivdual hardware systems by hand. I'm not sure that that would have diagnosed it any faster, but I also don't feel like everything was done that could have been done.

All that aside, I just sent L33t off to work, no troubles in the driveway this morning. Eric started up and drove away like all good little MINIs are supposed too. There's a birthday lunch at the office today...we'll see how little Eric behaves when he's around other kids.

Thanks for the support through this mess - we'll keep you posted.

 

I hate to hear of your continued troubles with the car/dealership. I picked mine up yesterday and saw the lil red one sitting outside of the service area. I am guessing it was already completed by the time I saw it. I hope it was just a little cold and that it has passed and your MINI won't get sick again!

Drew