For the second time in a month, my '06 MCS has left me on the side of the road. The first time was the supercharger bypass valve. The car went into limp mode, blah, blah, blah. A key cycle cleared the code from the computer and I was on my way again.

This last time, however, was a totally new experience. The car started up fine and I was rolling along when it died, completely. No gauges, no lights, no nothing. But for some reason the accessories continued working. So I tried the key cycle trick and it worked. Almost! Before I could get the car into gear it died again in the exact same fashion.

So Mini Roadside Assistance got to treat my car to a 240 mile piggyback ride to my dealer. Which reminds me: Hey MiniUSA, how about certifying a couple of those 8 billion BMW dealers as authorized Mini service centers. Gee, there's a novel idea.

OK, back to the story. The service tech, whom BTW kicks ***, explained his findings thusly: On the MCS, the battery is located in the boot underneath the access panel. There is a crash-induced disconnect mechanism that removes power from the car in a crash, similar to an airbag deployment. From there, the power is then distributed to two different systems of the vehicle by use of a fusable link box right next to the battery. The main power terminal on this box was loose to the point of causing intermittent disconnection, which caused the car to die when it no longer had electrical power. This also explains why the accessories worked, because the power connection to those systems was nice and tight. He tightened this nut and all was fixed. He also hypothesized that the connection may not have been fully tightened from the factory, and through the course of the last 15 months and 32,000 miles that it worked it's way loose.

The icing on this little crap cake was the lovely little Kia Spectra that I got to drive while my car was in the shop. NICE!!!!

See you all at the Dragon,

The Bear Slayer

 

Glad it was a simple problem and everything's good now.

Good diagnosticians are seriously worth their weight in gold. Years ago, I limped my barely-running, stumbling Volkswagen Jetta into an independent shop in Texas. The technician asked me a few very insightful questions, and had the problem narrowed down to the engine grounding strap before he even popped the hood! Five minutes later, I was on my way.

 

MINI Quality at its finest

 

Bosch - Smosch.

There's definitely some Lucas Prince of Darkness spirit left over in these cars.

 

Hey, at least we don't have to load up on Lucas smoke every 3k miles

 

Hmmm - I guess I am lucky. I got a 330xi to drive while my air bag light problem is being fixed.

 

"You got to drive a Kia Spectra? Lucky," said Napolean Dynamite.

 

i had the same problem on a customers' car about 2 weeks ago. he was driving and the car completely lost power. we tried to start it/jump it and nothing would happen. sure enough the nut that holds the battery cable connection was loose a couple of threads. some thread lock took care of that problem!

 

So that little box beside the battery is the 'cut the electricity off when you wreck box'? Hummm guess that need to be checked and tightened just to make sure.

Thanks guys,

YD

 

yeah thats the one. double check on it make sure it's tight!