Hi All,

New here....so be gentle!

My wife picked up her Mini Cooper yesterday, but on the 79 mile drive home on the motorway the volume just cut out after about half an hour. Stereo was working absolutely fine just no sound! We stopped off at a service station for 10 minutes and when she restarted the engine the sound came back!

To cut a long story short, it happened again after about 20 minutes and came back after another short stop for petrol. After that stereo worked fine for the duration of the trip which was about an hour after battling heavy traffic due to road closures.

Also happened again today after 10 minutes of driving, but again came back after visiting the in-laws for lunch and didn't cut out on the journey home.

As far as I know the stereo is standard, so would really appreciate any help or advise so we can get it sorted.

We bought the Cooper from a garage (not a Mini dealership), and although it has twelve months warranty, I'm sure this probably won't be covered.

Anyway, any help would be great as the wife is currently going mad with worry!

Cheers,

Mark

1st or 2nd gen mini.

1st or 2nd gen mini.

Hi Jon,

It's a 57 plate, so second generation.

Also, do all standard stereos come with amplifiers on Coopers?

Just asking as I've found what appears to be a silver amplifier in a bracket on the left hand side of the boot compartment.

Cheers,

Mark

If it looks like this you have the Harman Kardon Hi-Fi
http://www.mini2.com/galleries/data/538/thumbs/2201.jpg (http://www.mini2.com/galleries/data/538/2201.jpg)

If he's got HK then won't the speakers have the HK name/logo on 'em?

^^^^ yes

didn't think hk was available when the 2nd gen first came out..

i've got the same amp,i've got the hifi system..

also you've not said whether it's cd or radio when it cuts out or both..

SteveM3 - If it looks like this you have the Harman Kardon Hi-Fi

Yep, that's it Steve.

Didn't think we had the Harman Kardon Hi-Fi as there are no logos on any of the speakers.

^^^^ yes

didn't think hk was available when the 2nd gen first came out..

i've got the same amp,i've got the hifi system..

also you've not said whether it's cd or radio when it cuts out or both..

It's happens on both CD and radio, Jon.

The H/K system wasn't an option in the R56 until the 2010 model year ...
MotoringFile - New H/K option to Replace HiFi Stereo (http://www.motoringfile.com/2009/07/21/new-hk-option-to-replace-hifi-stereo/)
An amp in an earlier model would be for the HiFi system.

In RealOEM the diagram stays identical for HI-Fi amp as for the HK amp but the part numbers change. Not sure which is the most significant. So it could be the turn on signal to the amp is intermittent or the amp is faulty and cutting out. As some of the connections are CAN bus I don't have a clue how we can find out which is the problem :(.

In RealOEM the diagram stays identical for HI-Fi amp as for the HK amp but the part numbers change.
RealOEM will give you different part number lists depending on what build date you use.

For example ...

Build Date 12/2007:
http://www.mini2.com/forum/attachment162126.jpg

Build Date 09/2009:
http://www.mini2.com/forum/attachment162127.jpg

Hi All,

Many thanks for the help and advise - Finally managed to find out the source of the problem.

Basically the battery leads were not connected back up the terminal properly. In fact they weren't tightened up at all. I'm hardly surprised after the garage we bought the Cooper from told us that that it had to go to BMW for some "specialist" work before we could collect.

We found this out after the car completely died on us on a Saturday afternoon - Luckily still on the driveway. A very helpful chap from the RAC located the problem in a matter of minutes, leaving me feeling very foolish as I thought the electrics were completely buggered after the wife was complaining of lights appearing on the dash and disappearing the day before.

Anyway, all is well now and stereo has been great since.

Cheers,

Mark