[Pglenning]

Last week I left my MINI for three days without driving it, When I tried to start it was dead, I checked the battery and it was flat. I think maybe the alarm has drained it, but only after three days???. Also this week the same problem but I only left it for one day???. Anyone had the same problem?

[Paul]

I think some one mentioned a problem with this before?

That\'s very bad though.

[baldie]

Something to do with leaving the wipers in the on position I think.

Creates a drain on the battery even although the wipers dont actually activate or something.

Anyone know for sure?

Dave

[mr.bill]

This was one of the problems in my infamous \"niggles list.\" If the wipers are not shut off properly before the ignition is switched off, they will drain the battery. The procedure may be mentioned in the manual. I think the original post on this was a week or maybe ten days ago so you should be able to find it. Or perhaps the MINI owner who experienced it will respond.

[Pglenning]

My MINI is fixed, the problem was the battery was not holding it charge! SORTED!!!!!!!!

[Nicky]

I too have had a flat battery after I left my mini for a week. I called out BMW emergence services who had seen this problem before. Apparently the clamp on the battery is too tight and had actually cracked the battery causing it to short and hence go flat. My battery was replaced for a different size and I have since left the car for a few days and had no problems. I\'d check your battery for cracks!

[PsychoPhil]

I\'ll be leaving my Mini parked for long periods while working away (4+wks). Has anyone used a battery minder, trickle charger yet?

I use an Oxford Maximiser for my bike and it works a treat. However I\'m concerned about problems with the complex electronics on a Mini. Something may not like the charger and blow.

Any experiences out there?

[mr.bill]

I have two vehicles and one is stored in an outbuilding, sometimes for a couple months or more, while the other is driven. I made a trickle charger that plugs into the lighter socket to keep the battery up. It supplies a current regulated 100 milliamps, enough to keep the battery topped up but not enough to boil away the electrolyte or damage the electronics. Trickle chargers are cheap and easy to build, so if any of you blokes want a schematic, let me know. mr.bill@pcmagic.net

[Mini_me]

My left hand drive Cooper is in the garage at the moment (here in germany)with a problem relating to the battery. It was flat but the battery checked out OK and it is also charging fine. I think the problem relates to a switch not shuting of when it shoud leadng to a constant drain on the battery. (my German isn\'t good enough to understand exactly what but the mechanic did mention software being needed).Having posted a post by Mr.bill (thanks!) I suspect this could be the \'windscreen wiper left on\' problem as mr.bill he mentioned it might be rectified by a software upgrade for the ECU.

The dealers identified the problem within a few hours of me turning up at the forecourt and I have a nicely run in demo cooper to keep me going until the dealer has sorted it. (real customer care).

[Dudster]

It happened to me too this Monday. I last used my car on Friday night and then parked it on the drive where it stayed over the weekend. Came to start it up on Monday and there was nothing. I knew I\'d not left any lights on so i called the emergency services out and they advised me to take it to the dealer which I did straight away.

I sat in the show room whilst they checked it out and then an hour later they told me that they thought the car was not fully charged when I picked it up and therefore leaving it for a couple of days allowed the battery to drain. They didn\'t think there were any faults with the battery itself. So they fully charged it and sent me on my way. I\'m now wondering whether there is a \"crack\" in the battery which has damaged it.

Dud

[mr.bill]

There is no way a battery is going to go dead just sitting, even if it wasn\'t \"fully charged.\" Something has to be draining it. As I stated in a prior thread, I suspect this problem is more widespread than most people realize because the cars are new and are driven every day. Once the \"newness\" wears off and the cars sit for a few days, there will be lots of calls to emergency services to jump start a dead battery.

The only current that the car should draw when it is parked would be to keep the memory in the radio, perhaps the alarm on standby, and any memory in the ECU. Look at the tiny battery in your computer. It holds all the CMOS settings for years, even if the computer is left off.

A friend bought a VW Jetta a few years ago and if it sat for a couple days, the battery would be dead. The dealer couldn\'t fix it after numerous tries, but I did. There was a map reading/convenience lamp above the windshield that would stay on for a bit after the door was closed, then shut off. The lamp went off, but the circuit was still drawing several hundred milliamps. I pulled the lamp assembly and slipped in a plastic shim between two contacts to disable it. Voila! No more convenience lamp, but no more dead battery, and the lamp could still be turned on manually when needed. Something similar is happening on the MINI.

[m1les]

I had a similar problem in an escort. It proved to be the boot light was on continuously due to a faulty switch. It should be a simple task for a garage to tell if there is any drain on the battery.

[Mini_me]

mr.bill is dead right.
I got mine back today and the service team at the dealers said that the battery was being drained from a circuit that wasn\'t switching of as it should.

I think they did some sort of reprogramming of the ECU(?) to sort it but I had to wait a few days for them to get the necessary software.......At least I think that\'s what they were telling me my foriegn language skills aren\'t as good as they should be :)

Dudster, I suggest you take it back and get it sorted before you end up stranded somewhere (or carry jump leads with you everywhere!)

[mr.bill]

Given that everything is electronic in the MINI, it would have been nice for them to incorporate some kind of warning indicator of excessive current drain when the engine is off. It wouldn\'t be hard to add one. There are usually two leads from the positive battery terminal. One is heavy, going to the starter, and there is a smaller one. It is a fusible link that supplies power from the battery to the electronics and it has a very slight internal resistance. A millivolt meter connected across the link would indicate a slight voltage drop if current is flowing. If I get a MINI, I just might build a warning indicator to prevent a dead battery. You know what they say about flat tires and flat batteries: \"Flattery will get you nowhere.\" 8D

[timlowden771]

My mini one has got the same problem. I have got a company car which I use every day and only use the Mini a couple of times a week and at weekends. My car has been into the garage 3 times now and they can not find a fault with it, even now it went flat when it was down there. It used to go a week or more before going flat, but now it only just manages a couple of days(if I am lucky!) Any ideas what I should do?

[flywheel]

I also had the same problem, left the car for 2 weeks while on holiday to come back to a flat battery.

Went back to the dealer, for the the 3rd time now who says that they can find no problem and the battery must not have been fully charged.

From the other posts here it looks like this is another common fault. I've also got my dealers MD to put it writing that should another electrical fault happen we can reject the car and get a new one. BTW ours was a late Aug build so quite an early one.

[timlowden771]

Just to let everyone know my mini has just come back from the garage(4th visit) about the battery going flat. They got a guy from Mini to come in and check my mini one out and they found the fault to be the cd player not shutting its self down. Just thought I would let eveyone know

[Dogger]

Overheard comment from Scotthall BMW staff in Leeds today..

"there are problems with the (MINI) batteries and BMW really don't have a clue as to what's causing it - the closest guess is that the stereo system is not shutting off or has some kind of perpetual cooling fan within the mechanism that their engineers didn't bank on"...

I had a Minidisc unit in my previous car, the fascia of which HAD to be removed every night as the clock and lights used to drain the battery overnight. I have a Minidisc unit in my MINI which can't be removed and so far haven't had any problems with the battery. Maybe this is just isolated to the CD unit?

[Paul]

Rumour has it that the Boost option causes this...

[mini mini]

My flat battery has now been fixed and the dealership also confirmed it was due to a fault in the CD player.