Flashing Battery Light

[GizzmoGeek]

Does anyone have an occasional flashing battery light? I'm a little concerned. On 4 or 5 separate occasions over the past 4 days my battery light lights up when I start the car and stays on for a minute then starts to flash intermittently over the next couple of minutes then disappears. Has anyone else had this happen? I called my dealer and didn’t get a response, they seem uninterested. I’m taking the car in next week for a paint chip fix that was there when I picked up the car so I will have them look at it then but honestly they don’t seem concerned with it. Is it an issue, or is this normal? Has anyone come across this?

Thanks.

[NiqDanger]

Happened to me yesterday. After starting the car to drive home from work, the battery light flashed on a few times as drove down the parking garage. By the time I hit bottom of the garage Im figured out it was only comming on when I started from a stop and pulled off at a low RPM. Keeping the RPMs high kept the light from flashing on. By the time I got home I couldnt replicate the behavior so my guess was I had a low batter charge or something.

[Martin L]

On most cars I think it's usually a sign that the alernators on it's way out, but that just can't be right.
Next time before you start up pop open the bonnet or boot (cooper or S dependent ) and take a look at the battery indicator to see what the charge is like. It's got an indicator, hasn't it?

[GizzmoGeek]

Good question, I would only assume it has an indicator. Now to find the battery....

[OdoFreak]

I posted a message somewhere that shows you how to get your instrument cluster to display a number of diagnostics. One of these tid bits is your current charging system voltage. I think it was Test 9.0.

Search for messages by me and you sould be able to find the original message.

This test will tell you the battery output voltage when the engine is off, and the charging system voltage when the engine is running. Mine shows 12.0 and 13.8 respectively.

OdoFreak

[karmuze]

GizzmoGeek:
This could be something simple like a low charge on your battery. After your MINI was built it has probably been started at least a DOZEN times, in transit, without the benefit of the motor running a extended period so the alternator could recharge the battery.
If you have a superior dealer the battery would have been placed on the charger during the dealer's PDI inspection prior to delivery to insure a full charge.
A simple voltage check on a battery cannot detect a partially discharged battery--you need to do a load test on it to determine it's state of charge.
On modern cars that have a voltmeter, generally on startup it will display the battery voltage, then switch to display the alternator voltage after 1-2 minutes. So the idiot light on your car could be displaying low battery voltage on startup and then going out when it starts to read the higher alternator voltage.
The health of the battery is the first thing to check when experiencing electrical problems.

[bobbiemartin]

Our 2003 Cooper has done this several times, the latest being this morning. The battery light flashes for several minutes after initial startup and then goes out. The service advisor told me he had another MINI that did the same thing and they could never get it to do it while in the service department so they could not find the problem. If anyone has a fix, or a reason why it's doing this, please post it. I don't know if its related, but it started after I installed an Alpine CHA-S634 changer. I used the factory cable & a Blitzsafe adapter to connect it.

[GizzmoGeek]

I wouldn't worry about it, however take it to the dealer to have it checked. When I took mine it they didn't find any issue, however it also never did it again after that. My original theory has always been that the battery just was never fully charged. Nothing has yet to disprove that theory. I'm guessing they either managed to get it fully charged while it was in for service, or they managed to fix whatever was causing the buggering light in the first place. Don't worry too much, have it checked though.

p.s. I love my heated seats now that it is snowing!

[mr.bill]

Since it happened after you installed the Alpine unit, perhaps it is sending an unexpected signal to the computer. Remember, when you turn the ignition off, the computer goes into standby mode and waits for input from a sensor. (That is why some cars go "Christine" when it rains.) There was a problem early on with defective CD/radio units that would activate the computer and drain the battery flat in a couple days. Apial had that problem. If you have a digital multimeter, you might try measuring the voltage drop across the negative battery cable, from the battery to ground. It should be zero, or near zero. If you are getting a voltage, it means something is draining the battery. You could try the same test on another Cooper and compare the results to see if yours is drawing excessive current when it is shut off.

[sjbartnik]

Another possibility may be that the drive belt is not under sufficient tension. This would be especially likely if the problem occurs when putting a load on the engine such as moving off from a stop or when putting a high electrical load on the alternator.

The drive belt should have an automatically adjusting belt tensioner but if this is defective it may cause a problem.

[here2help]

This is just something to try next time it happens...

In the event of the battery voltage falling below 11.8 volts the BC1 will deactivate and inhibit the operation of
the heated rear window and optional heated front screen
until the voltage level exceeds 12.2 volts.If this is the case that you feel youre battery voltage may be a little low and in need of a charge,you may notice that the heated rear screen button light on the heater panel will go out at the same time as the battery charge light is flashing and come back on after awhile?
This is just an idea to try...im not saying it will work/happen?

Cheers and please let me know how you go on if you will be so kind.

[pstimmel]

Regarding the battery light issue.......

Does anyone see a trend here. My 03 Mini is experiencing the same issues (1500 Miles). I've been in the auto industry for years, I can't imagine that all of these cars have a low charge due to the car not being started while in the delivery process. My light came on for the first time after restarting the car and having driven 70 miles down Interstate 70. Too many cars in this forum and others having the same issues. My dealer doesn't seem real interested as well.

[bobbiemartin]

It hasn't done it since my first post. I'm not sure is indicates a low battery or charging condition. It didn't seem to effect anything else in the car. The service advisor said that there is no reason for the light to blink, it should be on or off. I was going to call MINIUSA and see if they could tell me anything. Maybe if they get enough calls, they will look into it.

[bobbiemartin]

Well, The battery light has flashed several more times. MINIUSA wasn't much help, they just said to take it to the dealer. With several cars doing the same thing, there must be something to it, but being intermittent, it's hard to trace.

[pooperscooper]

I had to have my 2003 MINI towed Thursday for what started as the clock flickering off for a few minutes. That turned into the battery light and other lights coming on briefly and by the end of the drive to work it became very hard to steer, the OBC went blank and the speedometer stopped working. The car did not start the next time a tried and I had to have it towed. Baron MINI found the problem to be the alternator and I should be picking it up today. This is the first problem that I have had with my MINI after 5000 miles.