Electrical Problems

[adamknoxville]

Whilst driving this morning I noticed that the battery light was permanently on, after further driving it became intermittent and flickered back on when i revved the engine.

After taking it to my dealer they said they were sure that the alternator was faulty, and booked me in for a replacement to be fitted on wednesday.
I was assured by them that it should be ok to run for a couple of days on battery charge.
But just now after going to the supermarket I started the engine and tried to reverse out of my parking space but had lost all power steering (my forearms are now aching) leaving the car almost undriveable.

Is the potential alternator problem linked in with the loss of my power steering?
Does the mini put its self into a power saving mode turning these features off in order to preserve battery charge?

[Restyle]

Not quite, but the short answer is ~Sort of~ !!

The warning light indicates that the battery is NO LONGER being charged.

As the MINI`s steering is an Electro-Hydraulic affair, I would say the problem definatly lies with the Alternator not being able to keep a constant charge at the battery & therefore anything that consumes electrical power will begin to fail.

What gets me though is your dealers attitude in sending you away with this fault, when it was inevitable that this would happen sooner rather than later.

I`d Get on to them straight away & demand an explanation & a loan car while they take yours to be immediately fixed

[Gr8Dain]

I am not sure of the drain on a MINI's battery at each start, but I can tell you how it is in my Car with a V8. If the alternator is not charging the battery, then everything electrical is drawing straight from the battery. My other car (old and mechanical rather than electrical) lasts about 10 minutes. Three starts of the engine would kill it alone.

Sounds like the dealer assumed that you would not drive it for those couple of days.

[mikeythemini]

& the power steering requires a massive ammount of power - check the way the interior light dims when you move the wheel a bit.

[adamknoxville]

Thanks for that, that would explain a few things.

Maybe the fact that I had the headlights on this evening must have finished off what charge the battery had left.

The dealer did "offer" me a loan car but the soonest that i could have one would have been the 22nd so pretty pointless really!
They also claimed that they would have to order in an alternator as they didn't keep them in stock.
I think i'll call them and explain that it is undrivable and see it they can find me a loan car from somewhere.

[adamknoxville]

Have you ever driven one without the power steering?
It is almost impossible to turn the steering wheel at low speed!
It may be that i have become accustomed to having power steering but i don't remember it being that hard on my first couple of cars that didn't have it.
The lack of hydro whine was scary!

[Restyle]

Quote: Originally Posted by adamknoxville

...It may be that i have become accustomed to having power steering but i don't remember it being that hard on my first couple of cars that didn't have it....

On non-power steering equipped cars, the mechanical gearing in the steering box is designed so there is a minimum effort rqd to turn the wheel, ..
....the cost being that More turns of the steering wheel are rqd for a relatively small turning movement of the road wheels.

I had a Citroen BX once that relied on hydraulics to do just about everything, which happened to spring an oil leak a few miles from home.
The drive back was Torture

[Malin Dixon]

Quote: Originally Posted by Restyle

Not quite, but the short answer is ~Sort of~ !!

The warning light indicates that the battery is NO LONGER being charged.

Until recently, the warning light was wired between the battery (via ignition switch) and the field connection of the alternator. If the alternator wasn't generating enough, the light would illuminate.

Problem was, if the alternator managed to generate say 10 volts, there wasn't a big enough difference to illuminate the light. There were other problems as well.

Modern cars measure the battery voltage and illuminate the light if the battery voltage is too low, when the engine is going fast enough that the alternator should be working. Sometimes the light is illuminated because of a battery / load problem not an alternator problem. It could be that you have a shorted battery cell and have had a perfect alternator changed.

If the power steering isn't working, try getting the car to creep when turning the steering. The effort required is a lot less at 0.5mph than when stationary.

[adamknoxville]

Looks like the battery didn't have enough juice to last for 3 days!
Whilst driving to work last night down a dual carriage way all of the warning lights came on one by one and the car started shutting down.

Firstly the ASC, then the ABS then Rev counter stopped working, the stereo turned off the headlights dimmed, and then the car shuddered and then lost all power!
Luckily I had turned off and managed to coast into a side road without hitting anyone.

All in all a pretty scary experiance, and possibly lethal if I was on the motorway.
On the bonus side though I now have a Corsa hire car to vent my frustrations on untill mine is returned!