[belfastcooper]

Letter from local dealer today:

'A quiesent [check your dictionary, I had to] current drain in the radio of your vehicle could cause the vehicles battery to become discharged.'

Instructed to arrange a workshop appointment to get it checked, at no charge.

 

[Mini_me]

are you saying this was an official recall or just that your dealer was being proactive in checking their customers car for them because they new of a potential problem?

 

[belfastcooper]

No idea. It doesn't seem to be a big issue on this site. Maybe my dealer is just being keen, but they would not do at their own expense i wouldn't think. MINI UK must be paying.

 

[Dogger]

No idea. It doesn't seem to be a big issue on this site. Maybe my dealer is just being keen, but they would not do at their own expense i wouldn't think. MINI UK must be paying.

This was a big-ish issue a few months back (when I had my September build MD unit replaced in Leeds). My dealers would have replaced it for me before any battery drain was apparent as they knew it to be an existing fault, but there were certainly no plans to recall any cars that hadn't yet suffered due to this issue.

A work colleague has a November build Cooper from Wakefield has hasn't been told of any recall.

 

[Dodger]

Letter from Dealer

Went into the dealers just after christmas and the service manager had a list of radio serial numbers and a list of chassis numbers that these dodgy radios could have been fitted to.

Although we NEVER had the problem of a flat battery, our radio/cd boost was replaced as the serial number fell into the range of possible dodgy ones on their list

Its worth checking with the Dealer cos' I have definitely seen the list with the range of s/numbers affected



Dave

 

[Basil]

BMW Australia have commented to me on this issue... seems they were correct......

http://www.mini2.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=3115

 

[mr.bill]

Apparently some of the radios were sending a signal to the ECU that caused it to power up everything, resulting in a flat battery if the car was not driven for a couple days. (The ECU is in "standby" mode all the time, waiting for a signal from a sensor. That's why some cars have the "Christine" effects.) If you drive the car every day, the battery would be recharged and you might not be aware of the problem, until the battery failed much sooner than it should. BMW should have included some type of sensor that would warn the user if the system did not shut down properly. They probably didn't recall the cars because it is cheaper to only fix the ones that have the problem, even though many more do but the owners are not fully aware of it.