× 1-800-946-2642 Home My Account Social / Forum Articles Contact My Cart
Shop Now
Select Your Car Type Sale Items Clearance Items New Items
 

 03 S not charging

 Created by: Maxthe03mini
Orig. Posting Date User Name Edit Date
Nov 4, 2020 04:10AM kenatminimania  
Nov 3, 2020 06:41AM Maxthe03mini  
   Forum Width:     Forum Type: 

 Posted: Nov 4, 2020 04:10AM
Total posts: 2271
Last post: May 23, 2023
Member since:Dec 29, 2004
Cars in Garage: 1
Photos: 9
WorkBench Posts: 0
Yes, if you can pull the fault codes and list them, that may shed some clues ....

 Posted: Nov 3, 2020 06:41AM
Total posts: 2
Last post: Nov 3, 2020
Member since:Nov 3, 2020
Cars in Garage: 0
Photos: 0
WorkBench Posts: 0

Hello!!!

I hope that there is someone out there that can help me!!! I know it’s not something major which is why I am not ready to give up and bring it in to the dealership. I bought a 03 S while living out of state for a commuter car ( I owned a 07 S in the past and LOVED it). This car I knew was going to be a project. I bought it from a guy who knew nothing about minis and only owned it for a few months. He claimed it ran fine when he first got it and it now goes in “limp” mode. Ok all that aside let me tell you what’s going on and what I have fixed/ plan to fix.

 

To start off when I first picked it up the battery was dead so we jumped it. The car runs fine and idles fine. On the drive home in the dark the gauges acted up, the lights shut off, it said it was over heating, it was not road safe in the dark.

 

The next day I attempted my 45 minute drive. Battery dead again. Upon further investigation I found there was a fan switched installed inside the car, ok let’s just use that for now apparently a thermostat went out and the previous owner was lazy. So with no working gauges I attempt the drive. Well naturally it runs out of gas because there was no way of knowing how much was in there. I put higher octane in there and on the road again. Car makes it home taking side roads, does get up to speed every once and a while looses power but makes it.

 

I think ok even though it’s a newer battery I realize it’s not taking a charge. So I put a new battery in car fires up just fine! Oh sweet!!! Nope S***s out in the dark again ( I was on a back county dirt road so definitely safe, had a jump box so just used that to get back home).

 

Alright it’s definitely the alternator. I replace that and the Serpentine belt at the same time since well I was already there and it had a slight rip. Put the car back together and realize the belt is not spinning upon further research I replace the broken harmonic balancer.

 

I take it for a test drive all seems well.... NOPE!!! I have made no forward movement same issue... oh and come to find out the original alternator was good but that’s ok now it’s brand new.

 

Other issue I have found and fixed.... it was OUT of fluid so that took a lol of Antifreeze to cycle through and refill. It had twice the amount of oil in it then it needed. So I drained all that and gave it an oil change. It does not have any leaks and appears to be ok. Three of the codes referred to an issue with the gas pedal so I did replace that with one that was in the car, most of those codes went away after that. It needs an O2 sensor which I’m not surprised because they had yes you are reading this right... straight piped it with two cherry bombs but removed the cat so now there is a gap in the exhaust. My neighbors love it when I fire it up ha ha. I just bought a stock John Cooper works full exhaust with a new cat so that will be installed soon.

 

I can pull the codes again if you guys need but my MAIN issue is the car acts like it has a bad battery or a bad alternator and that’s not the case they are both new so I’m not sure what the issue is!!!

 

Please help!!! If I can’t get this car running I’m going to have to tow it home with my class a.

 

Thank you!

Heather