Contents of the material
Problems recharging a Mini Cooper’s battery
We will now describe the different battery charging problems on a Mini Cooper you may be victim of. If your battery is not recharging because there is actually an issue in your electrical installation, we will now see the different situations.
Battery charging problem on Mini Cooper: My battery is discharging regardless if I am recharging it with a particular charger
In this first case, it is quite possible that your alternator is dead in truth, if you control to recharge your battery with a charger and your Mini Cooper to start, the problem certainly comes from your alternator which should not be able to generate any more current.
Battery charging issue on Mini Cooper: My car shuts off and does not start regardless if I have charged the battery
If you have recharged your battery and you have managed to start your Mini Cooper but it switches off although you are driving and then does not start, the issue with recharging the battery of your Mini Cooper is that your battery no longer holds the charge .
Battery charging issue on Mini Cooper: My battery is discharged although it is new
. If you’ve just bought a battery and it discharges although you’re driving, the issue most probably comes from your alternator. It cannot result from your battery, which is new and consequently holds the charge. The second opportunity is that you have a ground somewhere in your electrical system.
How to replace a Mini Cooper’s battery yourself?
Changing a car battery can either be quick and simple or excruciatingly slow and complicated depending on your know-how level. If you’re adamant about doing it yourself and not going to a maintenance service or your Mini dealer, there are lots of guides and videos online you can check out first.
Even then, however, we’d still recommend getting in touch with a couple of experienced technicians instead of doing things yourself even if your car battery is out of the warranty repairs period as a professional will be able to also do a thorough Mini maintenance and give you further details on your car’s condition in addition to installing the battery properly.
But, if you do want to do it yourself, here’s a simple step-by-step to try and follow:
- Install a temporary power source before you remove the old battery so that you don’t lose stored PMC data, radio resets, etc.
- Remove the negative cable from the negative terminal of the battery first. Then remove the positive cable from the positive terminal.
- After dealing with the battery terminals, loosen the tie-down battery cable system and remove the old battery. Take this moment to look for any corrosion in and around the battery location, as well as other issues under the hood such as with the ignition system. Fix and replace whatever is necessary before you proceed with installing the new car battery.
- Install the new battery in the tie-down system in a reverse manner to how you remove the old battery.
- Add an anti-corrosion compound to the new battery’s terminals. Then connect the positive terminal first and then – the negative terminal.
- If your car requires any PMC programming down with a new battery, go ahead and do that now.
- Start the car and measure the charging system’s output with the car’s factory specifications. You’d usually expect to see 13.8 or 14.8 volts depending on the exact Mini model.