Sorry, put in wrong area... Mods.. delete...




If this issue has been posted already, sorry...

07 bought last Nov, has been running great, 11K miles.. Today, inserted key disk, pushed in clutch, pressed start button.... NOTHING... tried several times.. Nothing.... got other disk,,, still NOTHING>.. plenty of batt power... called Mini... waited one hour for tow... 65 miles to East Bay Mini (great people) Service rep could not advise over phone... said to get towed... At the Dealer less than 5 min.. saw them drive my car inside the service area??????????????? Found out from the service tech that there is a bulletin out about this problem. I can get my around a tool box... had I know about this, I could have saved an afternoon... If you are familur with how a house alarm sys works... all windows and doors must be closed to arm the sys - each window or door has a two small magnetic parts that must line up to "close" the circut... Well, If you Mini has the standard trans, the Clutch peddle has this same type of set up... up under the dash on the left side of the clutch peddle - there is the brake master cyl - on the side of that is a very small plastic part that has this magnetic switch in it... when you push in the clutch - these parts line up and allow the start button to work and start the engine... What is happening is, the small part falls away from the clutch arm and when you push in the clutch - the part is NOT attached and therefore will NOT allow the switch to work - and YOU are DEAD in the water.... this can happen with NO warning... SO, look at the below pictures... You will see the master cyl and a black plastic nylon tie... this Nylon Tie is what East Bay MINI put on... the small part with the white,blue and pink wires - that is the part that came off and fell away from the cyl... with that part hanging - pushing in the clutch (Computer did not know) therefore the start button will NOT Work...

Bottom line... if you push your start button and NOTHING happens... get a flash light, look up under the dash, next to the clutch peddle, find the master cyl and see if this small part is just hanging there.... You should see how it goes back in place... If may only get you going... but it better than having to wait for a tow - you Mini Dealer may be MILES away.... any questions... email me at harley0711@yahoo.com If you live close to a Mini Dealer and have an 07 (not sure about the 08's) get your nylon tie NOW... I wasted 5 hours for a two min fix...