Okay, here's the story of my stressing situation. Off and on I get brief interruptions in power on my 2005 Mini Cooper hardtop. I would describe as a flicker power surge. All the dash lights go off for a split second then come back on. This all happens for just a brief second. In that time the gages, a/c, power steering, and lights cut out.

This car has just 60,000 miles on it. This happens sometime within a mile of leaving the house, and sometimes after dozens of miles. Sometimes on rough roads, and sometimes at a stand still. it happens infrequently, and sometimes just once, and at other times it several times in the course of a drive.

I first brought it to my local dealer. After reading the codes, and having no clear idea, the suggestion was to replace the battery and alternator. The battery is a three-year old Optima yellow top. Aside from one time, the car has been able to restart without issues.

The dealer feels that the yellow top puts out more power than the original battery, and has since conditioned the alternator to the point it is incorrectly operating. It sounds a bit odd, especially as it took three years since replacing the battery before this started to happen.

As getting at the alternator requires major work and dollars, I figured a second opinion would be good.

I went to an independent Mini repair shop in OC, CA. Their suggestion after looking at the fault codes and many other Minis was that it most likely was the ignition. Far less money than the alternator.

After replacing that the car worked fine…for a week. Now the same issues come up on a random basis, but still just last for just a second.

A side note, the power steering pump and related fan were both replace just a couple months ago.

Does anyone have any ideas what could be going on? I don’t want to do the hunt and peck method of replacing every single part on the car until the right one is found. Or, is there any good mechanics in the area or electricians in the area that are worth recommending?

Thanks much!

 

What error codes came up when thy scanned it?

It could be possible that the voltage regulator inside the alternator is going bad. Left unfixed, it can damage the battery. It should be very easy to diagnose though so the dealer and the indy shop should have been able to pick this up (or maybe neither checked for it).

Perhaps you need a third opinion for another shop

 

So, will a specific error code show if there is a problem with the voltage regulator in the alternator? if there is a problem with that is it possible that's intermittent? the indy shop suggested that the alternator will either work or not, but unlikely intermittently. Let alone, not too many miles on the car, and those don't go out too often. Are there other voltage regulators outside of the alternator that could be at fault? As replacing the alternator in the Cooper is expensive, I really want to know what the problem is before shelling out major dollars. Thanks