Here's my story: '04MCS, in service Oct '03, bought by me Feb '05
Sunday I swap wheels, wax the MINI and take it to beach to admire it:smile:. I also took the opportunity to check the battery (nice blue dot) and all the tire change equipment. Then I park it in the garage, key inserted half way into ignition.

I go out last night and it's stone cold dead.

Hooked up a batteryminder 2amp charger overnight and this morning it's -wait for it - stone cold dead.

Hooked up my 1970's Sears charger and hey, at least the interior lights go on now. Started at 10amps, but dropped back to 2amp (and disconnected the negative terminal from the car).

I didn't hear any fans running (PS, cooling) so I'm a bit stumped. I'll find out later if the battery holds a charge - if not, I guess it's up on a flatbed. If it does, why did it die?

I looked up dead battery threads, and only see reference to fans as far as dead batteries go. Doesn't the MINI automatically kill the interior lights if they're on more than 20(?) minutes?
Stumped and dead in Santa Cruz.

 

for my mini at least, i left the interior light on by accident over night. 12+ hours and it started up just fine the next day. if mini does automatically turn the lights off then it didnt do it on mine.

 

This was covered in another thread.

If you leave the key in the ignition, or even very near it, the battery will drain in a few hours.

JD

 

No kiddin I didn't know that That's why mine would drain after playing music in the garage. Now I keep it connected to a battery tender.

 

Any idea of the date/title/forum of that thread?

If that is the case, I'll have to remember to remove the key while it's in the garage. Any insight as to why the KEY would drain the battery??
The battery dot was black (discharged) vs. yellow (replace) so hopefully that's it. Still strange that the batteryminder didn't do anything...

 

I beleive its due to the car thinking that you're going to start it, so it fires up all the ECU stuff. Way to dissapoint her

 

Why not just buy a cheapo boombox for your music needs for the garage?

 

I'm addicted to the HK

 

Looks like the battery is charging. :smile:
Any suggestion on charging at 2amp vs. 10amp? Miata batteries only like 2amp - does the MINI battery care? I'd rather have it up and running sooner than later, but don't want to shorten the life of the battery in the process!
TIA

 

Slower trickle is better than fast surge due to the fact that a slow trickle limits the amount of hydrogen gas the battery pumps out as you recharge the electrolytes, which means it will probably charge closer to its original state (never will be the same after a deep cycle), than if you had just dumped some amps on it. Once you hit about 70-80% start the car up, and drive for an hour, and it'll top it off while you have some motoring fun!

 

Charged the battery with a (2amp) trickle charger since Wed - FINALLY on Saturday PM the batterytender showed a flashing green light, indicating a fully charged battery. I was worried I had a bad cell - my Miata never takes more than 24hrs, but all seems to be good again. Still not sure if I didn't close the boot fully, or what the issue was, but it's on the road again, so I'm happy. :smile: