I turned the car off, got out, and about 5-10 minutes later, I opened up the door, and the center speedo was going haywire. ticka ticka ticka ticka ticka ticka REAL fast, and the needle was trembling. Am I looking at potential electrical problems? It's a 2004 MCS with about 22K miles on it.

It's only happened that once. I have the car's "checkup" in a few weeks. Should I mention it?

 

I had a similar thing after washing out the engine bay for the first time. I have not seen this behavior since.. I also don't "hose off" the engine anymore.. I use a slower "by hand" process..

My vote, not too much concern here.. I could mention it to service. But without being able to reproduce the issue it is difficult for anyone to diagnose/fix it.

FWIW....

 

AHA! hmmm...I think this DID happen after a very heavy rain, and I had run through some puddles, potentially getting quite a lot of water up in the engine.

 

It happened to me a the Dragon this year. It hasn't since so I'm hoping it was just a fluke.

 

I think it means the car just wants to be driven some more.

 

The ghost of Lucas.
You see? BMW did an admirable job updating our MINIs and keeping it the same as the originals.

 

I had that happen to mine a long time ago. Hasn't happened since. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

This recently happened to me as well! I had just finished washing the car, pulled it into the garage, then opened the passenger door to pop the bonnet. The speedo needle was frantically trying to go into negative numbers. Closed the door, and it stopped, and did not come back when the door was opened again. Weird.