Consumer Complaints
| Fail date | miles | occurences | Purchase date |
|---|---|---|---|
| ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | |||
| 02/19/2013 | 102000 | ||
| Power steering pump failure and drained battery (recently replaced). car will not start, and can not access passenger or trunk door due to electrical failure. | |||
| 12/14/2011 | 86000 | ||
| Loss of power when going 60 mph in the high speed left lane of four lane highway. car went into limp mode and unable to accelerate. car would only go 5 to 10 mph with large truck behind and bearing down on me. eml and service engine lights on dash. was able to pull into a construction lane that happened to be right there. otherwise would have been unable to get car out of the way. car needed to be towed. fault codes list throttle body and wiring harness as problems and recommendation is to replace both. from my research, the problem is well known and relates to poor connector between throttle body and wiring harness. mini has since redesigned the angle of this connector to fix this problem. such a loss of power while driving is extremely dangerous. should be recall item. | |||
| 10/25/2011 | 29000 | ||
| This car goes into limp mode at very in opportune times, before this latest time (again to the shop) it nearly got me t-boned in an intersection, this car has been in the shop numerous times for engine electrical problem, this is a know defect with the wiring harness-i believe this should be covered in a recall for a very unsafe situation. | |||
| 09/28/2011 | 82000 | ||
| I was exiting the freeway when my battery indicator light went on; i lost power steering and saw a large amount of smoke coming from under the hood. the mini dealership has determined that the power steering module failed, and subsequently burned the wiring harness. there have been several reports of faulty manufacturing in regard to this part from bbc in uk, as well as on many forums, in particular north american motoring. | |||
| 09/12/2011 | 67537 | ||
| After an apparent short out of the anti-lock braking system a fire occurred shortly after two to five minute later the car was completely engulfed in flames. fifteen minutes later the car was completely gone, california highway patrol as well as keys city fire department both gave their conclusion of the car being absolutely totaled. luckily i was able to get the car stopped and off to the side of the highway and was able to evacuate the vehicle. | |||
| 06/13/2011 | 54327 | ||
| On 13 june 2011 a power steering fan shorted on my dauhters 2002 mini cooper s causing the radiator fan to stop. this caused the car to overheat. on 14 june 2011 car was repaired by a mini cooper dealer after being towed. parts replaced are fan housing with fan, fan with protecting grille, wiring set for power supply, cable strap. power steering fan seized causing cooling fans not to work. dealer replaced wiring harness (updated) to keep power steering fan and cooling fans seperate (as told by service rep). old parts where not kept. this happened once. | |||
| 03/30/2011 | 45000 | ||
| A fire was caused by the failure of the power steering cooling fan. at some point the day of the incident the fan seized and the resulting electrical resistance in the main wiring harness caused the wiring harness to heat to a point of melting some of the plastic wire insulation allowing for direct wire to wire contact and resulted in an electrical fire between the engine and the passenger compartment. the resulting fire completely disabled the vehicle's electrical system and requires at minimum the replacement of the entire main wiring harness. event description after a short drive (less than 2 miles on a cold engine) the vehicle was parked. after the engine was turned off smoke was seen rising from the vehicle engine compartment. upon raising the hood, flames were seen between the engine and the passenger compartment reflecting off both fire walls. 2 fire extinguishers were required to put out the flames after the battery was disconnected. total loss of the vehicle to fire was prevented by the owners actions. | |||
| 09/28/2007 | 29000 | 2 | |
| Significant and repeated electrical failures caused the car to randomly switch into eml mode, reducing engine output critically. when this happened on a highway there was not enough power to remove the car from the road safely. after several ineffectual repairs, the wiring harness was replaced. shortly after the repair, the car was parked, emergency brake set, manual transmission set in first gear. unattended, turned off with no key in the ignition, the car moved itself several feet, hitting another car, burning out the starter and draining the battery. the car was moved to a repair shop where the starter was replaced. overnight, with the car parking inside the locked shop, the car moved itself across the shop. mechanics are now investigating the problem. *tr | |||
| ELECTRICAL SYSTEM - ALTERNATOR/GENERATOR/REGULATOR | |||
| 09/20/2007 | 85000 | 1 | 02/21/2004 |
| Took my car in for winding sound coming from motor. diagnosed as the alternator...they replaced it and sound was still present ...misdiagnosed and was actually the supercharger, but while they were checking it out initially the power steering pump stayed on...which didn't happen to me until they had it. after changing the alternator power steering pump no longer stayed on per the dealer. had it home 3 days to wake up one morning hearing the pump on and i go to start my car and in drained my battery. had to jump the car and then disconnect the cable to keep from the ps pump continuously running. the car is at the dealer getting a new pump $975 plus tax, researched mini owner website and found several complaints of the same issue also that some cars actually caught fire from a failure of the pump. researched more on north american motoring . there was a long list of people who had the exact experience. sure would be awful for the pump to go out while driving on expressway and not able to steer correctly. surprised it hasn't caused an accident/death yet. *tr | |||
| ELECTRICAL SYSTEM - BATTERY | |||
| 09/20/2007 | 85000 | 1 | 02/21/2004 |
| Took my car in for winding sound coming from motor. diagnosed as the alternator...they replaced it and sound was still present ...misdiagnosed and was actually the supercharger, but while they were checking it out initially the power steering pump stayed on...which didn't happen to me until they had it. after changing the alternator power steering pump no longer stayed on per the dealer. had it home 3 days to wake up one morning hearing the pump on and i go to start my car and in drained my battery. had to jump the car and then disconnect the cable to keep from the ps pump continuously running. the car is at the dealer getting a new pump $975 plus tax, researched mini owner website and found several complaints of the same issue also that some cars actually caught fire from a failure of the pump. researched more on north american motoring . there was a long list of people who had the exact experience. sure would be awful for the pump to go out while driving on expressway and not able to steer correctly. surprised it hasn't caused an accident/death yet. *tr | |||
| ELECTRICAL SYSTEM - FUSES AND CIRCUIT BREAKERS | |||
| 02/19/2005 | 61000 | 1 | 05/13/2002 |
| Our mini burned to the ground. it had only been driven 20 miles and was parked when it happened. after a forensic specialist was hired by the insurance company, it was determined that the abs unit was at fault. in later models, the fuse was changed from a 30 amp to a 20 amp. no recall was ever issued and bmw/mini never acknowledged a problem with the car. since this happened, at least 10-15 other minis have burned. our mini was a total loss. *jb | |||