Leaving my Grandparents house tonight, everything seemed ok. Until I noticed the idle speed hovering around 2K RPMs. A little on the high side. Besides that, everything was checking out.
20 miles later, the battery light came on. 5 miles later the lights were already fairly dim and the power steering stopped working.
5 miles later I was driving in the dark on I5 in San Juan Capistrano, trying to get to the next exit.
Which is where my car sits now.
I know I know. Tomorrow I will be calling the dealer to get it squared away.
Not cool in the least DB, keep Should be interesting to hear what Mini comes up with on this one.
Sorry to hear it, DB. Did you do the alternator yourself? I thought you’d mentioned thinking you’d have to replace the wiring harness at some point. I hope this isn’t that point…
Yes. DIY for the alternator, but I think it might be a bad unit. I don’t think the wiring harness would cause this.
Infuriating :(
Why the high revving? Is that an engine computer response to low battery?
I think so. At least it’s the only thing that makes sense since it only over revs when I have this problem.
And, in case you are wondering, you can, in fact, coast about 5 miles downhill in 3rd gear with a dead battery, but I don’t recommend it.
Me again db
Reading the service manual, DIY alternator is a bugger. Did you find it that way?
Yes indeed it is a bugger. In the Cooper anyway it is. I mean, you can see the alternator, but to get to it so you can remove it requires about 1.5 hours of other-stuff-removal.
Besides the 1.5 hours extra, it’s exactly like changing the alternator in a ’60’s era Chevy, kinda. ;)