1st Gen R53 Cooper S Most liked posts in thread: Body Control Module or something else?

How old is the battery? Even if it still starts the car, a dying battery can manifest itself as a lot of strange electrical goings on.

You should put the year and model of your MINI in your signature, it helps with diagnosing model specific problems.

Dave

 

Have you EVEN LOOKED at the BCM to see if it is wet/damp or has corrosion on the plug?
You speculate it MIGHT..so look!!
It COULD be something as simple as a loose plug from a passenger kicking it or something along those lines...but you have to LOOK at something first to rule it out.
look for water stains, corrosion, etc.
While looking..look at as much of the wiring harness as you can see...look for splices from a prior owner trying to add driving lights, etc, or a chafe point where it has been rubbing on a edge that has cut a wire...
Part of troubleshooting is being a detective...and IMO you rule out the simple/Cheap stuff first....then when you rule that out..it is time to get help before throwing parts at it that may/may-not fix a item.

 

These are all symptoms of a battery going bad, steering wheel/washer arm/turn signal arm assembly going bad, or a BCM issue.

I would start with getting a new battery (if you have the original battery) as it woyuld be the most likely problem and they don't tend to last that long.

 

Hope you get it figured out. Couple weeks ago my car started acting strangely also. First my hard wired radar detector started acting up, unhooked it, but then when I put the key in the second position, my wipers started up, and I was getting weird dash lighting. Checked the battery right off, like said in above posts, low batt causes many problems. But then it wouldn't even start :confused5: Fears of BCM, wiring harness......? Towed it to my mechanic, he started checking, installed a known good battery, no go Started checking stuff.....turns out, it was a bad ignition switch! Who knew all that is interconnected and sensitive? Good luck

 

Hi. Check for water in the battery box as one of your possible causes. Bad news when that thing gets wet.

Other folks have posted about crazy stuff after wash too. Looks similar to your symptoms.

And this thread has similar symptoms, but cause is from a PS pump problem.

Hope you get it sorted.

 

While the battery was recently replaced I'd still test it's output just to move that completely off the table.

 

^what he said.......:biggrin5:

 

One feature that some folks forget about is the "follow me home" feature that the headlights are supposed to stay on for a couple minutes after shutdown.....if i recall tight, you flip the light stalk after shutdown, and they are supposed to stay on a bit to light the walkway....was a dealer option that could be programed if i remember right...sometimes people think something is broken when the lights stay on a bit.....
Another thing too look at...
the window/lock switches....any spills lately?
I remember getting some crazy things happen when i installed a auto window up switch/circurt board then unpluged it, and replugged it in....wonder if the plug for the switches is dirty/loose, etc....ecerything is so interconnected with the cars data buss, something seemingly unrelated can make a big differance.

 

It's worth checking but unfortunately it's easier said than done. There is no access panel on the passenger side and it's a bit of work to detach the long trim piece that extends from the footwell to the rear of the door sill: http://tis.spaghetticoder.org/s/view.pl?1/07/13/04

Do you have a sunroof? It's more likely for clogged drain tubes to cause moisture in that area than underbody spray.