Battery Discharging Fault

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Puppethead

Puppethead

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I've had this error pop up a few times when I first start the SE, but never after charging. And it's weird I'm supposed to "start engine" since it doesn't show until the SE is in drive ready state (on), plus there's no engine. The error sounds scary, but I'm not even sure if it's the 12 V battery or the high voltage system. I'm giving MINI service a call to find out what's really up.

(It's been hard to get a photo of the error, so apologies for the quality.)
IMG_3922.webp
 
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That error typically means the 12V battery isn't getting charged enough. Like many other EVs, I believe the MINI only charges the 12V battery when driving (or in drive ready mode).

Do you typically do a lot of short drives or use the car frequently with it in "accessory mode"? If so, I'd say just go for a long drive somewhere and get the 12v battery fully charged. The 12v battery could be going bad already but that seems less likely...
 
Someone who has a dashcam installed that uses parking mode says this message shows up frequently; it's a warning that something is draining the battery faster than expected. In his case, I believe he just accepts it as normal that his dashcam is still functioning.
 
Carsten Haase said:
Do you typically do a lot of short drives or use the car frequently with it in "accessory mode"?
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No, it usually occurs after being parked all day after my 40-mile commute. And I don't have a dashcam. Maybe the AGM battery is failing. I've had that happen in previous ICE MINIs.
 
Had this looked at by the dealer today. There's definitely a fault somewhere keeping the accessories from going to sleep. I was told it has nothing to do with me (leaving navigation running or key in the car, etc.), and it will likely happen again. My 12 V battery is fine, so nothing to worry about. They're trying to get more info from experts and if it happens again they want me to bring it in right away while it's happening, which works okay for me since I work within five miles of the dealer.
 
Puppethead said:
Had this looked at by the dealer today. There's definitely a fault somewhere keeping the accessories from going to sleep. I was told it has nothing to do with me (leaving navigation running or key in the car, etc.), and it will likely happen again. My 12 V battery is fine, so nothing to worry about. They're trying to get more info from experts and if it happens again they want me to bring it in right away while it's happening, which works okay for me since I work within five miles of the dealer.
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That's unfortunate, parasitic power draw can be tricky to diagnose. Hopefully it'll be something easy to find and easy to fix!
 
The mystery might have been solved. According to service department:

The faults that are currently present for the battery discharge message are suggestive that a button on the remote control was held down for a period of time. There are seven recorded events all stored at the same mileage at the time of the last event when the battery discharge message was displayed where the vehicle sleep was interrupted.​

I realized it only happens when I'm at work (not every time), and I park close enough to my office that it's possible the key in my pocket is depressing buttons and the car is being affected. I'm going to either remove the key from my pocket or park farther away from the building. I like having a decent theory!
 
Sort of related…

Several times recently the dash or the app have advised me that the hatch is open, even when it has not been used in days. I finally determined it must be the key fob in my pocket being compressed and the hatch release button being inadvertently pressed.


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
 
Opening the hatch remotely happens to me a lot too, right when I'm getting into my SE. Which is super annoying, because I have to immediately get back out of the car to close it. Maybe it's time to wear my keys on my belt.

Harrington02.jpg
 
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The hatch is often an annoying problem for me too, but I usually don't notice until I'm backing up and wondering why the backup camera isn't working :) On other cars I fabricated a snap on cover for the Fob that protected the buttons. I recessed button approach probably won't work for me as I often am carrying something else in the pocket.
 
ColdCase said:
The hatch is often an annoying problem for me too, but I usually don't notice until I'm backing up and wondering why the backup camera isn't working :) On other cars I fabricated a snap on cover for the Fob that protected the buttons. I recessed button approach probably won't work for me as I often am carrying something else in the pocket.
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That's what the pink color is for--the other stuff in your pocket will work hard to stay as far from the fob as possible.
 
Jim In Tucson said:
Sort of related…

Several times recently the dash or the app have advised me that the hatch is open, even when it has not been used in days. I finally determined it must be the key fob in my pocket being compressed and the hatch release button being inadvertently pressed.
Click to expand...

Ditto ...
 
Puppethead said:
Opening the hatch remotely happens to me a lot too, right when I'm getting into my SE. Which is super annoying, because I have to immediately get back out of the car to close it. Maybe it's time to wear my keys on my belt.
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This happened to me so many times, luckily never before a storm. I wish they would support Apple CarKey already since "phone as key" works so well with Teslas. Luckily the SE hatch button can be disabled from the iDrive menu.
 
polyphonic said:
This happened to me so many times, luckily never before a storm. I wish they would support Apple CarKey already since "phone as key" works so well with Teslas. Luckily the SE hatch button can be disabled from the iDrive menu.
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The other day, Tesla's phone-key server had a glitch and some owners couldn't get into their cars.
 
I really don't like the key fob for this exact reason. I have the slim key fob case and I haven't found a cover for it yet.

It is funny that in the 80's, you could buy a car alarm with a better key fob than what we have in 2021.
 
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