This morning I came out to the car and it wouldn’t start. I had known something was wrong over the last week or so because the car would start but there would be a noticeable delay between the engine turning over and the oil/fuel guages coming alive. I called AAA and they were here within 15 minutes, diagnosed the battery as completely flat and gave me a jump start. I had called San Diego Independent Mini ahead of time to check that they were open and drove over there right away.
Another test showed the battery was bad but the alternator was still good so they did the battery swap. I pointed out my twisted seat belt and they were able to straighten that, its been twisted for over a year but I couldn’t work out how to do it. Then, as part of simply driving in, they topped up my fluids and gave the car a pretty thorough wash and interior clean. And they gave me some free advice to pass on to a fellow MINI driver on twitter who is having problems with his OBC.
All in all, I think it’s a pretty good place to take the MINI. Cooper was there again but he was a bit feisty today, running around and kept jumping up on me, maybe he likes my shower gel smell?