I live in Las Vegas, NV where the summer is just brutal. It seems that my '08 base clubman's battery is draining faster or not charging the battery properly. So I drive my mini mainly just for work. Work is about a 13 minute drive mostly freeway. For small errands I do use it as well. But never on a long drive (more than an hour). My batteries were replaced 08/12/12 - then just most recently, 09/27/15. Just about an hour ago, our temp just hit 90's, went for a movie, parked my car out in the open and it was hot. Start the ignition and immediately blast my AC, rolled down the window, and the battery icon came on for about a few second and my engine kinda had a hickup, cutting the AC airflow for a quick second then comes back on again. 54k so far and no major problem on my baby but this battery. Any suggestion what could possibly be causing my battery to be lacking of power or becoming faulty so easily? Oh and there are morning that I would start it and it sounds like it's struggling to start but it will start at first push of the button. Ahh spark plugs issues? Any info will be grateful.

 

Is the CEL on? Any codes present?

 

What is CEL? I don't think so. And no codes either, no icons or anything?

 

When you plug into the OBDII port with a BMW/MINI scan tool there may be faults present in the system. CEL = Check Engine Light. Did you test the battery voltage to see what voltage reading it is at?

 

Go to O'Reilly's and have them check your battery - it's free & takes about an hour. I had a service light come on when the battery went dead & wouldn't start the car. The Dealer apparently simply reset the service light & told me that the battery had a dead cell & wouldn't hold a charge (new battery from last March). The dealer had a long fix of "gotta fixes" and wanted $345 for a new battery.

O'reillys said the battery checked out as new & to this day there's no problem. Is your service light (car on hoist in yellow) lit or come on intermittently? If so, reset it, since (in my case) I think it prevented the battery from charging.

If you find that you have an actual bad battery due to your "heat", replacement under warranty should be prorated.