5 replies to this topic

[octagonalpaul]

~~~~~Please delete this text before posting the topic~~~~~~
Please give your topic a title that quickly describes your problem. Just putting 'Help my Mini doesn't work' is useless to anyone trying to help.
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1988 Mini City


I've been having battery problems, and my starter motor went recently, but as far as I know they are ok now.



When driving along, if I brake with any force (enough to slow down well) sparks come from somwhere in the middle underneath my car, near the exhaust manifold. Since finding this out from my friend who was following me today (this has never happened before) I will not drive the car until I know what is happening as this sounds very dangerous!

pleeeaaaaaaaaaaase help (

[taffy1967]

It's possible that the main battery cable is shorting against something? Time to get the Mini in the air to have a good look.

[octagonalpaul]

good thinking, I'll check that

If any one was thinking its simply the exhaust scraping, my cars not nearly low enough for that, so its not that!

[furikuri]

good thinking, I'll check that

If any one was thinking its simply the exhaust scraping, my cars not nearly low enough for that, so its not that!

could it be something like you've worn your pads on the fron down so much the metal is connecting with the outer rim of the disc brake?
this would probably be along with alot of noise though, and not much braking power.

just a thought....

[dklawson]

It's not at all unheard of for the battery main feed to the solenoid to come out of the track underneath the car and "reach over" to touch the exhaust. As Taffy suggested, put the car on stands or a lift and look all along the right side of the tunnel. I suspect you'll find the cable has come out near the front. A badly damaged cable needs to be replaced. Minor damage can be fixed with a thorough cleaning with gasoline or similar and a heavy layer of electrical tape. Were it my car and the cable was salvageable... I'd either use a piece of heat shrink tubing or cover the electrical tape with liquid vinyl. The repaired cable needs to be tucked securely back in the guide and perhaps secured by a secondary clip or similar so it can't happen again.

[octagonalpaul]

It's not at all unheard of for the battery main feed to the solenoid to come out of the track underneath the car and "reach over" to touch the exhaust.

well It turns out thats exactly what happened, thanks for everyones help the cable is slightly damaged but moving it into place, holding it in and some elctrical tape has sorted it.