Other electrical problem on the 2003 MINI Cooper
1 crash 3 fires 1 injury 5 of the 8 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
Only 6 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When other electrical problem gets reported
There are 8 reports of other electrical problem on the 2003 MINI Cooper, 6 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 11th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 69,263 miles | — | — |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 1 a crash, 3 a fire and 1 an injury are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $250–$2,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 13 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2015, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 2011 at 95,000 miles.
By volume the 2011 carries the most reports, with 23; the 2003 has 8. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
While driving 10 MPH a fire started in the dashboard. Consumer managed to pull over, and put out the fire out. Then had the vehicle towed. Dealership was notified, but did not resolve the problem. *ak
My car was brought into the dealership for an oil change and rear brake repair on tuesday (june 26, 2007). Wednesday evening (june 27, 2007) the car was driven 15 minutes, parked for almost an hour, then driven a mere 30 seconds to change to a different parking spot. Walked away for a minute and noticed smoke coming from the front of the car. Upon opening the bonnet, there was flames coming from the underside of the engine. The first attempt at using a fire extinguisher temporarily put out the fire, then it re-ignited which the fire department was then called to put it out safely. The car was brought the next morning (june 28, 2007) to the dealership and was not looked at until the next day (june 29, 2009). The diagnosis was the steering pump failed, upon which it overheats causing the fire. The fire then damaged the loom (harness, or main wiring for the vehicle), which also ruined the battery. Prior to the fire, there were no signs that the steering was failing, nor any indication that there was any other possible electrical problems. Car mileage was at 65,500 at the time it was brought to the dealer, and about 65,525 miles at…
I was driving home one day when several lights lit up in my car. I was scared because these lights were: low tire pressure, low brake pads, traction control light, & ABS break light. I pulled over and shut off the car, and when I turned it back on, they still were lit up. I am not sure what caused this as I wasn't driving erratically, just normal. I still do not know why exactly they are on, however I figure it is something to do with the computer. *tr
Also reported on the 2003 MINI Cooper
Power steering pump or fluid leak
Other steering problem
CVT failure
Other powertrain problem
Loss of power steering
Complete transmission failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 8 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 8 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other electrical problem happen on the 2003 MINI Cooper?
Across 6 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other electrical problem on the 2003 MINI Cooper?
8 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.7 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed