I finally got round to having a poke around the battery on the Roadster. I'm now sure what happened to the last one. You can see on the first picture that the cables from the battery are held in place by two pretty flimsy P clips. I reckon that the clips broke & allowed the cables to flop onto the battery clamp stud ( which is where the short occurred). Since I didn't particularly enjoy trying to get to the battery with flames licking around my fingers, I've done a couple of mods to try & avoid it happening on this car. I've put a couple of cable ties around the cables & the cross member. If the clips break, hopefully the ties will allow the cables to swing below the cross member without touching anything else. As a bit of belt & braces, I've also screwed a plastic cap onto the stud ( the cables can't come into contact with the other stud). I'll let you know if it doesn’t work
I was looking for those, or something similar - available from Vehicle Wiring Products in the UK. I'm surprised MMC are using plastic P-clips for such an application.
Graham (G4FUJ)
Sold L44FOR 4/4 Giallo Fly '11 MINI Countryman Cooper D All4 '90 LR 90 SW