I had my car in to repair a non functioning nav on the 8.8 touchscreen and they updated the brake programming. All I can say is that I'm not happy with the functionality of it now. I wrote an email to our sales manager and asked that he escalates this up to corporate to get this changed correctly.

What happens now is only the outer lights illuminate when the brake is applied. The inner ones no longer work. This is going to become a safety issue in my eyes when we have adverse conditions which limit visibility. It's bad enough that we have the brake lights down low and now they take away two lights and make it more difficult for drivers to see us.

My suggestion is to have the old setup with both illuminating and not have the inner one extinguish when the signal on that side of the car is activated.

I'm going to take the car back today and hopefully get the programming reversed back to the original setup until MINI rethinks what they've done and programs it the way it should have been all along.

 

That fix does not seem to make sense. If I understood correctly, the "problem" that was identified was that the inner brake light on one side or the other of the vehicle was programmed to go dark when the turn signal on that side of the vehicle was activated. So the solution is to leave the inner brake light dark permanently...? Strange.

I agree that does not seem at all satisfactory. I would be interested to hear your dealer's response when you ask them to reprogram.

 

So it turns out the inner lamps are now a blinker when the barn doors are open. I just tested it.
I also spoke with the owner of our dealer and he has been in contact with engineers. For the time being, MINI has to comply with NTSA. Hopefully the engineers can change the programming so that when the doors are closed, it functions the way it did before, only without extinguishing when the turn signal is activated, and flashes when the door is open. I don't think many people will carry such a large load that they need to have the doors open.

 

The inner lights originally flashed as turn signals when the barn doors are open, they have always worked that way, so nothing new there. Only change seems to be the inners no longer work as brake lights.

Here is how mine work (i.e.- factory v1.0):

1) Barn doors closed, lights on, no brake, no turn2) Barn doors closed, lights on, brake applied, no turn3) Barn doors closed, lights on, brake applied, turn signal on4) Barn doors open, lights on, no brake, no turn5) Barn doors open, lights on, brake applied, no turn6) Barn doors open, lights on, brake applied, turn signal on
Looks like I will sit tight on getting this recall fix done to my Clubby.

 

[QUOTE=WhatV8;4292868]The inner lights originally flashed as turn signals when the barn doors are open, they have always worked that way, so nothing new there. Only change seems to be the inners no longer work as brake lights.

Thanks for the clarification, WhatV8. I had never tried the doors open test until the bulletin update.

 

You don't think it was odd that the inner lower bulb turned off on the flashing side with the doors closed?

Isn't this what the update is designed to fix?

 

Here's an article that explains the US law regarding brake lights, including a little info on the Clubman. Maybe something changed and you can't have the brake lights on a moving body panel at all, even if you have secondary brake lights like the Clubman has.

There's also an interesting line about the headlights on the first gen MINI's in there.

http://www.autotrader.com/car-news/h...-lights-261795

 

The Audi Q5 does not have this issue. The brakes lights live in the door and the auxiliary only come on if the hatch with the brakes in it is up.

 

Yes, talked about this with MINUSA on this at a launch party and the brake lights have to be seen and cannot be in a door that goes to the side.

 

The lights on the door are not primary brake lights. They are turn signals and have been that way since the F54 came out. Their article is incorrect by stating that.

 

Did I think it was 'odd', yes...at first. Once I thought about it I did find a possible theory why you would actually want the light to go out. That reason is a 'change of state', which would possibly bring a following driver's eye to that side of the vehicle as something 'changed', which is a combination of a light going out along with another starting to flash.

Now this is likely a 'stretch' kind of theory, but I have used that same technique for indicators on production automation equipment I have worked on. It is amazing how a 'changing state' indication is much more noticeable to a machine operator than a simpler single on/off indicator. Again, simply a theory of my own, nothing more than that.

The update simply disables the inner lights in the bumper and only uses the outer position for brake indication and the inner for turn indication with the barn doors open.

It would be interesting if they changed the system to now match the owners guide, where the inner positions are used to display brake force (i.e.- when you 'slam' on the brakes all 4 positions light up, rather than just the outer positions)??

My own personal preference for a 'fix' would have been to keep all 4 positions active with the doors closed and open, then flash the inner positions with the turn indicator with the doors open.

 

Someone needs to hack the code! I want my barn doors to light up as brake lights when closed. The bumper brake lights are too low IMO.

 

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ke-lights.html