Brand new 2023 JCW 2DR, upon start (when cold - this morning and attached video it was 25F) the climate control *****, seat heater, Max defrost and rear defrost switches and ***** do NOT light up when the car starts. They remain unlit until the choke kicks down. Has anyone else seen or had this happen? Is this some setting in the "Green" part of the car that will never get used? Just looking for some others opinions before we head out on a Christmas Road trip.

I have a video, but can't get it to load due to file size, if anyone needs it, I can message it to you.

 

Sorry, dont know the answer, but "the choke kicks down" statement gave this old man 70s flashbacks!!!

 

It was the only thing I could think of...My very first car was a 1970 MG Midget...it had a manual choke...what a PITA.

 

This may be unrelated. A month ago I was in Carmel parked to a Tesla parked in a charging station. Early in the morning I started my car ('22 JCW Iconic) and the car started fine, but the center was black. I drove for awhile and finally decided to stop. I turned the car off and then restarted it. The screen came back on and everything was fine. All these cars have some form of WiFi and I just wonder if mine was confused while it was close to the Tesla. It has only happened once. Who knows?

 

On my 2023 JCW they all light up the moment I turn it on. But maybe there is a setting option in the vehicle settings that controls this.

 

I thought it was a setting at first, I went through everything, couldn't find it. Took it to the dealership, they said it was potentially a software update issue, so they did the update. It didn't fix the problem.

This is going to be a tough one to find as it only happens (to my knowledge) when it is cold (< 32F) and on the first start. I did start recording all the start ups, it resolves itself after 10 min. Taking it back to the dealership this week, hopefully it is something that can be found and isolated.

 

I finally just sat in the car and video taped from start up to the ***** and switches working...here is the link to the video (I couldn't upload due to file size).

You can see/hear every thing kick on @ the 9:51 mark.

 

Wow...very interesting how that suddenly comes on. I think they will have to change the unit out/and verify all the connections. When is your appt to get it fixed?

 

Is that the 'High idle" I hear kicking down as the lights appear?

 

They have the car now...Wednesday 28 Dec.

 

It seems so...this is such a tricky malfunction, you have to see it, and it only happens once a day...If you go back in the video you can see it is idling higher before the lights come on. Fingers crossed...I know my wife would REALLY hope it is something under the hood and not ripping out the dash...

 

Wow that is one crazy issue

I wonder if there could be an electrical short inside the Body Control or Footwell Modules…

Maybe caused by a weak soldering point? If it’s cold outside the point is broken and as the module/circuit board heats up the connection is formed again…

Maybe a fuse that’s starting to fail…

If it’s a software issue I would be surprised a lot of other MINIs don’t have the same problem.

I hope everything works out and keep us posted -Rich

 

We dont go down to 25 degrees, but, I have never had a high idle cold start. Lowest was 30.

 

I have nothing to contribute, but I'm definitely interested in hearing how this works out. 100% weird, as others have said.

 

Like its trying to warm up before the climate control works? Weird. Was its super cold a couple days ago?

 

Not super cold, but in the mid 20's...It appears to be a switching problem with the power to that area of the car...I am heading in to talk with the tech right now...will post more later.

 

Ok, let us know.

 

Picked up the car today, tech couldn't replicate the malfunction, but used the video to troubleshoot...said there were multiple faults in the IHKA and an intermittent IHKA signal. Unfortunately the replacement part is on back order, so a bit more waiting to see if this is the fix.

 

Are you surprised? Thats BS to hear when you have a brand new car.

 

This diag actually makes sense to me. In the non-working condition, the stuff above and below that functions OK is either head unit/infotainment screen, independent switches (like the hazard switch), or the toggle switches below (also independent switches -- park assist, auto start/stop disable, DSC, driving mode).

None of the things that actually work are IHKA. Everything that is not working is definitely IHKA.

Also, the long time to "get working" behaves (to my eye at least) like a very old-school issue I have seen before with solid-state electronics: bad but not fully broken contact. Meaning the contact isn't properly contacting, but it isn't a fully-open no-contact connection -- it's just a really really bad connection, most likely a bad solder joint on a circuit board:

• Because it's a bad connection, things won't pop on.
• But because it is not a fully broken connection, some juice gets through but with a LOT of electrical resistance, which in turn generates a bunch of heat.
• That physical connection gets hotter and hotter, and finally expands enough to facilitate better physical/electrical contact, and boom, now you've hit minimum voltage. Game on.
• Everything works until you shut it off for long enough for it to cool down to original state. And then you start over.
• In that scenario you do one of two things: (a) you find the bad electrical contact and re-solder it (yeahno) or (b) you replace the thing with the circuit board in it that has the problem.
• Also, that heat thing? Over the long haul something like that can be a fire hazard, risk to other electronics connected up (voltage and amperage fluctuations are not good within any electronic system even if not big enough to blow a fuse), or, well, you get the idea. Back to "replace the thing."

I actually have an old TiVo HD that has this problem (and is known for developing this problem, in a specific place on the main board).

Hope that replacement comes in soon! At least you have a diag that actually makes sense.

 

@wes911gts, glad to hear MINI was able to figure out which module was failing, but sad to hear the part is backordered

Over on the MINIF56 forums another owner has the same issue but on a '17 F56.

https://www.minif56.com/threads/cent...weather.94089/

Hopefully the part will arrive soon and the issue will be resolved. Have a great day -Rich