Made an appt. to address the various recalls and software patches due.

How many are we up to now? 2? 3?

Is there finally a fix for the Auto-Start-stop for manuals? Mine's been "off" for 5 months!

Going to have them lubricate the power-folding mirrors. One's squeaky.

 

depends on exactly when yours was built. mine's a july build, and it's going in for the spare tyre screw and some programming recall that they expect to take overnight to complete.

 

June-build here.

So, I should reserve a loaner, maybe.

Thanks.

 

Well, I can confirm now that the programming fix will take more than 1 day to sort out.

 

Just got off the phone with BMW about the recall for the structural rear side impact issue (2014 coopers built Dec 13-May 14). They will be sending out recall letters this month to affected vehicles - approx 3600. Fix is about an hour and it sounds like they add more "fluff" inside the rear panels. Yay... This will be recall #5 for me. :/

 

Well, I just got back from my dealer for the tyre bolt recall and the programming recall.

Unfortunately, my service advisor left early and hadn't left the paperwork, nor did he return my call that afternoon (he left a message that was all static and I called back and asked what his message was), so I'm not all that happy at the moment. (They also didn't wash it, so I'm wondering if they actually meant for my car to go home).

I came in with a few concerns:

* the car idles really rough the first mile or so it drives. So rough it stalls when backing out the driveway, or in the neighborhood if I have to slow down.

* in green mode, the car doesn't shut off.

Supposedly the programming update fixes the green mode issue and the rough idle.

I did notice driving home that in the space of two miles, green mode was now saying it had saved me more gas than green mode had ever done in a whole tank of green mode driving. Color me skeptical.

We'll find out tomorrow, when the car's cold, if the rough idle's better.

***

A note if you go in for the reprogramming: they change everything back to default. So everything you'd programmed, even down to ambient light color, gets reset. And you lose the event-centered led dash ring doing different things.

Apparently you also lose the option of using Celsius for cabin temp and outside temp.

And your car will no longer wink at you or tell you to "Be MINI" :( Silly little things, but it is honestly disorienting to have the controls all different. Especially without being able to talk to the service person. And no, I'm not going back any time soon if I can help it ... it's 90 minutes away.

 

The light ring and Celcius settings are easily re-set. Sadly, the MINI winking cannot be brought back - MINI killed it off probably because it was scaring off the males.

Light ring settings (including the event displays) can be found under SETTINGS --> CENTER INSTRUMENT --> EVENT DISPLAY - just check all the boxes.

Changing units to Celsius can also be found under SETTINGS

 

 

Mine still does.

 

The person who already posted about the auto tranny recall said it was because if you try and leave the car in Neutral and shut off the engine it may not warn you that you're an idiot like it should. I didn't get the impression it wouldn't go into Park.

 

siriuszero, thanks. i did finally get everything sorted. it just took a lot of searching on here. i did hear back from the head of service and told them that they ought to walk folks through it, since it would take 5 minutes, as opposed to taking me a good part of a morning.

and for some reason, the very last thing, the least important, changing the ring's colour, just didn't work with one of the key fobs. until it randomly changed in the middle of a drive.

here's to hoping it stays that way. :p

Star7, I'm jealous yours still winks at you. I just get a MINI logo now. :( But at least the car doesn't stall and it does shut off when I try to shut if off. tradeoffs, i guess.

 

well, interesting things continue to happen from the reprogramming.

i realised today that my gas guage still said i had a full tank of gas -- all 8 bars. I think checked my trip odo, which i reset whenever i get gas. it said i'd driven just over 100 miles.

so at least 1 of the bars should have fallen.

i think checked the range, and it was telling me that with 120 miles driven on this tank, all city driving, i should still have 380 miles of driving.

which is more than range ever showed me before. it would always calculate 440 at the start of a new tank. apparently now it calculates a tank of gas at 500 miles per tank.

and in any case, it should be down 1/4 of a tank with my 130 miles now on the clock since last fill-up.

but it's still showing all 8 bars.

left a message at my dealer, but it was 3pm on a Friday, so I probably won't hear back til Monday. but just keep an eye on your gas gauge after the recalls ... my gauge doesn't work at all, and the range seems inflated.

 

What car do you have, cos my S manual tells me I have 498 kilometres (310 miles) every time I fill her up! Why such a large discrepancy?

 

Dunno. Up to last week, the car (july build justa) would tell me when I filled up that it had 440 miles in range. I'd always fill it up at about 350 or so, and it would take 8-8.5 gallons of fuel. Can verify because when I get a receipt for fuel, I write the odometer reading on it and reset the trip odometer.

Today, it's reading that I've done 130 miles, and I have 375 still in range.

It would be nice if the update really adds a bit of fuel savings, but over 10%??? Not likely.

I think I'll continue to go off the odometer and just fuel up every 300-350 miles to be safe. I'm not happy the fuel gauge isn't working, though. And I'm a bit suspicious of the range readings.