I've had my 2018 S since May and am frustrated or perhaps disappointed or both. Every other car I've had since 1967 had the ability to send fresh unheated or cooled outside air through the vents. I prefer not to use the AC unless it gets uncomfortably warm. I cannot seem to find a way to get fresh air to flow through the vents. I read one thread suggesting that with the AC off and with no * indicated on the AC control, the outside air should be flowing through. That does not work. It seems that regardless of the outside temperature, the supposedly fresh air flowing through the vents is always much warmer. I seems that I'm missing something or that the car is designed so that the "fresh" air flows through areas where it is warmed by the motor.
What am I missing? Thank you!

 

The fresh air is being warmed by the engine.

 

I was quite clear that the engine warms the air. My question asked if there is a way to avoid what appears to be an obvious design failure.

 

There are two big, wide open vents on each side of the car, just above the door panels….

 

No, the fresh air is NOT warmed by the engine, air comes in just below the wipers.

 

It's definitely warmed by something, regardless of where the intake is.

 

Different car is probably your only solution (or turn on the AC). Every MINI I've had since 2003 has had the same problem. Blows cool air for awhile after leaving the garage, but gets too warm as the car warms up. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

On my F55 I turn the fan on to whatever level, keep the AC temp set at lowest 60°, turn the AC off, and hit the Recirculation button so that it doesn't recirculate (bringing in the fresh air). Give that a try.

 

I've asked this forum about this very subject. I was in the same boat as the OP. I have a 2015 F55. Until I modified the car it would go into cabin air recirculate within a minute or two of starting the engine. AC on or off, no matter where I set the controls. I tried BimmerCode and set 'Automatic air Recirculation to disable', didn't fix it. I took it to my Mini dealer, I was told all Minis do that to extend the life of the cabin air filter. At this point I was going to fix this myself or sell the car. I tried unplugging the recirculate motor but that caused the fan not to run. At this point, I'm not going to let the Germans defeat me! The attached picture is a recirculate motor I purchased off Ebay from a totaled Mini. I also bought a small 4 pole toggle switch and the motor connectors. My goal was to build this plug-and-play with no modification to the Mini's harness. Now my Mini has 2 recirculate motors. One motor is attached as it should be and the other motor is wire-tied to the area behind the glovebox with a tiny toggle switch that selects which motor is electrically connected. Now, I select recirculate or fresh, not the body control module. BTW My brother has a 2020 Countryman that has the same problem.

 

Mini HVAC Recirculated Air Sensor

Post Script; Many Mini owners will not have the recirculate problem I spoke of. It depends where you live and how dirty the air is. The sensor above is in every Mini built by BMW. It's mounted on the air cowl under the hood. If it detects particulate in the air, it forces the air to recirculate in the car. BMW apparently doesn't want me to breath the same air in the car as I would walking down the sidewalk.

 

I opened a thread on this subject a while ago. My 2006 R50 would let in outside air without the fan or A/C but warmed it (from the engine I guess). Both my 2015 F56 and now 2017 F56 don't let in any air unless I turn on the fan or A/C. Very irritating.

 

I never noticed the car warming up the air.

But on the tangental subject brought up- fresh air vs. recirculation and the automatic switching the car performs. That made me nuts too, and I coded the auto function away, and used recirculating air most fo the time. Soon enough, I got a sour smell coming each time I started up the car. Did enough reading here to find that the auto switching back to fresh air is to keep the system from collecting moisture and the funk that comes with it.