Can someone help me? I took my grandkids to the drive-in in my new 2022 MINI. While using the accessory mode to listen to the movie over the radio, I couldn’t get the exterior lights to turn off despite turning the light switch to the off position. The drive-in owner ended up putting cardboard in front of my headlights!! Can anyone tell me how to play my radio with the engine off? I never had this problem with my old MINI with a old-fashioned key!

 

@PollyE drive-in theaters are so much fun

You should be able to deactivate the exterior lighting but remember to activate it afterwards.



Hope this helps and keep us posted -Rich

 

Thank you for this info! Although, I have already gone into the vehicle settings, I will try again with this info. Somehow, I don’t remember seeing this when searching my manual. Interesting that it actually may be impossible to turn the lights off!
My husband suggested that perhaps because they probably don’t have drive-ins in England or Germany that the need to be able to turn off the lights while listening to the radio in the accessory mode wasn’t seen as important setting.
Oh well, I will see and I will write you back to let you know. Many thanks!!

 

@PollyE I can confirm that the daytime running lights can be turned off in the iDrive system.

I just verified it inside my MINI



-Rich

 

You don’t have to turn on the ignition for the radio to work. Just push the power/volume button on the radio and it will turn on, even if the car is off ☺️ If your daytime running lights are on, that means your ignition is on and will drain your battery rather quickly.