Hi all- I'm new to my mini and it's supposed to be dreadfully cold here this week. I notice many cold weather problem threads throughout the forum. Is there anything in particular I should be aware of or do? Thanks!!

 

Eh, it depends. I started my car yesterday and drove it a little bit. Everytime the car wasn't warm, my "ding-dong" ring when you start up the car, scared the crap out of me haha. I think the weather had something do with it and the wires. But other then that, no issues honestly. I let the car warm up since I'm seeing anywhere from -10 to 10 degrees the past week. In the spring and summer time, I just start the car and drive. But I'm letting the car warm up. Typically I do that with all of my cars I had.

You should be fine.

 

A well matained car in good working order should do fine....
Enjoy your car!!

 

What year Mini? On the 07-current cars you can do a neat trick with the key to let you warm the car up while you lock the door... and then go back inside..

Let it warm up a little (30-60 seconds) before pulling out.

I get in, start it.. fiddle with the mirrors, turn on my heater, radio... press SPORT button.. press DSC button... click on heated seat..

Seatbelt.. plug in phone..

Ok, good to drive now.

Don't flog it until its fully warmed up. Keep the revs under 3K RPM until it reaches about 180..

 

2013. Sounds like my routine! What's the trick?

 

One thing I noticed on my 13 PM when the temps get way down. The check engine light goes on and stays on for a short bit of time. Manual says to get car into dealer ASAP but when I call dealer they told me that it is normal. I had this on our 12 CM as well

 

Ok,

Put key in. Press start (start car).

Press start (turn off car)

Eject key.

Press start, and restart car!

Get out, lock car. Go back inside!

 

Ugh! That sounds great of I could actually get the car to start. It started right away and them I stopped to get coffee and now it won't start. :(

 

I'm gonna try it but I'll be surprised if it works for my '11 MCS.

 

If you got out of the car for more then 30 seconds you do need to put the key back in...

 

Oh I hadn't tried it yet, it just wouldn't start. Funny thing- the dealer said to put the key in, let it sit for a few minutes with accessories on and then try and that worked

 

Tried letting the car run without the key today and it totally worked! Thanks everyone- I wish I could get the remote start but they won't do it on a manual :(

 

Key? Oh you mean that thing I never have to take out of my pocket...

And would you guys, (ladies too), please stop warming up your cars... Seriously, it's bad for the engine, it's bad for the environment, it just plain bad.. Anything more than 30 secs or so, is counter productive.

The best way to warm the car up is to drive it.

But if you're such a wuss, you can't get in a cold car, then it's time to move to Florida...Lol that's why they make seat heaters.

 

Sorry not everyone can get comfort access, nor does everyone want it.

As for warming up being a waste of time/fuel/etc, agreed.

However, when temps drop to -20c, you can be damn sure I'm going to wait at least until coolant reaches 10c before I pull away..

 

In most weather conditions, I agree. However, on the zero degree F. mornings, my throttle body has been freezing up. I have the Torque app. linked to my Mini. I've been letting the coolant temp get up to 80 degrees before driving and that has solved the problem. Admittedly that this is a Mini design flaw, but we rarely have these conditions, so I can deal with it. Factory temperature gauges would help too, but that's another conversation.

 

It's not people are wusses and can't handle cold cars, but some people (luckily not me) park outside in snowy, frigid climates and the windows are iced over, it's best to let it melt before driving. That's what I did when I lived in Minnesota and Michigan. There are other factors too like drive times... for example my drive in Michigan was 2 miles one way, maybe it's good it let it warm up a bit.

Where I live now and since I park in a garage I only let it idle for about a minute then I'm on my way.

 

I would love to know how it's bad for the environment? And you should ask the real mechanics that work on MINIs if it's so bad to let the car warm up in 0 degree weather and -18 degrees wind chill. Enjoy the frozen ice in your intake, if you live in the Midwest. Is it really worth it? Yes, I'm not gonna spend $300+ to fix it.

 

Just a couple of points.

1.) Wind chill only affects living things. Cars don't care so much.

2.) Even though the carburator and choke gave way to EFI, the way engines start when cold hasn't changed. The mixture has to be really rich. EFI engines use a cold start enrichment loop to take care of this. The downside is that cold start emissions are grossly bad, with lots of unburned hydrocarbons. Thus bad for the environment. Manufacturers try very hard to reduce emissions. They use secondary air pumps to get the catalytic converters to light off. And want you to start driving to put some load on the engine to produce heat. Letting it idle really doesn't do that. It takes much longer to heat up when letting it idle than by driving.

3.) most engine wear occurs when the engine is cold. The shorter you can make that time the better.

4.) If you do live in a frigid clime, perhaps a block or oil sump heater would be a better choice.

 

1) check out the picture. That's water that turned into ice in the intake path.

2) I don't have any emissions in this state, and I'm sure darn happy about it. God bless muscle cars and tuners cars in this state. So I don't care. That can be said for other states such as California and ect.

3) it depends. If you drive the car past 3-3500rpms when it's not half way warm around 165 degrees, then I agree.

4) move to Michigan and enjoy our weather before you start to tell people what to buy.

 

1.) If you have standing water in the intake track, you have other problems.

2.) I really don't care about muscle cars, or hot rods, race cars and such adding to pollution. There are so few that they just don't make a difference. Besides, most are actually well tuned by now. On the other hand, Just because your state doesn't check you now, they will. I'll be darn glad of that too. Just because you don't give a crap about breathing clean air, doesn't mean you should be free to crap up the air the rest of us breath more than you have too.

3.) You really shouldn't exceed 3000 rpm until it's warmed up. The high rpm's when cold shortens the life of rod and crank bearings. The transmission synchros don't like it much either.

4.) Michigan? Spent a winter in Great Lakes IL. Didn't like it very much...lol But I was a pedestrian on a Navy base... I lived in upstate New York for 3 years. My Datsun 280Z got along fine on snow tires. That car ran great to over 200K miles. In fact, except for when I was road racing cars, I've never had an engine problem. (blew up a few race motors...lol)

 

1) this is a known Mini issue.

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