OK this has officially driven me crazy. Please help. I cannot for the life of me set personalized items. Example: I am trying to set my turn signal to flash 3 times (rather than once) when I tap it for lane change. I have followed the directions in the manual step by step but get nowhere. I press the button on the end of the turn signal lever briefly until I get to SET/INFO (no problem). It then syas to press and hold the button until the display changes. I do that and the display changes. But then it says briefly press the button repeating until the symbol and SET appears (symbol being a key with check mark). This is where I must be doing something drastically wrong. I can never get that symbol to appear! It just scrolls through and repeats but that key and check mark never show up. Stuff like this frustrate the crap out of me . What am I missing here?

 

try it with the car running. I seem to remember the same carp a year ago when I was programming Queso. Let us know.

 

Nope, I tried that. Thanks

 

its w/o the car running and key in push start to turn everything on but engine

 

Yep, that's what I do. I can get the display to work, and even get partially through the menu. It's when it says to press through until I see the "key" symbol and the word SET. That never comes up.

 

lmao - you named your MY Queso? That's so excellent!

 

Thanks, I thought that sounded better than Velveeta . . . we need one of our many MAs to jump in and tell Leicaguy what he's not doing. I forget whether you had to point the car north . . .

 

No other suggestions?

 

I beleive you hit the start button twice and that will allow you into that menu. I had the same problem. I will try it today and get back to you

 

Yea, I have no problem getting into the first menu. Read my first post carefully. Thanks

 

It's in the timing of the button pushes.
I can't explain exactly to help (maybe somebody else can).

It took me quite a while to be able to get the cadence down
where I could set things where I wanted and not have it
be an accident.

Is it like this for everybody or just me?

 

This drove me nuts at first, too...I just could not do it (set 3-click)!!! It was so bad that I stopped by the dealership and fell upon the mercy of the SA who kindly set it for me (yes, I felt like an idiot). Since then I have reset it myself several times w/ no problem. What did I do differently? Who knows....but I do have to consult the manual every time I get in the programming mode.

My advise...if you really suspect a problem (software or owner) swing by the dealership. If they can't do it, then there is a problem. Just don't give up...it does work, and it is a really nice feature to be able to self-program these things.

 

It was very difficult for me as well...our MA showed us while taking Delivery, but I could not duplicate ANYTHING after we got home. So I asked ALOT of ?s, here too. I had to have Molly running to be able to get past the 3rd Display, then things went fine, but it can get frustrating.

 

I had difficulty setting up my personal settings too at first.I don't think the owners manual is written in laymen's terms.Read it like it is suppose to read and it is wrong or opposite..LOL

I tried setting it several times and was getting very frustrated.It seems that the personal settings have to be done with the car running not just in the "on" position(owners manual not being specific on that wording).I finally got it to work but you do have a short time limit to accomplish your settings or you have to scroll through them again to finish.

 

I just got it to work, finally. Very important, as others have said -- you have to start the car and let the engine idle. Press the stalk till you get to the right menu, then press and hold down the button. Then scroll to the proper submenu and press and hold down the button again. Then select the option, then press and hold down again. Holding down the button = selecting that option.

 

Works fine for me with the ignition in the "on" position only - engine doesn't actually need to be running. This is on an '08 MC. Key in, don't put your foot on the clutch, press Start, and you have access to the personal settings menus.

 

OK, I've finally got it. The engine does need to be running. Boy....the manual is really misleading on this. It clearly says ignition ON and goes into detail on how to do this WITHOUT staring the engine. BTW, I did try doing this with the engine on but obviously did something else wrong, it didn't work so I gave up on the engine running theory. But I tried it again today and all is well.

Thanks to everyone for helping with this.

 

^^Read my above post which is similar to what you are saying.I think a lot of that is due to the fact that the Mini Cooper does not have a conventional key to start the car so ON to them is the car running where with a conventional key "on" is the accessory mode and not start.Hence why most of us are confused with the writing.

But I am glad that you finally got it to work correctly.

 

Weird. Like I posted above, the manual has it right in my case. The engine does NOT need to be running on my '08 MC to access the personal settings. The car does have an ignition "on" or accessory mode, and that's all it takes.

Is this a country-specific thing? Do all US Minis need the engine running to get into the settings menus?

 

Another advantage of the navigation system. No need to use the turn signal setup.