As I understand it, there are dashes on the tachometer that are lit showing your not to take your engine over that speed until the lights turn off. Well, I got my MCS two days ago. Whenever I start the car, all the lights are off, even if the engine is cold. The only lights that are on, are the lights showing the redline. Obviously I am not even taking the engine past 4500 rpm until I finish the break in, but how do I get these tach lights to come on? Is it a dealer programmed option? Thanks in advance.

P.S. After owning and driving the car for two days, I have to say it is dynamite. I am still having so much fun in it without taking it above 4500. I rarely take it above 4000 rpm actually.

 

Redline it hommie dawg...

 

There are no lights to indicate an appropriate RPM to stay below until the engine is warmed up. Just the temperature gage.

 

What are the dashes in the 5000-7000 range used for then?

 

I noticed those LEDs in the tach as well. My gut is telling me that BMW, in an effort to save money in manufacturing, uses the same tach in all of the Mini models (Mini One, Mini One D, Mini Cooper, Mini Cooper S and JCW kit). I am willing to bet that each car has a different redline due to the different engine characteristics of each car. All BMW has to do is program the LEDs in the tach to the specific engine. But that is just a guess ....

 

The lights work the way you are describing on the M3 and the M5 (at least from stuff that I have read) but it doesnt do that on MINI's. BMW/MINI was just cheap and set different redlines on computer to only display certain lights depending on model.

 

I have noticed the same thing. the first five lights remain unlit even after you redline. I was told initiallt that they lit when speedo reached them but this is not the case. A friend also has a 02 MC the lights are off there to.

 

It is correct about all models getting the same tach. Even though your car has the higher redline, the tach along with all the unused LEDs is the same across the model lineup. It would have been kind of cool to have the redline 'change' depending on the engine temp, and the programming would not be difficult either, but it was sadly left out. The MINI is chock full of disabled and tag-along hardware!