By cold, I mean start the car on a hot day and the inside of the car gets cool within a few minutes. It takes my CMS at least 10 minutes just to reach a relatively comfortable state. Yes I use re-circulation, it makes a slight difference.

I'm a little disappointed that the AC isn't colder. It's starting to warm up out here in CA and I just can't get the cab cold like my other vehicles. It's so noticeable that I actually took it back to the Mini dealer to have it checked out and as I thought they said that's as cold as it will get.

Anyone else notice this?

 

Do you have the automatic temperature control or manual adjustments?

 

The manual adjustments...just dial up for heat, all the way down for cool.

 

I have noticed. When I had a new Honda years ago that sucker was COLD when on the coldest setting - stayed that way for years. I expected the same since this is a new car as well - ugh uh. It's cold'ish - but not that arctic cold you have to turn down because you get too chilled.

 

Well said! OK, I feel much better knowing it's not just me! AC should be COLD when it's turned all the way down, not cool, or as you put it "cold'ish".

 

Noticing the same thing at times... I also wish there was a fan speed between the lowest setting and off!
The other day it went from chilly cold to just cool and then back to cold.

Used to happen on a toyota I owned. People took foam pipe insulator and wrapped the AC piping from the compressor and it helped some.

 

Here in Houston we have already had some 95* days so I crank the automatic temperature control on the AC to 70 and it gets as cold as any recent car we have recently owned - BMW535i, Audi A3 tdi, Fiat 500.....

 

It took several weeks for me to get a feel for the manual a/c controls. I find that turning the **** incrementally between the straight-at-your -face vent and the split-between-face-and-feet (right side of dial), with the left wheel on the second or 3rd fan level and the right wheel all the way down (coldest) to start usually does the trick. After a certain cabin temp is reached you will find yourself needing to thaw out your right hand though
I had a '91 Mercedes 300E that was about as tricky to set. My husbands Jeep will freeze you right out. Maybe it's a German thing?

 

There is already a thread on this in the problems section I believe.
People with the manual A/C are reporting this (myself included). Auto A/C users don't seem to have any issue.

 

Does anyone have the link to the other thread?

 

i'm in cali and have the same issue.
my S has manual controls too.

i actually did post in the other thread here:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...apability.html

 

Wow, looks like this is a pretty common problem. There is a lot of mention in that thread to get your AC "tuned". Well I'm definitely not paying an independent shop to do that, Mini should. My worry is they just don't want to. I took mine in and they brought it back 15 minutes later and said everything was fine. ugh.

 

^^I was wondering the same thing - so now we've confirmed it's not super cold... but what can be done about it?

 

There was definitely a difference in the manual and auto AC units on the 1st gen cars. Our first MINI (R50) had the manual controls and didn't get as cold as our second (R53) with the auto AC. That was part of my decision to get the auto AC in the Countryman. The auto AC has additional fan speeds as well, though I miss the simplicity of just spinning a dial to hot/cold.

Best advice is to get your car tinted if it's not and get a good sunshade. It makes a world of difference if you don't have to sit in a hot seat.

 

Definitely good advice, but for someone with an Eclipse Sunshade and tinted windows I'm still not satisfied.

 

Nothing compares to General Motors A/C.

My '03 and this '07 MCS are weak too. Don't know if it's because they didn't test in AZ, or because Freon isn't used.

 

the flaw in your theory is that I park in a garage at home and leave at 530am, where my car sits in a garage all day at work with no sunlight. It's usually pretty cold at start up and then about halfway through my commute it starts warming up, and then it starts cooling down. The ford explorer I traded in, had no issues staying cool but it was a temperature based or automatic system.

 

Good question, maybe everyone who is experiencing this go to the dealership and get some answers? Then we can all share notes on what we were told, and go from there.

I'm going to go back and see if they will "tune" the AC but I am not confident right now that doing that will help.

 

Try using a thermometer to check out how cold it is blowing on full cold full blast. That's what the tech did on my Honda. It should show in the 40's or 50's on a new car. My 20 year old crx is showing around 54-56 degrees

 

I have the auto AC and while it doesn't blow super cold it blows cold enough to keep the car comfortable. I leave the sunroof cracked though and I have tinted windows and polar beige seats.

To be honest though I really just wanted to comment on the fact that there seems to be a lot of mini owners that also own CRX's, myself included. Love it! :-)

 

I have the same issue with my Clubman.....if I leave the house on a long trip it's fine the whole way. If I stop for a few hours and it's blazing hot, it never seems to be able to catch up again, and it's worse in stop and go driving. I don't have a sunroof and I have the darkest tint allowed here in Kansas.

When I complained, the dealer checked it said it was "to spec", and their only suggestion was to use the recirc button - that does make a big difference FWIW.

I'm wondering if the automatic units feel colder to people because they automatically switch to recirc?

Amd it's not a "German car" thing, our Audi A/C will put ice on you under any and all conditions - if you let it. I think it's a MINI thing, I think they sized the unit as small as they could and it's marginal under the extreme heat and humidity we get.

GM cars that are destined for hot climates like Saudi Arabia get completely different cooling and A/C systems than what they use here.

 

Actually mine is very cold and IMO the lowest fan setting blows pretty high for that setting...

 

Yea mine is will freeze your ss off. It's the auto model. Hey inh, my wife has taken over the countryman, so I get the crx. Owe well I still have a rx7 twin turbo for weekend fun. She loves the mini

 

Man, I wish that was the case here. I just got back from a quick trip and then back to work, 30 minutes total and the car never actually cooled off inside. I'm going to try putting a thermometer at the vents tomorrow when it's hot again and see what temp is blowing out.

 

Yea, that should show you there is a problem. Like if you set it on 70 and the thermometer doesn't get below 70 degrees. Time to contact the dealer