Noticed today on the top of my NAV display a light went on, looks like an exclamation mark with a parenthesis around it. Can't find one that looks like that in the owners manual.

 

one of your tires is flat or has low pressure

 

yep, its your run flat indicator. check the pressures, refill them back to proper pressure, then turn the key to the on position, press and hold the button under the ebrake, remove key, and start car. watch the tire that had low pressure to be sure there isnt a small leak in it.

 

Ah, thanks I'm taking my car in next week for a coolant issue, I'll just tell them to look at the tire too.

 

probably not the best idea to run on a improperly inflated tire for a week. especially if its off by enough to have your warning light come on.

 

I'll second that. It should be addressed ASAP. If you have runflats (I'm assuming you do), those things can be dead flat and you really can't tell it visually. But you can damage the tire by driving on it too much in that condition. Again, check all the pressures, find the low one and try to find any obvious problem (probably a nail or something in it). If you have a nail in the tread area, you can plug the tire yourself with one of the kits they sell at Autozone or any auto store for about $10. If you have any damage at all to the sidewall or outside of the treads, you will be looking at getting a new tire.

 

We refer to it as the butt crack warning light - activated by a sensor in the seat. I said that to a passenger who promptly checked to make sure their pants weren't riding too low!

 

Actually, if it stays lit, it's a malfunction of the run flat system, not necessarily a flat. If it's blinking, then the system has detected a problem.

At least, that's what the '04 manual says....

 

Wow, someone who actually reads the manual. Good for you, seems to be a bit of a dying breed.

 

Hasn't been my experiance any time that light comes on (on its own) I've had at least one tire low

 

Funny this thread came up as that light came on today. I was running late for an important meeting. So I pulled over quickly and checked my tires. They looked ok so I got back in, pushed the reset button and nothing happened. Since I was in a hurry (and some what lost) at this point, I figured I would worry about it later. So I got to the meeting ok, checked the tires again, and everything still seemed ok. When I got out of my meeting, I turned on my car and light was off. I will check again tomorrow morning to make sure the tires are still ok before I drive off. I'm hoping it was just a fluke. Anybody ever had the light go off before and nothing be wrong?

 

I could be wrong, but if you reset the light with a low tire, the car may then consider that low tire to be normal, meaning there still may be a problem but the car now indicates that there isn't one. Unless you spun your wheels pretty good or were driving on a slippery surface (ice, gravel), that light shouldn't just come on for no reason. I'd check the tires pressure. It will take about 4 minutes to do if you have a decent tire pressure gauge.

 

You can accidentally trigger that light on. I found this out when my wife laid her umbrella on the reset switch. Momentarily pressing the switch will trigger that light on.
First CHECK and if your tires are indeed all inflated to the same pressure, just shut off the car's engine when you get a chance and restart. The light will go off.
After inflating my tires I always reset the pressure indicator. Press and hold it for five seconds. Drive away and it will turn itself off after several seconds.

 

Im surprised you havent seen this light before. I see it atleast once a month now.

 

I saw it for the first time the other day and i've had a mini for over a year. Myabe its just the way you drive

 

could also be your brake sensor if it looks like ((!)) the sides are supposed to look like calapers

 

Yeah, whenever my wife or a friend of ours put their purses on the button. It's happened more than just a time or two.

 

My light kept going off when I first got the car. The tires always looked full, but when I checked the pressure, the rear passenger tire was 20 psi lower than the rest, which really shocked me. After this happened a few times, I used fix-a-flat on it, and light hasn't come on since.

That said, it's a great system! I always thought if the tires were too low, you could just tell by looking. Now I know you can't.

 

Thats because the sidewalls on run-flats are so stiff that when the tire is flat, instead of it depressing, it sits on the sidewall.

 

Yes, ever since I got my 17" wheels, my indicator light comes up more frequently. This rarely happened when I was on 15" wheels. Not sure exactly why this is. I'm told the sensors are pretty low tech which is a good thing for us because the system isn't overly complicated, nor are you tied to a specific wheel with electronics in it, but then again, it's not very accurate.

In my case, the light went on. I checked the tires--all were at 35psi. I drove on. Next time I turned off the ignition and on, the light was off--tires were still at 35psi.

On a recent canyon run, I heated my tires and brakes too up pretty well, and maybe the pressure change as the tires heated up and cooled down affected the sensor. Not exactly sure, but it is disconcerting. It's a constant reminder to me that I don't have a spare--and I'm not running runflats either.

 

But do I have run-flats? I didn't know I did. How can you tell?

 

MCS's comes with runflats and MC's don't (they have a place for a spare tire). That's about the extent of my tire knowledge. Thanks for everyone's help. I'll check the pressure of the tires again to make sure. It is possible though that my coworker who was in the car with me accidently pressed the reset button by accident.

 

On your tire, if you have run-flats, on the sidewall there will be a circle with 'RSC' in it. That is the tell-tale sign you have run-flats.

 

Actually Coopers do come with Run Flats in the sports/performance package--don't remember exactly what that's called--but I had them on my 2003 MC.

 

Sport Package. You can opt out of the run-flats for some performance tires I believe?