While everyone who knows me - or knows my posts - knows that I am FULL of hot air already... (just had to head that one off at the pass)...

For maximum top-down cold weather enjoyment, HUGE amounts of hot air blasting out of the dash vents toward you is a big plus! This was easily accomplished in my old convertible - but, alas, the fine engineers who designed my MINI didn't separate the primary dash-top vent from the passenger-facing vents. So (as far as I can tell) there's no way to get the BLAST that I'm looking for.

I'm thinking that some kind of relatively snug cover on the dash-top vent would do the trick - redirecting all that "wasted" top down winter heat to where it should be going. Has anybody found or fabricated a solution to this? Anyone have any suggestions for a good material that would be the right combination of color, stiffness, etc.? I'm thinking I may need to fab some kind of spring clips on the bottom to "snap" onto the vent grille...

Thoughts? Ideas? Criticism? Name-calling?

 

Being a new Cabrio owner, with temperatures cool enough to require a jacket, not owning the infamous wind deflector, I just drive with the top up.

I did try the Sunroof position with the rear windows down on a sunny but cool day. That was nice.

Good luck in your search.

 

Hardtop here, decent gloves, heated seats, heat full, #4 on the fan everything to the floor the heat works its way up to keep me warm with side windows down and sunroof open.

 

did you try closing the passenger side vents, too? i do that, and it works ok. it's a little cold, but ok everywhere but the highway.

 

Drove home from the health club last night at 22 deg F with top down. It was a bet between my daughter and I, but fun! Man did we get some weird looks.

 

I feel your pain Blimey. Whoever designed the air vents on the Mini had obviously taken one to many happy pills that day . My problem is similar to yours except I want more cold air in the summer to blow on my face yet no matter what I do I have a chilly windshield while I sweat . If you ever come up with something to block the airflow to the windshield vent, please put me down for one.
What I don't understand about the whole windshield vent is...
what in the hell is it for it isn't the defrost vent, that is located lower on the windshield. What in the heck were the designers thinking? Did they think we all planned to drive kitty cats around in our Minis & we would really want them to be climatically comfortable while they lay on our dashes...I just don't get it

 

So a couple of observations:

1) I found a post from a while back that said that the dashtop vent was for fresh air, and only blew if recirculate was OFF. Maybe it once worked that way, but my dash vent blows regardless of the recirculate setting.

2) That vent appears to actually blow back between the front seats about head level - if you put your hand up in front of it you'll see what I mean - I think the intent is to spread some air to the back of the car since there are no vents back there. Better in theory than in practice, I think.

3) I tried blocking the dashtop vent with my hand while it was on high. Odd. Seems that that vent is getting "isolated" pressure versus just being tied into the other front vents - blocking it resulting in it trying like heck to blow my hand out of the way, but I couldn't detect any increase in flow from the front vents... so maybe this exercise is in vain.

4) Yep, I've tried closing the passenger vents. A tiny bit better, but still needs more flow at highway speeds.

5) Up? The top goes up? My switch has a little warning door over it that I've been too afraid to open. So my top stays down like a cabrio is meant to be, thank you very much.

I'm getting discouraged...

 

How many people actually fit and want to ride in the back that they had to design a vent specifically for them? Speaking from experience you do not need any air for the back with the top down.

 

Maybe one day those folks in Oxford will figure out air conditioning

 

Hey Paul... here's my take on it:

• Heated Seats .. gotta have it
• Wind screen... yes, yes, yes
• Gloves/hat/wind-resistant coat... definitely
• Heat from the upper vents... well...

I think if you have all of the heat coming from the floor vents, that should keep you warmer than a good blast from the upper vents. My reasoning is this : Heat rises

If you get a good blast from the upper vents, it's immediately wasted/dissapated as the heat rises out of the cabin. Just my thoughts.. carry on


btw.. I now realized it's best to take your wallet out of the back pocket when using the heated seats... keeps your credit cards from warping too badly

 

Heated seats - check
Wind deflector - check
Gloves/hat/coat - check

All that gear I have (and I'm glad!).

Given the situation, I think floor heat is the best option.

It's just a tiny letdown - in all other ways, the MINI is SOOOOO superior to my old POC Sebring - but the Sebring could be set to make it feel like you had one of those forced air propane heaters blowing on you if you wanted...

And it's REALLY awesome to be able to drive top down at 40F without the hat and gloves (and a lighter coat) and still stay warm...

Oh well, I'll adjust.
Just drink more Starbucks...