Hi All...

I have an 09 Clubman S with the factory bluetooth and it was qualitatively unusable. I spend a LOT of time on my cell in the car so BT is critical for me. Everyone listening said I sounded like I was shouting into a long tin can. So I contacted 3 different dealers all of whom said: Yep, it sucks. No fix. I tried an expensive Motorola aftermarket (also point directly down), it sucked too.

I found a thread here that said that the mic may have been installed on the right-side vs the left side... Yep, that was true. I moved it. The sound was still horrible. Really unusable.

So in desperation and without any real "fix" like someone creating a better mic, I thought I would experiment. I removed the lighting assembly then the mic from the left mic compartment. I cut the center section from the back and glued the mic to the back section with hobby glue so the mic faced back and toward the drivers-side. The cover already has a really convenient "grate" at the back that just screamed "microphone hole". I then used a bit of tape to seal up the open area and reinstalled the lighting assembly.

That worked. The sound quality is much better and the BT is now at least usable. I do need to have my head tilted up a bit though...

Disclaimer: This will certainly void your warranty on the mic and the plastic lighting assembly and possibly other related components.

If you are even more creative, figure out a way to point the mic from that rear section of the lighting assembly a bit more toward your mouth than I did. Those mic's like to be pointed right at your mouth.

I posted this and the photos because without this fix, the car, which I like, was history because I need working BT and can't use the in-ear BT. Now it's "usable".

Good Luck!!!

-Drew

 

Thanks Drew.
How does it perform with the "fan test"? (call your voicemail, then count to ten as you crank the fan from off to full). In my experience that's the bigger problem with the mic.
Paul

 

Hi Paul,

I read about the fan test but honestly, the BT was so bad that it was unusable even with the fan off and the car at an idle. I even went so far as to remove the run-flats so the cabin noise was reduced. The BT was unusable under virtually all circumstances. One point about the air noise (rather than the fan itself) is that I removed the cover and physically blew through the small grates at the original mic location. It made a slight whistling noise from the grate itself. The angle of the rear grate is diffferent and essentially parallel to the direction of the air from the ducts which would lessen the noise regardless. It's still not great but now usable.

Overall, it's an amazingly sorry engineering job on Mini's part. The best location for the mic would be adjacent to the emergency flasher button pointing toward the driver (not pretty though). Engineering a molded plastic piece and moving the mic back down is just too much work for me to contemplate. I could also buy another mic and wire it in to test but again, I'm not going to go that far down the re-engineering path. Normally, you buy a car and the engineers have tested this kind of thing before the car leaves the prototype phase. I love almost everything else about the car though :-)...

Drew

 

Thanks for posting this! Almost everyone complains about the sound when I make a call using the BT in my Clubman S. Can't understand how such a crappy mic can be approved by R & D at MINI, but then again I can't understand why a LOT of things get past R & D at MINI.

 

UR Welcome - If you try it, see if you can point the mic toward where your mouth is under normal driving circumstances. that will tweak it a bit "out" and perhaps "up" from the "flat" mount position I used. You might use a bit of cut-out plastic center piece as an angle rod to position the mic correctly. Let me know... The glue I used was standard model cement. Worked like a charm. -Drew

 

Another thing to try might be to swap the mic from a 6 or 7-series. Doubt BMW puts a cheap mic in those... My 645 convertible never had a single problem with the BT. AP

 

If mine sux (Take delivery tomorrow) I'll try that.

 

just curious, what phone are you using? I have an iphone 3gs, and I have terrible mic quality. I called my salesguy at the dealer, who was actually in a mini, on bluetooth, using an iphone 4, and he sounded perfect. He said it might be the older phones hardware is meshing well with the BT system. My wife has an iphone 4, and I'm going to test it this weekend.

Also, how do you go about getting a mic from a 6 or 7 series bmw?

 

I did a ton of research for aftermarket clip on units.... I highly recommend the newest mantra freeway ? It has multiple speakers, great sound quality and total voice control.

 

Yeeehaw!!! Drew… I had a go the other night at copying your effort… GREAT improvement (waaay more than just moving the mic to the correct side).
I got away with just some tape; for me the mic just ‘wedged’ into the hole nicely and also got it ‘aimed’ correctly.
Tools:-
T20 screwdriver
Wire cutters or something else that can clip or cut plastic
Tape (I had some >really< thick tape handy from another job), but duct-tape will do.
Total time : 15 mins or so.

Steps:-
0- Call your voicemail and count to 10 as you turn the fan up. That will give you the ‘before’ recording.

1- Remove the gray over-cover. Put tape over the two original mic-grilles. I also added some of my thick tape in the center (like ‘sound deadening’); not sure if that makes any difference.

2- Remove the mic as you did before; put it aside

3- Look up at the black plate from underneath and remove the two t20 screws (they’re in pretty deep, so hard to see).

4- Release the six clips around the edge and let the plate hang down. (I'm pointing at 3 of them here... you'll see them easily when you're there).


5- At the end of the plate there is a big hole, with a central dividing piece of plastic; with the clippers… cut away the plastic. DON’T make the hole TOO big… its nice if the mic just wedges in there.

6- Squeeze the mic in, most of the way (it can’t protrude too much, otherwise it will hit the gray outer cover). Angle the mic so it will face slightly down and (left) towards the driver.


7- Fix the mic in place with some tape on the inside.

8- Reassemble it all and call your voicemail to test the result.

If you look really closely here... you can just see the mic.

 

Well, you can only do that if you DO NOT have the alarm kit. Otherwise those openings are filled by the two ultrasonic sensors monitoring the interior for movement.

 

I know this is an old thread...but I recorded a sample of the microphone placed on the drivers side, and another placed in the vent hole mentioned in this thread.

Drivers side Location:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/9610530/Drivers%20side.mp3

Vent Location:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/9610530/Vent.mp3

 

Fascinating. Is it just me or does the vent location sound quieter and more distant?

Sent from my iPad using NAMotoring

 

My thoughts too, up until the fan gets to it's highest level then the drivers side starts to pick up a lot more of it.

 

I am late to the party on this thread. Paul, how well has this fix worked for you long term? Has anyone else tried it? My family has been begging me to do something about the BT as its painful to listen to if you can even hear a word I say. I have swapped out the mix to the apporpriate side as well and only got slight improvement in sound, but get more "tunnel" sounding calls to the person on the other line.

I would love to know how well this worked for multiple people. Seems like a very simple fix to the problem. Thanks for any feedback.

 

I finally gave up using mine unless it's something urgent. It's so frustratingly crappy. NW Mini finally moved mine to the driver's side for me but had it covered with a thin foam tape when I got it back. I took that off and it works but I spend a lot of time repeating myself because no one can understand me. The voice dial feature is totally useless because the bluetooth can't understand anything I say. I always lose my bluetooth headsets so it's frustrating that the car's won't work. I don't have any issued in our aftermarket bluetooth in our Tundra or the bluetooth in my husband's Acura. I guess I would rather have the bluetooth suck than have something major go wrong with the car....but....still......

 

My bluetooth was fine until I upgraded the car's software to a newer version and got an iPhone. Now it is basically unusable like everyone else reports here. :-( I am not sure if it was the software upgrade or the iPhone.

 

Yup... the move to the left, and move to the back, both help... but its still far short of great. If I am on a call... I know to turn the fan off and move my head closer to the outlet hole. Pretty crummy.
Was interested to see that note about the sw upgrade. I always assumed it was the hardware (and hadn't ever heard of a 'plug compatible' replacement mic). But if its the software... that would really tick me off.

 

I was going to ask if there is a special wire harness for mini's mic in the back of the unit,could I buy another mic and just plug and play?