Does anyone know if you can manually lock the Mini without arming the alarm (if you have the OEM alarm installed of course).

With the BMWs if you locked it with the key the alarm did not arm, but with the MCS it does, This makes me have to leave the car unlocked if I need to leave the dog in the car for a minute since she will set off the alarm

It was not clear that getting the alarm would remove the option to just lock the car if desired and I wish I had known before buying/installing it

 

My current MINI doesn't have the factory alarm, but my first one did. As I remember, you can lock the car with the key fob, without activating the alarm if you push the lock button twice. I think you have to watch the alarm status light, and wait untill it blinks, before you push the lock button the second time. Its in the manual.

 

Older cars worked so that pressing the remote lock button twice disabled the interior movement sensors - the alarm is still armed but only for forcing a door or whatever.

I am not sure the newer cars work this way; there is some complicated procedure about pressing a remote button while the key is still in the ignition, which disables the alarm.
When the alarm was being installed in GBMINI#3 we twice accidentally did it, but I am not sure what we did!

According to the tech manuals for the MINI, the interior movement sensor is supposed to be disabled if the windows are open - this was definitely not true on GBMINI#2 (an '03) but may be true on GBMINI#3 ('05); I have not tested it.

 

Thanks for the replies and info! I am not with the car or manual right now but will try it later and see if there is accurate info in the manual. I didn't think to look in that since the alarm is not factory installed or standard equipment thus I didn't think the details of operation like that would be addressed.

I wonder if the window being open has an effect? I know the sunroof open does not disable the motion sensor (and open windows sure didn't effect the sensor in the BMW one - I tested in in the 3er and also had a neighbor with an X5 that always left a window open and the alarm would go off repeatedly from the breeze :P)

 

Yes pushing the arm button twice (within a 5 sec period) will disable the interior motion sensor. My 7 series was the same way.

 

OK, some quotes from the MINI tech data (which of course is not necessarily accurate!):

Pressing the remote or locking the car one time activates Volumetric Arming, the monitoring of all contacts plus the tilt and UIS sensor. For 10 seconds after Volumetric arming the LED will flash rapidly (8hz), 10ms on with only 125ms between flashes.



So when you arm, you see the light flash quickly for a while. If you double-lock, you should see the light flash quickly, stop, then continue flashing quickly ... this supposedly means the interior movement sensor and the tilt sensor are disabled.

 

If that was true, the whole purpose of the interior motion sensor would be useless.

 

The concept of the motion sensor - at least in England - is to detect when someone smashes the window and reaches in.

If you don't want someone reaching in and grabbing something, the best protection is to close the windows

 

Per my own testing, interior motion sensor still works with windows down.