Wow, lots of interesting postings. I'm bringing it in on Wednesday, and as I said, I hope they can find the culprit, but am resolved to the fact that there is the possibility that they won't. Who knows? They might yank out the automatic climate control unit and there will be a loose wire or something. I'm an eternal optimist. If they don't find anything, at least there is a record of me having been to a Mini service shop resolve this issue. This prevents me from having to shell out money from my own pocket when the warranty is long gone and the automatic climate control just stops working altogether.

04, have had the problem maybe 5 times in 24 months/30k miles. No blower issues that I've noticed. Didn't check the lights, though one time I tried every other electric do-dad in the car while the CC wasn't fuctioning and couldn't find any other devices failing.

I also have the gremlin however it has been in hybernation for about a year now. I, too, only noticed it wasn't working after I was on the highway on a long trip. Thank goodness I had seat heaters until I could pull over and restart.

I had it looked at 3 times with no fix. Hoping you and your service department can figure it out. We were not able to reproduce it but I made sure it was documented in my service history just in case it gets worse. Again, it hasn't reared its ugly head in over a year.

Alot of these electronic devices such as climate control have other components are in series with the circuit which is not unusual in "control" circuits.As the previous poster mentioned it is impossible to fix if it cant be reproduced.I am in another trade and we have the same issues when this kind of problem occures.There is usually a diagnostic procedure that is published after a manufacturer identifys a problem,then the exact component can be isolated and replaced instead of just replacing parts.Sometimes its impossible to get the customer to give you the circumstances surrounding the problem.Most often they will get empatient with the questions and just want it fixed.Alot of technicians are paid by the job which is not condusive to speding the time to figure it out,hence all the return visits for the same problem.The more info recorded by the customer about the occurance ie time, date ,temp,etc helps with the diagnosis.

So, it's fixed. I'm glad I just didn't forget about it because, yes, life is too short to be cold. The problem was caused by a faulty blower control module. I imagine it was periodically shorting the automatic climate control unit out.