Clubman Owners,

First off I love my clubman, but I found a nifty trick that maybe bmw missed...

My clubman doesnt have the comfort key option...

Start your car without the key... no way right?



First, start the vehicle with all doors shut...

next, turn the car off, keep all doors shut, remove the key from the "holster" and start the car as normal with the key removed...

Mine starts every time, but if you open a door then it wont allow you to start the car...

once the car is started with the key removed you can open doors as necessary without interruption...



so why is this cool....

Say you need to warm your car up in cold weather, you can lock it from the outside while its running...how cool....

Give it a try... hopefully this is universal...

let me know what you think!

 

I will have to give this a try. I have been just using the spare to warm up the car. Then using my set to lock it up. It is going to bone cold next week, so this will work out nice for me.

 

that is correct, the key slot still recognizes the key for up to 10 sec. after removing your key.. This is normal for all R56/R55 MINIs.

 

Sweeeet! I'm trying this out tomorrow .

 

Did it and it works..BUT...when you stop the car and hit the stop button, the radio will not stop, even when you open the door..you must reinsert the key and then remove it to disable the radio (and probably other electronics).

 

Hobbs4002 - I have a 2008 MC and it works for it too! Thanks!

 

So it's a really cold day. You start, then stop, then restart the engine....on a really cold day.

Neat to know, but not sure i like the potential bad stuff to the engine.

 

I guess Im not quite sure what you mean here, Im pretty sure you would want to allow your car to warm up in cold weather, and I imagine BMW made sure our cars could idle just fine without damaging anything...

 

Starting your car on cold days is one of the hardest things on your engine. So starting it twice to let it warm up while you are inside means twice the roughness on the engine.

Also, I was suprised to read in This on page 39 of the manual..."Avoid frequent starting in quick succession or repeated start attempts........Do not let the engine warm up with the vehical at a stand still. Move off immediatly at a moderate engine spead."

 

That's weird. I'd always heard the opposite. Good to know!

 

I read that as well, odd thing to include in a manual. With the cold weather package and a few minutes of driving with the heat on full bore, the MINI turns into a self cleaning oven.

If you are configured the same, I would not take the step of warming up the car unless there is better explanation for whatever the manual is trying to prevent.