That last part seems to me to indicate that it should be able to be turned on and off even in the A/C mode.

 

Agreed. In my car when the A/C is on it gets jammed in the recirc on mode regardless of activating the switch. The LED will go on and off but it will not go into fresh air mode.

 

Well, at least I'm not crazy! OK, called Ask Mini and they were no help but referred me back to dealer who apparently has access to higher level tech support from Mini USA. They will get back to me within a week. We shall see. I did make an interesting observation today. My commute is about 35 minutes. I had the air blasting on full and at around the 30 minute mark, I could swear I noticed that it switched to FRESH Air for about 1 minute and then went back to recirc. No change in the light switch however. I'm thinking this is what Mini will say it does and mostly to address the safety issue. If anyone else has the same issue, let me know if you also notice a change at around 30 minutes. What a quirky vehicle!

 

Car was at dealer service today and the recirc was working this morning. Dealer said that depending on relative humidity it will select recirc as a default and not let you switch it off. interesting, eh?

 

There's a humidistat in the system?

I was betting on a logic tree that looked at outside air temp vs cabin temp and selected temp, mix the 3 numbers and decide if the recirc needs to be on for a while.

I will have to watch how it cycles with the A/C on, on a long drive, were I would expect the cabin temp to eventually reach the selected temp. At that point I would expect to be able to control the recirc function if the OAT isn't TOO high.

I have a long drive tomorrow, and it's supposed to be a cooker, 30C or so - I'll try to remember to pay attention!
E

 

The quirkiness continues. Commute this morning was about 70 degrees. With the A/C on the recirc worked! If I had hair, I'd pull it out!!!

 

I am starting to believe that if the outside temp is high enough and the car needs to it forces recirculate to cool the car down and then once it has then the car will go back to what it is supposed to do in the first place, allow the operator to decide on recirculate or not.

 

Just tested this out tonight, temps around 70 as well, with the same results. Thanks for helping to solve this mystery gents