my closest dealer can't get me a loaner for 3 weeks! And don't have availability to look at it for at least a week. WOW.

Purchasing dealer has agreed to pinch it in line on Monday when I go to get my plates to see what the problem is. Not very happy with this, but hopefully its obvious and quick to fix.

 

please let us know what they say. Alot of owners are complaining of poor A/C function, curious as to what they say

 

they wont rent you a car from enterprise or the like? I'm not sure thats acceptable to tell you that can't even look at it.

 

Eh. It wasn't my purchasing dealer. They're not that big of a dealer, and don't have a dedicated Mini Service dept. Purchasing dealer has 16? dedicated mini bays and are adding four more loaners to there fleet. They took a look at it today when I got my plates. I was running short on time, so they didn't take it back. SA said she would have expected it to been cooler considering I rolled out of my garage at 6am into my work garage at 6:45 and then straight out of a completely shaded area to them. She asked me to keep an eye on it and bring it back in a week or two if I find it is still lack luster. She conceded Mini should have put a little more umph under the hood and in the A/C given the extra weight and added volume.

 

I've already noticed in my 10 day old CMSA4 that at low engine speeds (for example idling in traffic) the AC output is not all that cool, and it's noticeably cooler if you rev the engine a bit as that spins the A/C compressor faster. This type of thing is unfortunately not that unusual in many cars as the engineers try to strike a balance between a terrific air conditioning system and one that does not siphon more power from the engine than absolutely needed and hurt fuel mileage. All the manufacturers are under tremendous pressure by the government and customers alike to design more fuel efficient cars. On the other hand if you are not getting obviously cold air from the ducts when the engine is operating steadily at 1500 RPM or more (and you have the temperature correctly set), it's probably time to show your dealer the issue. If there is an issue, more times than not on a new car, the system is incorrectly charged...not a big deal for your service department to check.

 

Ugh, that sucks. I started a thread about the AC not being cold and a lot of owners chimed in that they are experiencing the same thing.

Please do report back with what they do to fix it or what they tell you. (hopefully you don't get the run around like I have) I really need to get some additional info from someone like you who actually has a dealer willing to look into the problem.

My dealer in Irvine, CA will do nothing but tell me it's normal by sticking a thermostat in the vent. Ok, yes, it might be cooler sticking a gauge into the vent but what comes out is not cold at all. Not

Thanks in advance.

 

If it starts out cool and becomes more tepid as you drive, it could be just a low refrigerant charge.

 

It hit 100 degrees here yesterday so it gave me the chance to test the A/C ability on our one week old CM. While we were waiting for our car to arrive, I had become alarmed at how many people were complaining about their A/C, especially given that we had ordered an all black car with a sunroof and black leatherette. I would say the A/C in our car is certainly not one of its strong points. It was barely adequate after the car had been baking outside for several hours in 100 degree heat. But if 4 hot, sweaty people had jumped into the car instead of just me coming out of a well air conditioned office, I suspect the system would have been clearly inadequate. As expected, pressing the RECIRC button as well as higher engine speeds (versus idling in traffic) made the output noticeably colder. My guess is that the A/C on our car is working as designed, and at this point I assume I would be wasting my time returning to the dealer to complain. BTW, the leatherette was better in the heat than I had expected based on past comments by others.

 

Just throwing my two cents wirth into the mix. I have an early '03 MCS with auto air (under 48k miles). The temp is never as cold as I would like either. The thing I found is if I set the temp to a few degrees lower than the outside temp, just never gets very cold. But, If I set it all the way down to "LO", then it actually gets cold. I don't know why but it does work. On very hot days, I just leave it on "LO" until it freezes me out. Another odd thing is when the AC is on, the sound of the engine/compressor changes dramatically.

 

Artoo is also a 2003 MCS. I have found that the original charge on the 2002-2004 is just at the low limit of a full charge. And that over time, although it should not, it requires a recharge and I always fill to the upper limit with a touch of oil and leak detector.

But to reiterate what I said last week and verified with two cars since then, the cabin air filter can make a big difference. In my case it made a BIG difference and both of my friends that we changed the filter last weekend, called yesterday (record heat here in the northeast) to say their A/C is working much better after the filter change.

Rich

 

With all due respect, this is rationalized, fanboy poppycock. Toyotas and Nissans that cost a third of what the MC costs have just fine AC systems, thank you, AND better mileage. Also, it's not the cabin filter (though I don't doubt it helps if it's clean). If all MC have this issue then it's a case of pure and simple inadequate engineering from BMW, has nothing to do with the government, and the more BMW is made aware of it, the better the chances they get their ***** together and address it. I'm not sure if their engineers just figured what works for other MINI models would work for the Countryman or didn't properly hot weather test it to understand it needs more cooling ability but my 2012 arrives in Vegas next week where it's usually over 100 every day in the Summer, so I'm about to find out first hand what exactly they were thinking and if it's an issue for me as well.

 

Our All4s has had pretty hit or miss ability to cool the car even in mid 70 degree weather. There is no rhyme or reason to it. Sometimes the air works. Sometimes it is maybe 2 degrees cooler and sometimes it is actually spewing tepid warm air.

It's in for service right now. It's 97 degrees out side and we'll see if they kick it back like they did the first two times I complained about it.
I have a loaner now and it is pretty bad. Fan is on high, recirc is on and i still ended up with a sweaty butt after a 45 minute drive.

I've had cars that ran so cold at the lowest non max airconditioning had to turn the vents away from my hands or they would turn into ice. My Dodge is like this. My Toyota was and my wife's last Mini would really crank refreshing cold air.

Both of these Countrymans are so weak I can put my fingers in the vents for an hour and not get chilly. There is something not right about them. How could they expect the people in the back seat to get comfortable if the front isn't even cool?

 

I know the ac systems are the same, But I previously read that owners(some?) w/ the Auto Climate didnt seem to have such as issue with the warmer AC. ..I should be getting mine in about a week, I only ordered the Auto Climate because I heard of this. Hope I didnt waste another $500 because I could otherwise careless about it being 'auto'.

Do any of you w/ insufficient AC have tint? (I know it shouldnt be required, but it seems quality tint would help) I am aiming to get the 3M Cyrstalline film.

Setting the AC to low(temp) does nothing to make the air colder. Its a thermostat, like in your home. The heat or AC in this case is the same temp, it just stays on longer to acheive a lower cabin temp.

 

Yep, dark tint all the way around...I also use an eclipse sunshade and the paint is white. It keeps the car cooler but the AC still doesn't work well.

 

Straight in both our cars

 

TDN, I had the opportunity to go to lunch yesterday with one of our suppliers who has a non All 4 CMS with auto A/C, and it’s all black with a sunroof like our car (but he has black leather where we have leatherette). I neglected to mention that our car has manual A/C. He let me play around with the controls, and the temperature output, available fan speeds, etc. felt no different than our car. I would be surprised if, other than the controls, the system is different. I looked at the Bentley manual for our ’03 MCS, and the only difference is the controls. But I agree with what Boxer said…the A/C on that car has never been as cold as I would have liked. I would describe it as having “barely adequate” capacity, whereas I would say the CM has “marginal capacity”. Also, at least on the ’03, like Boxer I’ve noticed there’s something different when you change to the LO setting. I can’t say that it’s dramatically cooler versus the lowest numerical setting (60 degrees), but the compressor sounds different (louder) when the temperature setting is on LO, at least in extreme heat. Like you, I would have thought the temperature control is nothing more than a thermostat, but something definitely changes in the LO position. I wonder if perhaps the system runs the compressor a higher % of the time? Maybe I’m wrong, but I could swear that in the LO setting that the A/C is sapping more power from the engine. One thing that the Bentley manual seems to indicate is that when you switch to LO, the system no longer considers what the solar sensor and cockpit temperature sensor are reading. So far as Starman’s claim that my post above is “rationalized, fanboy poppycock”, it’s clear he is unfamiliar with automotive engineering and/or the industry itself. The issue has nothing to do with the price category of the car. In Europe, drivers tend to use their car A/C to a far lesser extent than here. A/C is now standard on almost every model offered here, whereas in Europe you still see a significant number of cars without it, especially smaller cars. I wonder if BMW misjudged American drivers’ expectations when they specified the capacity of the CM A/C system (one would think they would know better, the A/C in our 2011 X5 works terrifically, although that’s a model that was designed foremost for North America.). If they failed to spec a larger capacity system for the CM versus the other models, this would seem to be an obvious blunder. (This sounds suspiciously like the clutch discussion) When any car manufacturer specs an A/C system, they try to balance customer expectations as to system performance versus over-specing a system that uses any more fuel than necessary. Starman, if you think this has nothing to do with the government, you should familiarize yourself with something called CAFE. It’s a major strategic issue for any car manufacturer that sells in the U.S. And your comment on cabin filters again shows you have little knowledge about the subject.

 

yes, the standard & Auto Climate systems are identical other than controls/sensors.
- brain fart for me, woops. Yes, You are correct. Most AC's have a different cycle when using the LO or MAX AC mode. the compressor does not spin any faster as its rpm/belt driven/dependent but the cycle does differ. technically how, I'm not 100%

I think the bottom line it that these systems were not designed properly for the N.American market.
The only fix I see might be a different compressor of larger evaporator under the dash. ??
I dont think MINI will do anything at all. :( It's the BMW way

 

Yep, I'm afraid you are probably right. If they would not replace the defectively designed power steering pumps in the first generation Mini's (clearly a safety issue), I don't see them stepping up and retroactively upgrading the A/C systems on CM's that are already on the road. Can you imagine what that would cost them in labor per vehicle? I assume the entire dashboard would have to be removed just to get to each evaporator. On the other hand, no harm in complaining.

 

Shark, you can rest assured that I know all about CAFE and cabin filters. Let me say that using paragraphs in your posts can be your friend and reiterate that it just appeared to me that you were rationalizing an inadequate cooling system design by trying to pin the blame on anyone and everyone but the party at fault.

I actually called Desert MINI in Las Vegas today and talked to a SA about the issue and he said yes they get complaints about it and then proceeded to explain how every brand of automobile is different and that people shouldn't anticipate more from their AC than it can deliver. I was amused that here was another person explaining away subpar design, not on the government this time, but instead in the name of lessened expectations.

At least we can all agree that BMW is unlikely to do anything about it retroactively (and maybe not even going forward) unless pushed to do so.

 

I got the car back today. As I expected the paperwork says. No fault found. Operating normal.

I talked to the new service manager who brought out the lead technican. He's a nice enough kid. Unfortunately he was carrying a piece of paper which lists the lowest acceptable values for the AC based on the ambient air and the humidity.
Essentially the system is designed to work around the Density Altitude Index and adjust it's cooling to perform to these levels based off of some Engineers idea of what is acceptable.
We have the basic AC system and it apparently is computer controlled as well. He told me that even if he wanted to adjust something his hands were tied as long as the computer said everything was okay.

It must suck to know you can't satisfy a customer because the program firmware has denied you the ability to help.

BMW has it all wrong.

 

New to forum. We have 2 Mini's. 2010 Clubman S and 2012 Countryman S. The Clubman has no A/C issues however, the 2012 Countryman has some issues.

First we live in SW Florida and we bought the car October of 2011. The temperatures are somewhat mild here at that time. But, as Summer started in full swing we noticed the A/C seemed to stop recirculating and blowing warm humid air. (We have a white car, sunroof, and the windows are tinted as dark as we can leagally go.) We took the car in the end of May and were told it was the A/C sensor. It was replaced and things seemed better for a week or so.

We dropped off the car mid June. The dealer had the car for 4 days. Replaced the expansion valve due to leak. Replaced 4 gasket rings. They measured the temp and speed. Found the high pressure is low and 1 high pressure is high. (don't quite understand that). Charged and injected oil and dye in the A/C system per the tech's notes. Seems to be better.

But success short lived. July 5th, doing it again. A/C compressor shutting off. (BTW, we can hear and feel it shut off) Dealer determined A/C blowing warm after running car for 10 mins. Normal operation for the car per Mini Specs. Not necessary for part replacement.

We made an appointment to speak to dealership manager and the service department manager. After discussing with them, the service manager admitted that nothing was ever wrong and that they were replacing parts just to see if it would work better. They offered us a loaner Countryman. We took it for the day. This is what we found. The a/c on med to high speed runs for 10 minutes then shuts off and blows warm humid air for 26 seconds. Repeat this process all day long. This happens in our car and the loaner car. Must be Mini design? They suggested maybe this was happening because we were at idle speed etc... Let me tell you, we went to a long deserted area with a nice long straight away and got the speed to 90-100 mph. Speed doesn't matter nor does the outside temp. 80 degrees or 100+ no matter.

We explained the car didn't do that when we bought it but it does now. But, I guess it is what it is until the engineers can figure out it's freakin' hot in the USA!

 

It's normal for the compressor to cycle on and off, but the air coming out of the dashboard ducts should never be warm, except for a very short time when you first turn on the A/C. It's rather scary that your dealer can't fix it as there's nothing very unusual about the Mini A/C system versus most other cars, and I would be concerned that the tech working on your car is inexperienced with automotive A/C. Sounds like it's time to call Mini USA and have them work with the dealer to fix your car. I would be very upset. It's not unreasonable to expect your dealer to employ compenent service people.

 

I think the a/c is underpowered too. I have auto a/c, and it works ok if the car is already cool, but not when it's been parked in the sun. I have to set it to Max to cool off the interior. Then I can switch back to auto. I can't just leave it in auto.

 

I agree the A/C is marginal in capacity. The A/C in our R53 worked far better. Makes you wonder if they tried to get away with the using the same size A/C equipment as with the smaller cars the same way they did with the engines.