Hi everyone.

I'm new to this board but it's a great resource. Thanks for having me and I hope someone out there has a thought on an issue I've been having with my 2003 Mini Cooper S with around 65,000 miles on it.

For the past 2 years the air conditioning has been intermittent. The lights for the fan and temperature remain on but no air blows -- cold or hot. Sometimes it goes back on by itself after a few minutes of driving. Sometimes slapping the passenger side of the middle column (where the controls and radio are) makes it come back on. And sometimes it stays off for a day or two before spontaneously coming back to life.

Has anyone seen this behavior in their Mini? Or does anyone have any suggestions before I thrown in the towel and take it back to the dealer again? I live in Austin and the closest dealer is in San Antonio, nearly 90 miles away. The two times I drove there with the problem, it worked for them. I even have documentation from the dealer the problem was an issue back when the car had 34,000 miles.

Thanks.

Bob L.
Austin TX
2003 Mini Cooper S

 

I too have a 2003 mcs with no problems except the belt tensioner its garbage
(you`ll find out why sooner or later) but to your problem with the ac sounds like a contact short in the head unit ( AC control ) if you bump it and it comes on , sorry but it`s going to be a unit change they should have done it before at 34k I`ll BET they didn`t.

 

We never know when the air conditioning will go out. Considering the temperature in Austin has hit 100 nearly 50 times this summer, do you blame us for not wanting to drive the car. Please offer us suggestions to have Mini USA pay for this. Its been an ongoing problem for 2 years. The 90 minute drive to San Antonio is hot and there's no guarantee the ac will misbehave once we get there. Ground breaking on the Austin Mini dealership is on hold so we're at the mercy of the San Antonio dealership. Thanks.

 

My husband just taught me a trick to get the ac to work. He has to drive over a narrow speed bump at around 10 mph. The rounded humps don't work, but the thin ones that give you a jolt seem to do the trick. Its gotten to the point that we want to install one of these speed bumps in our garage! Anyone out there have an answer to this dilemma? Thanks.