This warning signal is supposed to come on when you start your car and the outside temperature is at or below 37 degrees F. In my 2009 MCSa, it sometimes comes on and sometimes doesn't (at 37 degrees or less).

Can someone say whether there are any other rules the computer uses to figure when to illuminate this signal? For example, perhaps it doesn't come on if it has already come on once, earlier in the day, and the temperature is still below 37 degrees? Or if the engine is still warm when you restart below 37 degrees?

If there is someone living in a cold climate, where it is below 37 degrees for days at a time, does yours always come on every time you start the engine, no matter what?

Thanks...

 

I see it once every couple of starts/days and i think its depending on whether the temperature has risen over 37.
I like to think that the filter is of the type "you already know that its super cold out!"

I also assume that the cold weather package things (heated mirrors & jets) are working according to temperature and regardless of whether i see the snowflake. All i have to back that up is that i haven't had to scrape my mirrors once thus far!

 

Thanks. I don't have any cold weather accessories, I'm just wondering whether to take it to the dealer for an "intermittent snowflake". That's why I'm trying to determine if it should come on every time you start the engine when it is 37 or below.

 

Basically, it only comes on to tell you that's cold when it thinks that you wouldn't have known it was cold. It has to see a drop from 38 to 37 either between shut down and start up or while driving. So if it's 40 when you shut off the car and 20 the next morning, it'll be like "Hey! It's cold! Be careful!" Or if you take off on a drive and it's 40, then the temperature starts to drop as you drive through a cold front, it'll be like "Hey! It's getting colder! Be careful!" But when it's always that cold, they assume that you know that and don't have to be reminded every time you start your car that it's cold.

I haven't seen Lewis' snowflake in a while. He assumes I know it's cold. Every once in a while it'll get up above freezing in the afternoon, then when I'm a few blocks down the street (it's a little warmer in the garage) he'll be like "Brr!!"

 

It's a warning that black ice is possible. Had it on my Saab 9000 and Passat. Seems that it is a European thing.

 

Thanks, OWG, I appreciate you taking the time to post that page from the manual. My question, however, was more to the issue of when should and shouldn't the symbol appear (even though it is at or below 37 degrees outside).

misslindsey's answer seems to make sense, so I'll monitor my car to see if it conforms to her description. (And thanks to you, too, misslindsey).

 

It's the dumbest warning light I've ever seen, and I never pay any attention to it. My '02 BMW used to chime, and also turn on the rear defroster, just because it hit 37 degrees. Another useless feature!
Maybe if the temp gets above 75 a little Sun in a triangle should appear, or if it's raining, a little umbrella! At night, the Moon should be displayed, just in case the driver didn't realize it was dark out.

 

yes, it will. maybe not immediately upon start, but yes it will appear. like yr tax forms every jan

 

Sequence,

Where you live, does it stay below freezing for days at a time? I ask because that is when misslindsey says it doesn't come on every time. That has been my experience as well.

 

I have noticed it will warn me in the 09 when I had it in the garage and pull it out once the ambient air temperature sensor reaches below 37. If I startup the car and it was already below that (sitting outside freezing), it wont display it.

 

CO. Every morning when I leave for work it is well below 37 degrees, even in the non-heated parking under my building. sometimes it will come on there right after startup; sometimes it will wait a bit and come on once I hit the road, but always within 5 minutes after startup--no matter what. Did this for my 05 as well.

 

Sequence,

Strange...mine behaves as does Gilboyto's. I wonder why yours doesn't keep coming on every several minutes, if it isn't signaling a threshhold change (i.e., from above 37 to below 37).

I can drive mine for an extended period and it isn't until the outside temperature drops from above 37 to below 37 that the snowflake appears. If yours goes on anytime it is below 37, it seems as though it should come on frequently. If I park mine with the temperature at 25 degrees and start it up again an hour later (still 25 degrees), there is no snowflake signal.

 

How warm is it when you park your MINI at night, though? As I recall from my one Colorado visit, you see the sun way up that high and even though it's damn cold in the morning/evening it does heat up midday when the sun comes up. If that's the case, the car is seeing a change from above 37 to below, which is why it goes off when you start the car in the morning - it's telling you that it's colder than it was the night before.

 

Wow, what I want to know is how does the car knows it was you who drove it the day before and not somebody else who might not know it was cold .

Yes, key fobs can differentiate drivers - although drivers can share fobs, but an indicator designed to work like that seems to be not much of an indicator. I live in a warm climate and in one of our cars (non Mini) we all get a kick when the snowflake comes on. It is always on when the temp is below a certain level and, rightly, makes no assumption about how smart I am at divining the temperature!

While this is not an indicator of import in my my mind, it would be kind of like a gun safety that once you changed it it no longer appeared changed because you knew you changed it. How would that work out?

 

That would be very easy to do (and what I believe it does): it resets the mechanism when the temperature has gone from below 37 to above 37, then displays the warning when it drops below 37 again, whether the car has been on or off in the interim. The trigger is the change from above to below 37. (I don't think the particular key fob being used makes any difference).

 

Thanks, I was making a joke since folks posted (also in jest) that the car knew whether the driver knew it was cold or not - as if it read minds. (I added the fob stmt as an afterthought because some cars do differentiate settings based on fobs - and my wife routinely grabs my fob and screws my settings up!!!!!!! Not fun when the drivers seat is adjustable 3,000 ways

I still think the way it seems to work is not very functional, and not very important!

 

"...and my wife routinely grabs my fob and screws my settings up!"

You say that as though its a bad thing?

 

It depends on what they temp is outside when you unlock or open the car doors. The computers come on during those 2 instances and it will check the temperature then. If it is below or at 37 when the computers start up you will not get the warning. If it is above 37 and then drops you will get the warning.