For the second time, I heard the warning chime go off (like low tire pressure), but did not see any lights on the speedo go on. It happened before around the same time in the morning before. Doesn't happen in the afternoon or any other time, it's odd. As far as I can tell, all the lights work just fine when I turn the ignition on. I'm confused as to why it would do this. My blower motor is also not working, could that be related to anything?

 

Next time it happens, look down at the display on your speedo. This is probably your cold temps warning (to caution you that wet roads may be freezing). This goes off when the air temp drops to around 37°F (can't recall exactly, both my MINI and VW have this warning but at slightly different temps).

 

Hey this might be the freeze warning chime letting you know the air temperature below 34 degrees. I can't recall at what temp it kicks in but you are describing what it sounds like and it would explain why you are not hearing it in the afternoon. How cold was it this morning when you heard it?

 

That makes total sense, and I thought the same thing. But it's about 42 degrees out in the morning, so I wasn't too sure. I just look for he lights, but tomorrow if it happens again I'll look down at the mileage and such. Will it say something there? I don't have the chrono package or anything, just the normal MCS gauges for 2003.

 

Just did some research and it chimes at 37 degrees you might see a snowflake flash on your tachometer or the temperature may flash 3x if you have that display. You probably traveled through a cold pocket of air along the way. No worries it's just a friendly reminder to be safe.

 

Yes, it chimes very softly on the Gen 1 MINI at 37 degrees and it flashes 37 a couple times. If it reaches 37 degrees from a higher temp for a moment that sets it off. Does it because ice can form in certain situations, like a bridge I believe.


On Gen 2 MINI you get the chime / triangle with a snowflake in the display.

 

Got that snowflake in the triangle display along with the chime, yesterday morning.

 

Gen1 is just a chime...
About 5 threads a year on it....easy to forget, and misunderstood...just gives you a reminder that ( just in case you don't live in PA) that the bridges might be icy (I've seen 50,000 signs saying this in pa....)......

 

Signs are everywhere in PA man, haha. The bridge on my road alone is pretty damn old, not even sure when the last time it was renovated was. It's an old single lane stone bridge over a creek. I cross another one every day that has a sign on it, and pretty much every other bridge in the area does too. They're everywhere. But thanks for the replies, I won't freak out anymore when I hear it go off, haha.

 

And for the record, I tried a quick little search and didn't get very far with it. I always search first before making a thread. Sometimes I get lucky, other times not.

 

No worries. Ask away, don't worry if someone asked the same thing three years ago!

 

It's true! The chime is for the low air temp warning. The chime went off on my way home from work tonight. I saw nothing on the speedo (checking for the low tire pressure one, as a habit), then looked back to the tach to see if anything came on there and noticed the "37" blinking at me. So that's exactly what the chime means. I guess I never noticed it before because it wasn't at night so the display wasn't as bright looking in the morning. I put my headlights on, but the gauges aren't that bright compared to when it's pure darkness.

 

And I will ask away, haha. I know it can be annoying answering the same thread a million times, I've done it over on cherokeeforum for my jeep. Usually I don't mind, but sometimes it's just bad.