2010 R57 base
Manual HVAC

Seems like the fan speed progresses fairly linearly from speeds 1-3, but when moved to high/4, it's a very large increase in noise without an equivalent change in air speed. It's higher, but not to the extent of the amount of noise it adds.

Also, my recirc seems to turn itself off after about 20-30 min, but the light stays illuminated on the button. Have to turn it off & back on manually.
Before the FRM failure, there was a couple days where it would cycle the recirc instead of just turning it to fresh, but when the recirc reengaged, it's like it hung up & proceeded to rapidly click like it was bouncing off the limit stop.
That symptom just went away on its own.
Is the Recirc blend door motor replaceable? Or is it a whole blower change?\

Should have the car back on the road in a few days when my reprogrammed FRM arrives. Fingers crossed it's plug & play, and there aren't any other related gremlins upstream of the front lower connector.

 

You may want to check the blower resistor.
If you turn the blower by hand, does it wobble or is it stiff or notchy?

 

I haven't dug into the dash to check it physically, just the audible change between speeds 3-4
And the random disabling of the recirc, which is more annoying, especially when it's near 100* outside & starts pumping in fresh air.

 

For most cars, setting the climate control to the "defrost" setting activates the A/C and turns off recirculation. Not sure if our Minis do the same.

 

Mine is set to the dash vent, full cold, A/C & recirc on.
90°+ & humid, it's very noticeable when the recirc kicks off on its own [with the light still illuminated on the switch].

It'll usually turn back on, but sometimes I have to cycle the button to reengage

 

Any climate control-related fault codes thrown?

 

I'll pull the codes later today. Need to check that the FRM faults are gone too

 

I'm pretty sure the recirculate function switches itself on and off by design, some combination of temperature and humidity. It should switch off to let fresh air in for a bit and then will switch back on. I don't recall the exact details but it's to ensure you get some fresh air now and again and prevent humidity buildup in the car.

The opposite happens too: on a hot day if you turn the A/C on full blast it'll go to recirculate mode to maximize cooling even if you don't hit the recirc button. The recirc light doesn't come on in this case but you can tell by the sound.

Note that there are multiple revisions of the FRM software so it's possible if your FRM was replaced or re-flashed the behavior changed.

 

I found the TSB on this and my memory is correct: it was introduced in 2012, so if your FRM was updated or the car was recoded with the latest software for each module then that's probably why you're seeing different behavior.

If it bugs you the dealer (or maybe someone with NCS Expert) can change it back, it appears.

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/20...46752-9999.pdf

 

Good find!

 

Is that just for automatic A/C? Mine is manual hvac

 

Mine's manual and it does it.