Well I am crazy then!

My MCS launches hard and fast...no problemos A/C or A/C off.

Car does not hesitate, stall or anything like that.

On the other hand for 12 years I drove Hondas that felt like they were to die on me with the A/C. Such is life.

Oh and I have no DSC either.

Oh well, I rest my case.

 

its not just launching for me... it seems to occur when i try to blip the throttle to downshift... the throttle takes about 2 -3 more seconds to react to my input, so i have to go deeper, and sometimes when you are in a hurry to downshift, it does not help!

if i got the a/c on, typically takes me 5 minutes to adjust, but still, i find engine rev, throttle input, almost everything slows down by about 10 seconds when the a/c is on....

a friend of mine suggested i turn on air recirculation, and i was trying it today, and it does seem to help

 

I use air recirc most of the time.

 

I always thought the same, but when I test drove the '05 MC I purposely turned on the A/C full blast and had the MA in the car, so I expected poor performance. It would up being the opposite! Granted, the car wasn't really fast like the MCS, but it pulled away cleanly from a stop once I got used to the clutch and handled merging with heavy traffic just fine. I really expected it to be a dog and wound up being pleasantly surprised.

Even though I have to "settle" for the MC, I'm not as disappointed as I thought I would be. I'm really looking forward to getting my car.

 

Thanks Joe

That makes us two outcasts that claim to have clean/smooth launches with our MINIs running A/C.

Putting on the flamesuit...

 

C4 -- gads, man! Not everyone has your freakin' perfect cars!!! Doh! Now I sound like the night before the French revolution...



jg... I am glad you had such a good experience with your test drive. While I hope that you don't have any AC lag, I assure you that you'll love your car regardless (I love mine -- the AC is so very minor to me). Congrats on the purchase!

 

I like to upset people sometimes


Specially kaelaria and friends!

Just kidding. I'll love ya all.

Keep it coming...

 

Maybe it's because South Florida is flat as a pool table, but I don't notice a big difference with A/C on. The tall gearing and slow throttle response took some getting used to but thats just the way the car is designed. The MCS is not underpowered, you just need to use the available RPM. I think being at sea level helps also.

 

And not to go in another direction, but the car almost seems to grind to a halt when I take my foot off the gas while it is gear! It's like I'm on the brakes, even though I'm not.

 

True. Cars function better at sea level = more oxygen!

When it got real hot last summer, my '04 MCS did feel a LOT and I mean millions of times slower/sluggish with the A/C on than my '05 MCS.

The shorter '05 gearing and added torque/power do make a tremendous amount of difference in terms of perfomance.

In comparison, my '04 MCS with the absurdely tall 1st gear and my '05 MCS with 12% shorter 1st gear feel like 2 different cars made by 2 different manufacturers. The '04 MCS did feel and sounded overtaxed in the dead of the summer, not this baby!

Maybe some of the '05 MCS owners should spend some quality time behind the wheel of a bone stock '02-'04 MCS to experience what hesitation really feels first hand.

 

That sounds pretty severe. My car coasts perfectly to a stop and smoothly. Wow some of you really have to put up with lousy driveability problems

 

I agree with this 110%. I had no problems with this on my 02 MCS, never once killed it or lugged the engine on a launch (except the very 1st test drive I took!). You need to adapt your driving skill to the car, just like any other.

Living in Steamy St. Louis we run the AC about 9-10 months out of the year.

 

Make sure you shift out of 1st gear and this won't happen!

 

Thanks Big. Now there a whooping total of 3 insanos that seem to know how to launch their "overtaxed" MINIs int he summer.

 

You are partly right.
Heat soak does affect the engine at launch to some degree. But take this into consideration...

90deg day, launch car withOUT A/C, still pulls off decent.
90deg day, launch car with A/C, it's a dog, Higher RPM's and slipping the clutch much further is required.

So Heat soak is not the sole factor here.

Some of you that have responded are running a little high on your driving-ability-ego-meters. A car should not have the big A/C lag on launch. I've never seen a vehicle with it so bad as the Mini. Agreed, it does take a different launching technique (described above) but if you're not used to it, it's surprisingly frustrating and annoying.

The funny part is, as soon as you slip the clutch out with higher rpm's and more throttle, it bolts off like a rocket shortly thereafter unless you quickly pull back throttle at just the right moment. Driving the Mini definitely requires driving adjustments not usually experienced with other cars. No wonder you guys grow big heads over your "experienced driving talent".

 

OK C4 is NOT crazy after all!!


THIS IS WEIRD. Tonight on the way home it was raining, and I used the a/c to keep the windows defrosted. This is probably the 10th time or so in the 3 months I've had the car that I've used it.

IT WAS COMPLETLEY NORMAL! I mean I could NOT tell if the compressor was engadged or not - EXACTLY like it should be and my other cars are! I was at almost every light turning it on and off, tapping the throttle, comparing lags, etc. Every take off was smooth and lag-free, just like with the a/c off. And yes it was working just fine! I was freezing my finger tips on the wheel and the windows were frosting over!

I have NO idea what has changed or what conditions were different. Outside temp was 77, the same as it usually is in the morning. I've had it on in the rain before (the primary reason I have had to use it - if I can have the windows down I always do). Nothing I can see was different.

As a real simple test, when I had the power lag, this was something I noticed to gauge it: At idle with the clutch in, quickly tap the throttle all the way to the floor and back up. With the a/c off, it would blip to 1500, and with the a/c on barely break 1000 - hardly begin to move because of the delay. Tonight they were IDENTICAL.

This is REALLY weird.

 

Kaelaria, so what did you do differently this time? Did you give it more gas before releasing the clutch? What RPMs?

This is what I have been saying all day long. This car is more than capable of smooth/lag free launches with the A/C on or off.

Well, I am glad you got to experience positive feedback from the car.

 

No, you don't understand - I didn't do or NEED TO DO anything differently! The car was ACTING differently! It was taking off from a smooth 1500 RPM launch just like without the a/c, rather than 2500 as it usually did with a/c on.

 

I'm going to log some data, see if I can see anything, if it happens to go back to the way it was...I'm really curious.

 

92 degrees, 70 mph, AC on, stomp on it with Venom flowing, beat 06 Mustang GT trying to put me down...no problems here :smile: Mini does have a problem with the idle and AC as I have stalled several times today coming to a stop

 

Mine would *normally* almost do that as well - RPMs would bounce up and down slightly causing the engine to stumble and just about stall, just like the cold start problem.

 

One thing I can assure you is that my idle under normal driving conditions is rock solid stable and the car has never even made the slightest attempt at stalling/stuttering while stopped or coasting to a full stop.

This software seems to have a very broad range of behaviors, ranging from almost perfect to extremely unpredictable and problematic.

Scary, very scary

 

I believe it was designed in to keep in character with the expected British car skizms...maybe there's a Lucas ghost :smile:

 

So you are saying that Lucas moved to Germany?

 

I am interested in your findings as well.