Hi guys- I have a 2014 S with the standard non-automatic climate control. I like to drive with the recirculating air button pressed about 98% of the time- exhaust fumes really bother me. Someone tell me if I'm crazy and my car was always like this... but I noticed recently that it keeps switching back to fresh air after a while. On a 30 min drive, I have to push the button like 3 times because it keeps going off. This isn't a feature, right, like it's afraid it's getting too humid and fogging the glass or something? It's super annoying.

Thanks!!

 

I have a 2015 so it comes with Automatic Climate Control, but I think air recirculation would behave the same way. It goes back to outside air (actually Automatic sensing mode) after 60 seconds. It might go back sooner if the outside temperature is colder. Yeah, I really hate those fumes coming in from the car in front.

But if you keep it recirculate, doesn't fog build up very quickly? I notice fog builds up pretty quickly compared to my other cars, maybe because the interior is much smaller than other cars. I even have to keep the fans on to avoid fog build up, and it's 45 F here.

I wish there was a button on the steering wheel to quickly switch between recirculation mode. I always reach for the recirculate button as soon as I see a truck or junk car in front of me, and try to keep a distance.


edit: Couldn't find anything on changing air-recirculation mode time in coding.

 

Recirculating air leads to a lot of problems in your ducting. It causes condensation which leads to mold growth and smells. At least with the auto climate control, Mini switches off recirc pretty quickly.

 

If you don't use airconditioner in recirculation mode, then there's no worry about mold growth or stink. I think it's MINI just doing a blanket treatment so there's less complaint about stinking vents. A better solution would have been giving users the option to change the timeout from the infotainment system, just like how we can control Welcome Light duration.

Using airconditioner will always cause stink (less if you use outside air), unless you dry it out before shutting off the engine. That's why I turned off a function where airconditioner automatically turns on when using Automatic Climate Control. When I use the airconditioner I always make sure to turn the AC off but fan running at least 5 minutes before reaching my destination.

 

I have never used recirc on either Mini (2007 had AutoCC, 2014 has manual climate). I've never had "stink", never smell the outside smells (have filter for that), never had windows fog up. The AutoCC had a "max AC" button that turned on recirc but I never used that. IMO recirc is a useless feature. The f56 auto climate control sounds weird, I'm glad I don't have it.

 

You don't get fumes from the car in front of you? Even if it's a junk F-150 smoking black stuff out? Or are you living in a super clean air no pollution area? No air filter can filter all that out, even if you replace it once every 3 months.

 

I live in Texas where air conditioning is used 10 or 11 months out of the year. I don't have a problem with smelly vents. I rarely use recirc.

 

Maybe for a brief period, until I get around the beater lol. That's why I got a JCW: whizzzzzo, he's gone baby.

 

The moment you turn off the AC but keep the fans on, does it still smell fresh? I mean it's not going to be stinky stink if you use outside air most times as this will dry the vents, but it'll smell more than not using AC.

LOL. That explains it.

 

I don't ever turn off the AC.

 

On my 2015 3-cylinder, standard non-automatic climate control, I have to hit that button dozens of times, several times a minute. It's so annoying it's dangerous.

I'm hoping there is a code I can program, but I haven't had time to go look for it.

 

Thanks for all the replies. I am in pleasant and dry Los Angeles, in the SGV area- no coastal breeze. Summers are hot, so the AC is on mostly steadily for about 3 months. Other than that, I only use it to dry things out as needed, so that's maybe 30% of the time. I've never noticed a smell from any car I've owned. And it would still be preferable to headaches and nausea from truck and rush-hour fumes.

I wonder if it never happened to me before because the weather was warmer. Now that it's a chilly 65 degrees out (sorry, have to mention it), the sensor thinks it needs fresh dry air?

And yes, if this is something that can be programmed, I will be doing it. When I find the time.... to hire someone to do it. First I gotta get over to that programming thread and read up.

So it sounds like this is actually an intentional feature, huh? Thanks Hammerhands for the report- can anyone else post exactly how theirs functions?


Thanks!!

 

On the R56 you have to have the AC button pushed to have the air coming in go through the cabin filter. Somebody said it always goes through the filter on the F56 but I don't know how they knew that. It's very weird that the recirc function goes off by itself all the time. That sounds like a "bug".There's no reason for it to do that is there?

 

I don't know, but I don't think it's a bug. It appears to be intentional to me. I think it is done to avoid fogging and smells.

All air in most cars comes through the cabin filter. When I changed the filter in my Lexus it had leaves in it.

 

I too live in Texas along the Gulf coast and use AC most of the year. In previous cars I have almost always run on recirc to keep the smells out. There have been no issues with duct odors. I have a 2014 S with auto climate. I have not played with the recirc much. I run it in full auto mode. I seem to remember that it is suppose to switch between fresh and recirc on its own to avoid 'contaminated' air from too much recirc. I thought it also said it was supposed to switch to recirc if it detected outside odors. Not sure that part works well with those Smoking F150s.

 

Cars in U.S. have AC to turn on automatically when air is directed to the windshield, and the AC LED will not be lit.

On the other hand, I monitored the engine load & rpm on my F56, and I think MINI doesn't do this. Or it might be because I disabled "automatic AC turning on with Automatic Climate Control" through E-SYS coding.

From the 2014 Manual: Recirculated air mode switches off automatically at low external temperatures after a certain amount of time in order to window fogging.

It's also very likely related to preventing the AC stinking smell. If you have mold, you would usually notice the smell 10-30 seconds after the AC is turned off, or right after you turn on the engine. During the time AC is running continuously, you won't smell it.

I read the air quality sensors don't do a good job in bmw forums, and MINI is probably not that different. It'll be too late by the time it detects the pollutants such as tail pipe smoke. It's much quicker to press the recirculate button as soon as you see smoke coming out from the tail pipe in front of you, or when entering a tunnel, or going up hill with lots of cars in front of you.

 

It seems that in general- Japanese cars let you do what you want with recirculating air- simply and manually. American cars tend to force you to get fresh air, like defaulting to fresh air every time the car is turned on. German cars... I don't know, trying to figure that out!

Ah- so some documentation of this feature finally! Where did you find that? I have the 2014 PDF manual, and I can't find it. It's a pretty terrible manual though- about half left over from 2013.

What does engine load & RPM have to do with it? I'll take a look at your E-SYS thing- thanks. Are you saying that your recirc doesn't switch off, or that it doesn't switch on with the windshield vent?

 

Documentation of recirculation is in the 2014 manual page 128 of 230. Yeah, I agree, it's not a good manual. It doesn't even explain what is optional and what is standard equipment.

I mentioned engine load & rpm because it's one way to tell whether air-conditioner is running or not. This is not related to recirculation, and I may have went off-topic. The LED light for the air-conditioner could be off even though it's actually operating.

 

I have a 2014 Mini Cooper ONE, with the same problem with the air recirculation button. Gets annoying when you have to keep pressing the button and it switches of again and you get the car fumes inside. Took my mini back to BMW and they did a software update but that didn't fix the fault. If any other Mini ONE owner has the same problem I would be interested to hear from them.

 

There's a code that looks promising in IHKA, can someone try it?

Translated:
4BIT VALUE 2
comment * test coding for China UL, if not active, does not play automatically switched air recirculation on AUC.

Original
4BIT WERT 2

Kommentor * Testcodierung ... China UL: ...