My wife locked the keys in the boot a couple weeks ago. It was about 8:30pm on the Wednesday before Columbus Day. She unlocked the boot only, put her purse in and closed it. The purse had both my keys and the spare that she carries. To make matters worse, we were in Canada visiting my folks and our ID's and my greencard were also in there. CAA (Canadian version of AAA) spent 2hrs trying to get into the car. When I contacted the MINI dealership the next morning they explained that the car goes into a "Dead Lock." In this condition neither the toggle switches or the door handles work. This is true even for cars without an alarm system (like mine). So what's the point in paying for an alarm?

So the only way to get into the car is with a key or break the window. But the dealership said it would cost about $550 to replace the window! I asked about geting another key and was told that would cost about $250, but because of the holiday I wouldn't get it until Tuesday the next week. Oh, and BMW would need a copy of my registration (which is locked in the car) before they will make another key.

So we decided to have my Dad drive us home to get the valet key and drive back with it. Round trip it's about 3 hours. When we try to cross the Canada/US boarder without ID, though, they won't let me across. So after taking all my finger prints and a mug shot they send walking back across the bridge for a 3 mile hike to my parents house. Surprisingly they let my wife across without ID b/c they "won't deny re-entry to a US citizen," which of course she had no proof of. Anyway, she and my dad made the trip and I finally got home at 6pm that next night. What a frustrating "MINI Adventure." But I definately learned a few things about my MINI.

 

I think what happens sometimes is that people don't appreciate how far the range of the remotes *can* be under certain circumstances. They may have the key inside a building, and the cellphone out in the parking lot. Depending on the structure of the building, it can act as a passive radiator and extend the signal. It may also help that you're holding the remote next to the phone wiring (which can act as an antenna), and that the cellphone antenna will passively re-radiate the radio signal a little bit as well. (The radio signals aren't coming *through* the phone, but the phone's antenna can re-radiate weak signals coming through the air). So even though you can't normally reliably unlock your car from inside the building, you may be able to do it while attempting the "cellphone trick".

I'll believe it when I see it work with the remote and car separated by something like 20+ miles. After all, if the cellphone signal were *really* carrying the radio waves from the remote to the car, the distance from the remote to the car shouldn't matter - they could even be in different cities/states.

 

I learned today that the screwdriver that comes with the tool kit is reverseable . Just pull the metal part out of the handle and it has philips on one side and slotted on the other

 

Wow. I have owned cars that came with reversible screwdrivers for so long now that I assumed OEM toolkits only came with that kind!

 

bunch of interesting facts in here..i never get bored coming in here and reading these lol

 

Actually on any car, the start-up period is the hardest point of your car's life. I've heard that leaving your a/c on when shutting off your car and then having it on while you start it draws more power from the battery. In the Mini the radio won't turn on until the engine has started though from what I've noticed (unless you just have the key in the ON possition with the engine off). I've never had a car long enough to see if leaving the a/c on while starting the car will actually affect the life of the battery
though, so whether this is true or not, I don't know. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

edit: I dont think our cars REQUIRE a 2-step start-up procedure. I think I'm going to do a little investigating on this.

 

I don't know about the MINI, but in my '94 325i I started it with the A/C on--this is Houston, and the A/C is ALWAYS on! I got 9 years out of the last battery I bought.

 

9 years?? thats nuts

 

My 325 is on the 7th year with the same battery (and starting with AC on)

 

Don't BMWs, maybe it's the new ones, have two batteries anyway? This may not have anything to do with the conversation, but I was told that they have a back up batt if the primary dies...

 

Nope, but they do have their single battery in the trunk (at least the E36 has a single one). I wish my MINI did, because it's right up there in all that heat. And the turbo is HOT, in more ways than one.

 

you need to take it into the shop then. Every MINI I've ever seen has the ability to turn on the radio without the key even in the ignition.

 

Your A/C is *always* off while you're starting the car, regardless of what position the climate controls are in. There's a "load-shedding" relay that turns off power-draining accessories (like the A/C compressor) while the engine is cranking over, and then restores power once the engine starts. The idea is to make as much current available to the starter motor as possible.

Which accessories are turned off varies from car to car, but they're typically things like the radio, air-conditioner compressor and fan motor, the radio, and headlamps.

 

You can turn the radio on without having the car on? How?

 

Just press the volume ****.

 

Just press the power button once. It will stay on for ~20 minutes and then turn off again. I can verify this for All 02-06's, but can only suspect it is still the same for '07s.

 

That's really cool, I didn't know that...

 

And that's why this is such a great thread. Hooray for page 50.

I noticed that if you manually search for radio stations, once it's settled for a few seconds... (you've temporarily stopped for a moment to listen) the "manual" search setting reverts to scan again. Kinda frustrating if you're in the boonies searching for a football network (you don't know the station, but you know the game is on- but where?)

And another thing I noticed: When you move the "fold front" seat lever (such as when sliding the seat forward), the lever on the other side of the seat ALSO moves. Nothing great here, but maybe some new information.

Comet, I love your signature graphic btw.

 

Conversely, the radio turns off after 20 minutes, even if you have the car in its "accessory" mode. Very uncool.

 

Thanx. This is actually what my car looks like, without the Euro tag though. I wanted a nice wallpaper to I found a pic of a MINI I liked, this one was originally red without the bonnet stripes. I found stripes on another pic that matched up, copied them over to this car and changed to color to purple. I did add the posterize effect to make everything flow better. Here's the actual wallpaper...

Before & After:

 

Cool! Looks great!

 

Thanx!

 

The pul ring facility is very good.Running lights is also helpfull to the user.

 

If you're sitting in your car over the lunch break, listening to the radio... After a little bit of time of being left alone, the radio display will dim.

Nothing very virtuous here, just something you might not have known about your MINI.

 

Now this is a very useful find for surf doggies on the left coast. I must try it.
I insisted thay my wife get racks for her Mini. For surf trips using her Mini, I have been using the valet key because salt water is not kind to the battery powered keys.

One question about service interval reset:
I have performed oil changes myself and tried to use the service indicator reset procedure given in the Mini Shop Manual (2003 Mini) published by Bentley. I tried the push and hold trip reset button then turn ignition key procedure without success. Has anyone been succesful with this or know an alternate?