Ambient lighting annoyance

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SpeedyRS

SpeedyRS

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When I got my SE I had a look through the available ambient lighting colours using the “toggle” on the roof and settled on yellow for the interior. I have the ambient lighting set to change according to driving mode, so when it’s in sport it goes red as it should, then previously when I went back to mid it reverted to yellow. Since my car came back from the dealer following the software update/reset earlier this week, the ambient lighting keeps defaulting to the teal/light blue colour when I get into the car. I can change it back to yellow and it stays that way while I’m in it, but when I get out and lock the car then get back in it’s defaulted to teal/light blue again. I think all of the settings are back to the way I had them, with the central ring changing for events and as I say, I have the ambient lighting changing according to driving mode. Am I missing something really obvious here on saving the colour choice for the ambient lighting?
 
I had the software update last week but it doesn't seem to have changed my ambient light settings. I will check it again though.
 
SpeedyRS said:
When I got my SE I had a look through the available ambient lighting colours using the “toggle” on the roof and settled on yellow for the interior. I have the ambient lighting set to change according to driving mode, so when it’s in sport it goes red as it should, then previously when I went back to mid it reverted to yellow. Since my car came back from the dealer following the software update/reset earlier this week, the ambient lighting keeps defaulting to the teal/light blue colour when I get into the car. I can change it back to yellow and it stays that way while I’m in it, but when I get out and lock the car then get back in it’s defaulted to teal/light blue again. I think all of the settings are back to the way I had them, with the central ring changing for events and as I say, I have the ambient lighting changing according to driving mode. Am I missing something really obvious here on saving the colour choice for the ambient lighting?
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I know it's possible, b/c I changed mine to blue, even in sport mode. I can't remember if it's in the menus or if you need bimmercode, b/c I played with both when I first got mine. It always stays blue. The red made me think it was warning me something was wrong, haha.
 
You will probably have to Bimmercode it - I believe it's not exactly in the menu (i.e. start in sport, mode dependent, lounge) alternatively you can hold the ambient light switch down for 5 seconds to cycle the colors for DISCO mode.
 
Thanks all. It’s been driving me nuts because it was fixed on yellow and I didn’t have to use BimmerCode to do it. I didn’t get a chance to try anything out tonight but I’ll have a play tomorrow and see if I can figure it out.
 
I just went and tested on my 2022. I had the purple/blue color as my selected color. My settings are as follows:
  • Color scheme: Depending on driving mode
  • Center instrument: basic display: ambient lighting
  • Center instrument: event display: telephone and usb/bluetooth are NOT selected - all other options are selected
I started the Mini - purple/blue
I changed to sport mode - all turned red (I personally love that!)
I changed back to mid mode - back to purple/blue
Turned the Mini off, exited, and locked the doors to turn off all lights
Unlocked and turned the Mini on - purple/blue

I repeated this test with pink lighting selected with the upper switch, just to make sure purple/blue was not the default in my software. The pink color was retained when not in Sport mode and when I turned the Mini off and back on.
 
So I’m still having this problem. It was in last week having the symptoms of the door seal paint rubbing issue addressed and I asked the service guys if they could figure out the problem. When I went back they told me it was fixed, but it was exactly the same. All they did was deselect all of the events which would typically change the ring colour temporarily. It had zero effect on the ambient lighting colour resetting to teal every time I unlock the car or switch back from sport mode. someone on the Mini F56 forum said his was fixed at the dealer by “resetting the battery”. I asked what this entailed but the user didn’t know. All I can think of is disconnecting one of the terminals on the 12V battery for a few minutes and then reconnecting it again, but I’m not sure if that’s correct. I did look in the manual but didn’t find any reference to a reset like that.
Does anyone on here have any ideas what this might mean?
 
SpeedyRS said:
So I’m still having this problem. It was in last week having the symptoms of the door seal paint rubbing issue addressed and I asked the service guys if they could figure out the problem. When I went back they told me it was fixed, but it was exactly the same. All they did was deselect all of the events which would typically change the ring colour temporarily. It had zero effect on the ambient lighting colour resetting to teal every time I unlock the car or switch back from sport mode. someone on the Mini F56 forum said his was fixed at the dealer by “resetting the battery”. I asked what this entailed but the user didn’t know. All I can think of is disconnecting one of the terminals on the 12V battery for a few minutes and then reconnecting it again, but I’m not sure if that’s correct. I did look in the manual but didn’t find any reference to a reset like that.
Does anyone on here have any ideas what this might mean?
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As noted on InsideEVs' Clarity Plug-In Hybrid forum, disconnecting the 12V battery sometimes cures problems people are having with those cars. The car flashes many warning messages after the reconnection, but problems like having the engine run when people want to be instead driving on EV power can be cured with the procedure. I'm sure that's what a "battery reset" is.
 
insightman said:
As noted on InsideEVs' Clarity Plug-In Hybrid forum, disconnecting the 12V battery sometimes cures problems people are having with those cars. The car flashes many warning messages after the reconnection, but problems like having the engine run when people want to be instead driving on EV power can be cured with the procedure. I'm sure that's what a "battery reset" is.
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Thanks @insightman. Do the warning lights eventually go out on the Clarity as the car checks all of its systems when it gets going again? When using BimmerCode on my previous vehicles and the i3 you get a similar thing with warnings going off when you implement your changes, but only for a few seconds and the car then sorts itself out. If I can avoid a limp to the dealer to have it reset by them after I reconnected the battery it would be worth a shot.
 
I leave my ambient light on "disco mode" (hold down color change switch until dash lights blink), but if I go into Sport and then back to Mid then it will revert to the previous color before Sport and forgets about the disco mode. Bah.
 
teslarati97 said:
I leave my ambient light on "disco mode" (hold down color change switch until dash lights blink), but if I go into Sport and then back to Mid then it will revert to the previous color before Sport and forgets about the disco mode. Bah.
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Is that previous colour to which the car reverts the teal/cyan colour? If so it sounds like you are another member of the club. I am considering just disconnecting my 12V battery at some point over the weekend to see if that cures it. My dealer has raised the possible fix being a “battery reset” with the service manager and he’s mulling it over so if I hear anything I’ll update the thread.
 
We’ll I have some good news. It seems that I fixed the issue with the ambient lighting.

I had been waiting to use BimmerCode until the issue was fixed but I got bored of waiting. I wanted to have my mirrors automatically fold when locking the car and unfold when opening. I’ve done this on my last two BMWs and on our i3. As it happens, it didn’t seem to work but I was tight for time and couldn’t go back and try again. I’ll do so at the weekend.

When I pressed the “Code” button for the mirror mod on BimmerCode, it did its usual thing and reset the ECU, pinging the various error messages before they all reset themselves. From this operation the ambient light once again appears to remember your selection. I’ve switched modes and it stayed yellow when I went back to mid. I’ve locked the car and it was yellow when I unlocked it. Hopefully that reset of the ECU through that one coding operation has fixed the problem.
 
SpeedyRS said:
We’ll I have some good news. It seems that I fixed the issue with the ambient lighting.

I had been waiting to use BimmerCode until the issue was fixed but I got bored of waiting. I wanted to have my mirrors automatically fold when locking the car and unfold when opening. I’ve done this on my last two BMWs and on our i3. As it happens, it didn’t seem to work but I was tight for time and couldn’t go back and try again. I’ll do so at the weekend.

When I pressed the “Code” button for the mirror mod on BimmerCode, it did its usual thing and reset the ECU, pinging the various error messages before they all reset themselves. From this operation the ambient light once again appears to remember your selection. I’ve switched modes and it stayed yellow when I went back to mid. I’ve locked the car and it was yellow when I unlocked it. Hopefully that reset of the ECU through that one coding operation has fixed the problem.
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Excellent!
 
Puppethead said:
Interesting, so a "hidden" feature of Bimmercode is rebooting the ECU?
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I don’t think it’s a hidden feature as such. When you change a setting using BimmerCode you make the changes you want and press “code”. I believe the app then makes those changes to the relevant control unit; in this case the body domain controller is responsible for the mirror folding and the ambient lighting, and the control unit restarts. When I did it on my ICE BMWs I usually did it with the engine running and there was usually a small hiccup from the engine when it restarted. You usually see warning messages about various systems being unavailable until the car does all of its checks and all of the errors disappear. It was quite alarming the first time it happened.
 
SpeedyRS said:
We’ll I have some good news. It seems that I fixed the issue with the ambient lighting.

When I pressed the “Code” button for the mirror mod on BimmerCode, it did its usual thing and reset the ECU, pinging the various error messages before they all reset themselves. From this operation the ambient light once again appears to remember your selection. I’ve switched modes and it stayed yellow when I went back to mid. I’ve locked the car and it was yellow when I unlocked it. Hopefully that reset of the ECU through that one coding operation has fixed the problem.
Click to expand...

I'll give BimmerCode a try to see if it fixes the color cycle (disco) mode when you go into sport. When you switch back to mid the MINI forgets to cycle the colors.

Not really a fan of sport mode steering feel and it's pothole city right now!
 
I still have my lighting set to lounge (blue), but I noticed last night that my lighting is now purple/lavender, even though I haven't played w/ the settings. It's a noticeable change b/c when I parked and shut it down, it flashed all the colors, and the blue came before the purple.
 
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