External fan noise when running AC or battery conditioning starts

Yes. It makes me happy to hear the SE protecting its battery.

 

Yes - it's not unusual for me to hear a fan kicking in.

 

I hear the fan every time it's charging. I was doing some things in the garage once and felt the fan was coming on pretty regularly, so I started timing and noticed it would come on about every two minutes for about 8 seconds. Sometimes it would come on for just a couple of seconds, but overall it's pretty regular. It was hot in the garage that day, but I've also noticed it when it's not really hot at all, though I haven't timed it. I imagine that if it's cold, the fan might not need to come on. That fan could be one of the reasons the efficiency for charging is not as good on Level 1 as Level 2, since it takes the car much longer to charge, and therefore the fan will come on more times. Has anyone charging on Level 2 noticed how frequently and for how long the fan comes on to cool the battery?

 

With the higher garage temps as ambient temps hit 100F, I’ve been putting an electric fan in front of the MINI while it’s charging. This has reduced the in car fan running and has stopped the over heating light on the EVSE from coming on.


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Yeah our 22 makes this noise too. Front drivers side. Sounds like a compressor. Hit the “Max AC” button and it really screams.


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I would take it to a trusted dealer to make sure anything that’s covered under warranty is taken care of because it sounds like something similar to what happened on the Tesla model when they started using the heat pump.


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From photos I've seen of the battery pack, there seems to be coolant circulation through the batteries, and from what I can hear on my SE it sounds like there's some sort of circulating pump somewhere on the driver's side in the front.

 

Yep, this freaked my husband out as well one night when getting the garbage cans out. Happens only in the 80s+ i think unless warming/cooling the cabin

 

Hi everyone,
Did you find the solution to this problem?

I have had a mini se for less than a month so far and everything was going well till this morning…I’ve started the timed preconditioning, without plugging in the mini (I charge it every two days), but when I was ready to leave and went outside I have noticed there was a very loud noise from under the hood. It sounded like someone was using an electric chainsaw under the hood…
I realized it’s directly connected with the AC as it stopped immediately when I turned it off.

I tried turning it on again during the day and the noise started every time after a few seconds. The car vibrated in a weird way and there were strange noises also on the inside, before the massive loud chaos started outside…

I looked everywhere on the internet for this issue but this thread was the closest I got to my problem.
Do you guys have some more insight on this case?
I am going to the BMW garage tomorrow morning and hope to get some answers.
I will share what I find out here.

thank you in advance!

 

Welcome to the best MINI Cooper SE forum on the planet!

Yes, it is directly connected to the AC because it is the AC. The same unit serves as a heat pump to warm the cabin when preconditioning in cold weather and it's just as loud when performing that function.

Your MINI has preset temperatures for both functions--you can't decide how cool or how warm it's trying to make the cabin. And it's trying its very hardest to achieve those preset temperatures as quickly as possible so you'll be comfortable even if you waited until the last minute to turn on the preconditioning.

Some forum members have complained that the preset preconditioning temperature is too warm in the winter and some have complained that the preset preconditioning temperature is too cold in the summer. Fortunately, the windows can be opened to quickly remedy this problem.

 

If it sounds like this, you're fine. That's normal.

 

Thank you for welcoming me in your community and for your feedback.

The sound is very similar to the one in the video, but they told me at BMW that it’s not normal and they will check it.

If this is normal my neighbors will soon call the police because of the noise or I will have to change the car…it’s louder than a tractor. I’ve uploaded a short video of my case. The car was on a construction site and was covering all the noise generated from it…

I’ll let you know if they tell me something useful in the garage.

Thank you again and have a nice day



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From your video there are two noises, the buzzing heat pump loop rattle and the loud thunk. The buzzing sound is normal operations for the chiller unit but may be exacerbated if any part of the hoses are rubbing against metal or plastic. As for the loud thunk that's too hard to tell in a 2 second video because the frequency of the thunks are more important. A more steady noise is fan/motor related and random ones could be refrigerant pressure related. The latter can be more complex to deal with.

 

Have you opened your good? I'm wondering if th

I, too, was wondering about that extra thunk!

 

Worst case scenario it's a refrigerant leak and the compressor is running extra to maintain the pressure in the lines. The expansion release valve is probably helping alleviate the overcompensation but dealing with the leak is labor intensive.

 

Thank you so much for all the feedback. I will make a longer video with the open trunk over the weekend. I was limited by the forum with the upload, but 2 secs is way too short.
I’m not sure either if the thunk was one of the internal noises or if it was an unrelated exterior sound.
From the garage they also said it might be the compressor. I’m any case it’s very strange because it’s a brand new car, there was probably a manufacturing error.

 

There are a lot of potential issues throughout the manufacturing and delivery process. I would imagine the AC/heat pump is tested at the factory, refridgerant drained for shipping and then recharged portside at the distribution centers.