My Mini finally arrived. Couple Qs?

You can use Bimmercode to set it to "remember" various settings across starts of the car. This includes things like AC, driving mode, and heated seats.

 

Do you mean headlights, interior lights, or charging lights? Whichever, the answer is they eventually turn off on their own. Basically the SE will "go to sleep" after something like 5-10 minutes of inactivity, but charging will continue.

 

I remember once after I got the car, I came out to the garage for something and all the lights were on for unknown reasons. It thankfully hasn't happened since, and I'm not sure what triggered it.

 

Fantastic car in the winter, even when -30 ºF it still works very well. Take advantage of climatization to warm it up, and avoid having it sit for hours unprotected in extreme cold to get the most out of it. I have to park it outside during the work day, and in the worst parts of winter I'll charge it for about an hour mid-day and that's sufficient to avoid cold-soaking the batteries.

I've never done anything with Bimmercode, so I know nothing about it.

 

Is that Enigmatic Black? It does have a blue hue in the last photo - I don't normally go for black, but that looks nice.

Mine sits unplugged on the driveway, so before we head out, taking my daughter to school around 7am, I use the MINI app to condition the car about 10 minutes before we leave. Warms the interior nicely, removes any condensation on the windshield and I note there seems to be a touch of warmth in the seats, although the seat heaters aren't showing on.

When I've used the steering wheel heat I only have it on for a few minutes as that's all that is needed.

I'm in Metrowest Massachusetts so January temps are usually a bit below freezing in the morning with the coldest so far being about -10C where only 60% power was available. I suspect you're going to be colder in MN!

cheers
MacMini34

 

Good thing winter is basically over. 60 degrees here today and I need to mow the grass very soon.

 

After a month of above-normal temps – washed the cars in a T-shirt on Saturday! – and no snow, woke up at 3:45 am for work and it was -11°C (12°F) and blustery, with about a half-inch of fresh snow. Seasonable for sure, but DANG it feels cold now!

 

The dealer might have to apply the 3G sunset update to fix your climatization issues. Pretty much the same as the 2G sunset on the BMW i3.

Preconditioning only happens if you are plugged into the EVSE and you schedule a departure time at least 3 hours in advance. If you are calorie counting, then that could be up to 5kWh. Generally the low calorie option is to schedule your charging so it reaches 100% before you leave the house.

 

i pre-heat my car loads of times through the app and its not plugged in or scheduled

 

Me too. it takes a little while for the app to work. Sometimes the phone dims or goes off before I see the connection complete.

I'm trying very hard to not pay for any electricity as there are 10(!) level 2 stations at the public schools 2-3minutes from me. They offer first 4 hours free and $0.50/hr after that. With our minuscule battery, I'm always fully charged before 4 hours, while a red Tesla M3 seems to be permanently there in the afternoons.

I would have to run an extension cord to plug into my 110V in the garage and an extension cord seemed to be one of the many verboten symbols on the warning card that came with the car. Has anyone used an extension cord?

cheers
MacMini34

 

Seems odd that horn etc work and the conditioning does not. Shows that the app is able to talk to the car, but someone else will have to offer some further trouble shooting help here. If it came off a truck, I'm assuming a dealer is not close by? - but maybe a call might help.

I've had one instance where "Eddie" did some sort of reboot as I'd set temps to Celsius and they went back to Fahrenheit on their own.

cheers
MacMini34

 

Preconditioning also includes heating the HV battery. Climatization is just the cabin only.

 

sorry but the mini se does not pre-condition the main battery only the cabin

 

Yes it does heat the HV battery, but you have to be plugged into an EVSE and set a departure time to do so (generally 3+ hours in advance). If you are not plugged in, then the departure time will do cabin only.

 

Ok, terminology issue. I used the term "conditioning" for the little fan symbol on the app, which really means "cabin conditioning". I've seen the part where one can do more when plugged in but since I'm not plugged in at home ....either way it seems odd that A_C can't get theirs to work. Maybe a dive into the manual is required (oh noes!).

cheers
MacMini34

 

I've never seen that documented anywhere, but I have heard that's what the i3 did so it wouldn't be surprising if the SE did as well. It wouldn't be the only thing undocumented with the SE.

 

To be honest, the whole battery preconditioning is a power hog at ~4 to 5kWh. I would not recommend it unless you park outside and need the range. At -40F and colder, my cold soaked SE was literally undrivable as the steering rack was almost completely seized up.