PSA: Recall for HV Battery

Perhaps the recall update software ejects the 70% battery from under the rear seat, leaving the 30% battery in the center tunnel. You'll feel the bump.

 

Totally anecdotal, but since the update in late August, I've had more e-power limits than in the entire two years prior to the update. Varying weather, road, and traffic conditions, so nothing obvious to blame, last week off a full charge at about 93% and under almost ideal conditions while cruising in sedate exurban traffic at 40-50 mph I stomped on it to get around a double rig road train and e-power dropped to 50%. It still pulled strongly enough to safely complete the pass – and more assuredly than in our CVT-hobbled Subaru – but it was noticeably lazy approaching 70 mph. Letting off the pedal for an instant got the needle back to 100% and it stayed there the rest of the drive. Similar experiences this week in cooler weather (40-50°). I hope the update hasn't hamstrung my car.

 

Interesting. With the intent of reducing the SOC of my battery before storing the car for what may be an extended period of time, I floored it multiple times during my last drive. I wasn't paying attention to the gauges, but it seemed that the 4th or so pull was noticeably weaker, something that I don't recall ever experiencing before.

 

Haven't taken mine in for the update, yet. Seriously rethinking it after reading above

 

Unfortunately, my report is only anecdotal, and I don't have any way of really confirming my initial impression.

 

Thanks, after two of you have reported something similar, I'm going to wait a bit and see how this plays out first. I'm not too concerned about it catching fire after almost 3 years.

 

I’ve noticed no changes since the update.

 

I wish they would have added a charge limit setting....

 

The app can see the current charge percent and start charging. Additionally if you plug in the car for immediate charging then switch to a scheduled charge, it will stop the charge. What’s missing is is ability to just stop charging by itself. If they added that one feature, they could ping the car through the app and use the app to stop a charge at a given percent. Either that or one of us could make a shortcut to do it. Right now, the only way to stop the charge at 80% as indicated in the manual, you have to look at the app and go outside and unplug it.

I suggest we all go to the App Store and leave comment to add charge stop percent.

 

I've got 95,000 miles on my SE and charge to 100% every day, absolutely no sign of range drop. I think fretting about charging to 80% on the SE is unnecessary. MINI seems to have put in a large enough top buffer so 100% is similar to 80% in other EVs.

 

When deciding to sell a car with 110/114-mile range, MINI had no doubt that the majority of users would charge to 100%. I'm so glad we have your high-mileage experience to confirm BMW/MINI's original charging advice wasn't faulty.

I'm surprised the company changed their tune in later Owners Manuals, suggesting the 80% charge (ie. 88/91.2-mile range). And if the company really believed limiting the charge to 80% is a good idea, they would have updated the software to include an automatic 80% cut-off option, right?

 

Unless the battery physically changed when the manual changed. Remember, this was the middle of the supply chain issues. We already know they couldn’t get ultrasonic sensors and HK stereos. I agree I have no degradation, but also don’t need 100% charge most of the time.

 

I've always suspected the change was a cut & paste thing brought over from BMW's EV manuals. As far as I know nothing physical changed with charging in the vehicle with the 2022 LCI update.

 

My experience as well.

dEach passing year makes it more difficult for me to contort by back into a position required to connect the Bimmercode adapter to the OBDC port under the dash. Has anyone hardwired an OBDC straight through pigtail that makes the OBDC port more accessible. Im going to try something since it looks like recoding will be required after most updates.

 

Looks like lots of ODB2 extension cables are available on Amazon.

 

is the us version in a totally different spot...my uk mini obd port is just above the bonnet pull

 

Same spot but the steering wheel is in the way!

 

Does anyone have a quality contact for MINI USA? I've been trying to reach someone knowledgeable for about 5 weeks now (since getting the recall notice).

The local MINI dealer closed down.

 

1-866-ASK-MINI is a good resource. Otherwise you should be be able to call the next nearest MINI dealer, they should probably be helpful. If you have a BMW dealer nearby that may also be an option. When I got my first MINI it was actually part of a BMW dealership until they finally moved to their own location.

 

Thanks, still working to get it sorted out but this is helpful.

MINI USA keeps referring us to the dealer 4.5 hours away. I called BMW and the front desk says they work on MINI software, service says they never do. What a mess!