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Overheated interior - MINI 2015

19K views 20 replies 12 participants last post by  Tajen 
#1 ·
I have my MINI for 7 months. Summer and fall have passed and winter is almost over, but in every season the interior of my MINI always gets overheated as soon as I drive more than 1 hour. If I stop driving after 1 hour and leave the engine off for 30 minutes, the interior can get to 100 degrees depending on the outside temperature. Sometimes it is 40 degrees outside and 70 degrees inside without having turned on the heater system. I have already taken the MINI for inspection, but I was told that nothing is wrong with the air conditioning system, nor with the heater system. In addition, I was told that is the way the MINI is designed. I would immensely appreciate if many people would respond to my post because I don't know what to think or to do. Please note that I am a type of person who is always cold, but not inside of the MINI. I leave in California and rarely need to turn on the heater system inside of the MINI. To the contrary, while I had an old Honda, I often had the heater system on high. Now with the MINI, often I have the air conditioning on during very cold days. :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
 
#2 · (Edited)
Clearly you need response from others who are located in similar areas; Arizona, New Mexico etc. If you get a lot of sun, you may need to keep your sunroof or a window open a crack to help release some heat. Do you have a black roof? If so the car will be hotter. This is a very well sealed car, one reason why the windows automatically open slightly when you close the doors.

On the very hot days we get in my area (summer temps can hit 90+ F) the air con seems to work very well in my experience. So I supect ther may be a malfunction. Do you have an auto temp control system or a manual one?

Minis do run hot, but they are well shielded between the cabin and the engine compartment so it is unlikely that engine heat is the culprit. Of course the way to test that is to take the interior temp after the engine has cooled down.

Hope that you get response from others in your area and that you get some answers.
Oost
 
#3 ·
Thank you Jeremy for your input. My MINI stays in the garage most of the time. It is parked outside only when I am using it. When I start driving it, usually, the inside temperature is the same as the one outside, but as soon as I have driven it for more than 1 hour it heats up quickly. The heat comes from below in my feet. Can you add anything else to your comment?
 
#5 ·
Take it back to the dealer or another dealer. It sounds to me that shielding on the exhaust system may be out of place or failing. There is no reason for this kind of heat at your feet. This is not something I've noticed with the car. Ask if a mechanic can look at the minute you bring it in and then do a hour long drive prior to the appointment so that the problem is very evident.

Good luck!
Oost
 
#4 ·
So this is tied directly to the duration of the drive? 45 minutes, 55 minutes, no temp increase, then suddenly at 60 minutes you get a blast of hot air from the footwell?

The MINI is little mobile greenhouse, with lots of window area. That and a black roof mean the interior (also black, I venture) heats up aggressively, especially in the summer sun. If you park it in the sun it will get hot, that's normal.

But a sudden blast of hot air after driving a specific, same period of time is very odd.
 
#6 ·
Before I took the MINI to the dealer, I drove it for 1 hour. The lady who prepared the paper work felt that the MINI was very hot, and that day was cold outside. The young lady even said: "it is hot here." What is interesting is that the old models have a vent in the hood. That must be there for a good reason. I am surprised that the new 2015 model doesn't have one. I have asked other MINI owners about the problem, but no one has told me that they have had this type of problem. Unfortunately, none of them owned the 2015 hardtop Cooper MINI. That is why I decided to go to the MINI boggler to ask for help.

Oh! I should say that my MINI does not have a sunroof.

As my background is in the legal field, I have been documenting all my conversations with the dealer, and now I will install a thermometer in the car, which can register the inside and outside temperature and will be saved in the computer.

I truly believe that there is a problem with the car, but as I am a woman and don’t understand much about cars, the dealer will keep telling me that it is the type of the design that makes it hot.
 
#8 ·
Don't put up with the dealer giving you that kind of attitude. There is no way a car should get hot like you describe. If your A/C is working as it should, a car should get cooler inside after driving, not hotter! If it is coming from the floor then that is definitely a problem. Is there any way you can have a thermometer by the floor and one further up to document the difference in temperature?
 
#9 ·
We have a 2015 Cooper Hardtop - have taken several long drives in the desert (we live in Arizona) with no issues. I should add that we do have 3M window tinting.
 
#11 ·
Having been fortified with the correct amount of fine red wine from the old box, I now think experiments could be performed to validate what might appear to be a crazy Random Internet Yahoo theory.

Experiment 1:
Apparently you can reach behind the dash and feel both ends of the little pipe that sends cold air to the glove box. Start the car, turn the AC on, and after a minute feel around. If you feel a blast of cold air on your hand near the center of the console, near the end of the pipe, try and detect the direction it's flowing towards. On the lower console there are a bunch of push buttons for the various environmental functions. In the center there's this weird little rounded nubbin; that's the cabin air temp sensor. If the cold air you feel is blowing towards the back side of that sensor (or where you imagine that sensor might be from behind), that's evidence that my crazy theory might have merit.

Experiment 2:
Feel the sensor after driving for a while. Is it colder than the rest of the dash? If it is, supports nutso theory.

Experiment 3:
When the heat inferno starts, place your finger on the nubbin and hold it there. If my theory is correct (or even if my theory is stupid and it's just a sensor issue), the heat blast should stop as the sensor warms up and reports the cabin is no longer at -40 C. Uke suggests a helper for that so you don't drive distracted. Also, YMMV; if you're cold-blooded this may not work because your finger is no match for Precision Bavarian Air Conditioning Run Amok. Find somebody with a warmer appendage.

Experiment 4:
Play with A/C settings. if this happens even when manual A/C is selected, that means that the auto system isn't trying to fix a cabin temp/set point discrepancy. It's something else.

Select manual mode, and then adjust it so that the system is blowing mostly through the upper vents. If that air is cool, but you're still getting heat from below, it might indicate that a valve has glitched in the heat exchanger, or an air valve has stuck. Try every combination of settings, preferably with a MINI Minion sitting beside you. If anything doesn't make sense, its a clue. If everything works great in Manual Mode, but as soons as you switch to auto the barbeque starts, then that's another clue that evil software is involved.

I don't think this is a problem with insulation or the exhaust system under the car. If that were the case, then as soon as the car reached operating temperature the heat would be blasting through and warming up the footwell.. But Ms Burning, esq reports this doesn't happen until after an hour of driving. That tells me that this isn't an insulation failure or an overheating issue; it's a software/sensor/physical computing system failing to correct for the failure of one or more components. My WAG is that the glovebox A/C pipe has loosened and is messing up the cabin air temp sensor. Or that the sensor itself is whacked.

If it turns out to be something entirely different, I will eat vegetarian crow and seek solace in my box of fine wine.

Thoughts?
 
#14 ·
Thank you for all the comments on the issue of my MINI. I'll try to be more specific with the problem that I have had with my MINI. Please forgive my poor vocabulary that I have with cars. I usually I fell more cold than others because I have very low blood pressure. So, I avoid using air conditioning as much as I can. The hot air seems to come from the engine. It's not that I feel in the sole of my feet, but in the top of my feet and in my legs. As an example; 2 months ago, it was 60 degrees outside and inside of my MINI when I started driving. I drove for approximately 45 to 60 minutes; than, I stopped for 30 minutes and by the time I went back to the car to drive back home. Inside of the car was 80 degrees. I did not use the heating while driving, it was not sunny outside, and by the time I parked the car, the outside temperature was 59 degrees. So, it was 20 degrees higher than the outside temperature when I started driving back home.

So, what I have done lately is to turn on the air conditioning in the feet area as soon as I start driving if I will drive longer than 1 hour. Please note that no, the hot air doesn't start exactly after 1 hour driving, but around that time.
 
#15 ·
I'm kind of confused. It sounds like you are describing two issues-- First, a mysterious sudden blast of heat that you can feel upon your legs after driving approximately 60 minutes. Second, the interior of the car heats up when parked in the sun.

The first issue sounds like the footwell vents are blowing hot air on you. That would definitely come from above. If you felt it on the soles of your feet instead, that would be an entirely different problem.

The second issue is normal-- it's the Greenhouse Effect. It can be near freezing and the car will still warm up inside due to heat from sunlight being trapped by the window glass.

Do you think that the heating of the entire cabin after parking the car is caused by, or somehow related to, the sudden heat that you feel while driving? (One way to test that would be to drive at night-- Does the car heat up when parked in the dark? All cars will heat up a little bit due to radiated heat from the engine bay, but not dramatically).

Important question: Does this happen when the system is on Auto mode, or Manual mode? Both?
 
#17 ·
One additional note on the Greenhouse Effect; it doesn't have to be sunny for this to happen. The car will still heat up under a cloudy sky, albeit more slowly.

Also, you said that you don't run the A/C-- Do you use the defroster at all?
 
#18 ·
Hi guys...

I have the same problem with my 2015 Mini Cooper S. Here is what happens... First of all, 90% of time I drive without AC ON.. Most of the time I will open both windows and sunroof and enjoy the outside air.
Here is what happened today.. Temperature outside was 70F, cloudy. I started my car and drove it for about 1 hr 40 miles away... I have automatic AC system in my car. All my temps were set to 60F and no AC ON.. just wanted air from outside..

In about 15 min from starting driving my car... the air coming from vents was hotter than the air outside of my car. At temp set at 60F the air should feel at least same as air outside of the car... and it was actually hotter, I would say in mid 80Fs..

Eventually I had to turn OFF my air circulation completely and let the windows being open to cool my car inside..

This literally feels like hot air from engine compartment is getting mixed with air from outside. Of course when I turn my AC ON everything feels just fine and its nice cold air.

I have 7K miles on the car and this is not the first time this happened.. I am 120 miles away from dealer and will take it with this issue for my next oil change.
 
#20 ·
An interesting problem (obviously not interesting in the least to those having the problem) and no resolution! This is messing with my OCD!

Adam - At first glance it makes me think that your blend door could be stuck? If you switch the temperature setting from the hottest to the coldest and vice versa quickly, can you hear the blend door moving? With some cars it's pretty easy to hear. Another thought is maybe a faulty heater control valve (stuck open).

Thinking about it more though, the fact that your AC and cooling works fine makes me think this isn't the case.

Is the heat coming from a particular location like the footwell or higher? Does the temperature coming out from the vents change when the car is idling vs moving? If you turn the fans off completely, do you still feel heat? Do you feel heat on both the drivers and passengers side?
 
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