[olliesgrandad]

I don't know how many people here have the driving assistant package on their F56, but I sem to have some issues with active cruise control.
I tend to use it most of the time and IU drive about 140 miles a day.
My car is 11 days old and now has 980 miles on it.
every so often the ACC drops out and gives an unavailable message. Yesterday on one occasion it happened on the motorway when a car overtook and pulled in front of me. I expected my car to brake to the speed of the other car but instead cruise disengaged and gave me the unavailable message on the centre screen.
I tried a number of times to get it ot work again, but a small triangle remained on the dash display and a message of unavailable kept appearing. Eventually I came off the motorway and braked at a roundabout. following that the system began working again so I wonder if the sustained braking allowed the ACC to begin functioning again.
I haven't had time to study the manual or call the dealer yet, but wondered what other folks experiences of the ACC were.

 

[jiffer]

I don't know how many people here have the driving assistant package on their F56, but I sem to have some issues with active cruise control.
I tend to use it most of the time and IU drive about 140 miles a day.
My car is 11 days old and now has 980 miles on it.
every so often the ACC drops out and gives an unavailable message. Yesterday on one occasion it happened on the motorway when a car overtook and pulled in front of me. I expected my car to brake to the speed of the other car but instead cruise disengaged and gave me the unavailable message on the centre screen.
I tried a number of times to get it ot work again, but a small triangle remained on the dash display and a message of unavailable kept appearing. Eventually I came off the motorway and braked at a roundabout. following that the system began working again so I wonder if the sustained braking allowed the ACC to begin functioning again.
I haven't had time to study the manual or call the dealer yet, but wondered what other folks experiences of the ACC were.

I have had mine for two weeks. This weekend i have a 500 mile round trip, mostly using motorways. The ACC did this to me a couple of times - on both occasions following a car pulling right in front of me. The system slowed the car but then I too got an unavailable warning. Mine came back on after a number of attempts to re-start it - not sure what i did to achieve that to be honest.

 

[Paul Hemsley]

I've now clocked up almost 3000 miles but only recently have been toying with the Cruise Control.All seems AOK but I too sometimes get the orange triangle on the dash display.Does anybody out there know why ? Off on a West Country Rioad trip next week-end & planning to use ALL of the options including Parking assistant which i've yet to master.A tad like going back to school for Tech lessons but all in all the Cooper is brilliant.

 

[MintMark]

Just thinking aloud, but it seems related to a car appearing in front... or could it be low sun on the camera, fog, rain, dirt etc?

 

[olliesgrandad]

Did it a number of times today in a 150 mile round trip. One time no reason and it wouldn't reset. I was able to pull over and turn off ignition and restart car which cleared the problem.
A car pulled right in front of me today when ACC was off and the car symbol in the dash flashed dark red until the distance increased
Dealer suggest I need to go in and get a technician out in the car with me to show them how I use the ACC to recreate the issue.
Sounds suspiciously like a firmware or software upgrade is needed as once today there were no vehicles in front of me and it just disengaged with the usual warning messages.
interesting that other people have the same issue. my car was built in August.
.

 

[olliesgrandad]

Yesterday I checked my tyre pressures and put air in 2 of them. I tried to reset the computer as per the manual and after the thing spun its icon for about 10 minutes gave up. There was a warning triangle in the dash display. I drove the car and after a while noticed that the triangle had gone. I checked the vehicle status and found all was well and the tyre pressures were showing.
Now this is probably entirely coincidental but today as usual I drove over 100 miles and I had no issues whatsoever with the ACC dropping out and failing to reset.
Has anyone else here rest the tyre pressures /had issues in getting the system to reset?
I wonder if there is a connection with the tyre pressures being reset and the ACC now apparently functioning properly?????

 

[olliesgrandad]

Well I got that wrong . Cruise played up this morning, typically when I was near the dealer I bought it from.
Saw the service guy there who suggests that they need to have the car for a day to try and recreate the problem. He says that the system is similar to BMW's so generally is proven, but it could be that the software needs tweaking as the parameters it operates under are different in MINI. It dropped out about 3 times in a ten mile run - I was driving towards the sun and it was very strong and low in the sky -perhaps a factor. Later it performed fine.
I will have to stick with it for a couple of weeks as I am too busy at present to mess about with garage visits.

 

[olliesgrandad]

Booked car into Dealer on 20th October after I get back from holiday. they are giving me a loan car for a couple of days to give them the chance for my car to misbehave.
It misbehaved a couple of times only today in 120 miles.
Great car - absolutely love it.

 

[andyross37]

I've noticed it disconnects if a car pulls in front of you and the car thinks it's dangerously close.

It's really annoying when it disconnects but I've never had an issue reconnecting it again.

I usually press and hold one of the distance control buttons to engage normal cruise control when it happens

 

[olliesgrandad]

I've noticed it disconnects if a car pulls in front of you and the car thinks it's dangerously close.

It's really annoying when it disconnects but I've never had an issue reconnecting it again.

I usually press and hold one of the distance control buttons to engage normal cruise control when it happens

I think that if a car pulls in front of you that it should continue to brake and not drop out- surely that is the purpose of the collision avoidance?

 

[andyross37]

I think that if a car pulls in front of you that it should continue to brake and not drop out- surely that is the purpose of the collision avoidance?

I completely agree, it does seem to defeat the object really

 

[olliesgrandad]

Just thinking aloud, but it seems related to a car appearing in front... or could it be low sun on the camera, fog, rain, dirt etc?

Just re-read this comment.


Dealer said that this shouldn't affect ACC as the system is radar operated and the radar is built into the front of the car somewhere.

 

[jiffer]

Just re-read this comment.


Dealer said that this shouldn't affect ACC as the system is radar operated and the radar is built into the front of the car somewhere.

Don't think it is - I am pretty sure it is camera based, not RADAR.

 

[MintMark]

I'm sure it's camera based... and the list of reasons which might cause it to deactivate is in the manual. There's a note "unfavourable weather conditions". At the end there is also a section called "Malfunction" which describes reasons why the check control message might appear.

This is all under "Camera Based Cruise Control, ACC" in the "Driving Comfort" part of the manual.

 

[DmCooperS]

Happened to me last week. I was driving down from the Wine Country (Hunter Valley for fellow Aussies) and it was like 30 degrees celsius, extremely sunny.

I was able to reactivate it immediately afterwards.

Will keep an eye out, but hasn't done it since on any other trip.

My assumption, is the glare from the sun.

 

[olliesgrandad]

I'm sure it's camera based... and the list of reasons which might cause it to deactivate is in the manual. There's a note "unfavourable weather conditions". At the end there is also a section called "Malfunction" which describes reasons why the check control message might appear.

This is all under "Camera Based Cruise Control, ACC" in the "Driving Comfort" part of the manual.

Thanks for the info- I've just got the paper manual out from the cupboard and read it.
It's a little bit worrying that the MINI Service Managers don't know that it isn't a radar based system. Clearly some of my issues are caused by low sun.
I have a sneaking suspicion that having fully read the paper manual that system limitations are causing my issues not a vehicle fault. Interestingly today I didn't have any issues in 130 miles of driving . Also but not today I have picked up a lot of dead insects and tree sap. If that is over the camera lens with light reflecting off it that might well account for some problems.

 

[MintMark]

Well you're certainly using it much more intensively than I am... it does make me wonder whether all the other "auto" systems are susceptible too... like windscreen wipers, headlights and collision detection!

 

[olliesgrandad]

Had a lengthy chat this morning with the Service Manager at my local dealer. He wasn't aware (and I wasn't until I tried it) that by pressing and holding either of the 2 'increase /decrease distance' buttons on the steering wheel that ACC can be replaced by conventional cruise control with braking function. When this is in use a conventional green clock symbol is illuminated on the speedo instead of the 2 converging parallel orange lines. dropping out. He is going to put a PUMA report in to MINI to see if they consider the ACC drop outs to be an issue.
Wow what a complex beast this MINI is.
2200 miles in just over 3 weeks and I'm still in a steep learning curve!

 

[olliesgrandad]

This morning ACC was working fine when driving South and then North. Very bright sun.
At about 9.30amafter a 70 mile drive I turned towards the east with the sun ahead of me.
You guessed I'm sure what happened next- the ACC kept dropping and would not re-engage.
After the 3rd time I used conventional cruise control and that worked just fine.
Spoke to the Dealership who are going to let MINI know that the sun seems to be causing the problem.

 

[Shigaman]

Thanks for your latest update on this Olliesgrandad. Good to know there's the option of switching to conventional cruise control if the ACC is being thrown off by bright, direct sunlight. Just to clarify, what's the difference between Active Cruise Control and conventional Cruise Control?