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We have a '64 plate F55 1.5d which has mostly been very good, however, we have an intermittent issue with the LED ring and I am wondering how many other cars it affects.
We always have the LED ring in the central dash set to reflect the colour of the ambient lighting in the doors and footwells as the 'speed changing' setting was a little annoying.
For clarification, the idea is, if you have your interior lights set to 'blue', then the central LED ring also glows blue.
At first this was fine, but at night we noticed it was too bright. However, we found a menu function which allowed you to change the brightness of the central LED ring (well thought out by Mini, well done........... for now...).
So, we have the LED ring set to copy the ambient lighting and at a low brightness setting to prevent being distracted during night driving.
Perfect, working fine for a good week or so.
But then...... !
We noticed that the LED ring would intermittently go from really dull to really bright when we are driving, which was quite dangerous at night as it goes as bright as it can, which is very distracting, to the point where you have to turn the feature off completely and have no central LED ring on.
So, to try and fix the issue I went back through the menus to adjust the brightness setting again, however, when the vehicle is having this issue, the brightness controls have no impact on the LED ring brightness at all.
Here is a video of it (apologies for the aspect ratio and quality):
http://vidmg.photobucket.com/albums/v282/v8_nate/BMW Mini/MOV_0561_1.mp4
It is intermittent as I said. Some times you can drive the car and it operates perfectly, other times it is just doing it's own thing and you have no control over it apart from turning it off.
I went through all of the menus, tuning on and off different 'triggers' for the central LED ring such as Bluetooth, speed etc, but nothing made any difference.
So, we booked it into our local Mini dealership (Wollaston BMW, UK) where they had the car for an entire day. When my partner went to pick the car up (as it is her car), they said that they couldn't find any codes and it seemed fine. This was typically on one of the days where the LED ring WAS functioning correctly, despite me stating that it was an intermittent fault. I imagine someone sat in it for a couple of minutes and did no more with it apart from play with the menus.
Wollaston then said to my partner to bring it back in immediately if it does it again for them to check at that moment in time - great I thought, that is very proactive of them.
So two days later, I get a message from the wifey saying it is happening again. I ask her to go in her lunch break to Wollaston so that their technicians can observe the issue. She did exactly that, but no one was interested in looking at the vehicle, instead they just asked her to book it back in!!! :|
I am now thinking, the next time it is booked in, I bet it is working fine again. Fortunately, the next time it is booked in, the LED ring is showing it's fault!!
I am now thinking, good, they can see there is an issue and solve it.
But no.
After a few confused phone calls from Wollaston, the main result of another two days of extensive 'testing' is that they also tested another 3 cars they had and all of them do exactly the same thing, so "that must be just how it is".......
Even more disappointing, their 'Product Genius' stated that 'you cannot control the brightness of the LED ring, you can only change the ambient lighting brightness.'
I explained that it was a shame that their Own Product Genius did not extensively know the menu system and that there was in fact 3 main brightness settings:
I am fairly sure their might be a fourth brightness control for the dash brightness as well, but I do not have the car here to check.
I also explained that it is intermittent, some days it is perfect and does exactly as we want it to, other times you have no control over it.
Finally, I explained that it cannot be 'just how it is' as that brightness menu function (the one in the video I have posted) would not be in the system for it not to do anything!! Why would a software engineer place that in the menu for it achieve nothing?
Wollaston conceded and said they would have another 'look'. It ended that they could do no more with it and I had to suggest that they contact Mini directly to raise the fault with them in order to find a solution.
I am convinced that it is a software fault as the LED ring 'works', so it is not hardware, instead it is the system telling it the wrong brightness setting and not always responding to user input - that is a software fault!
So, sorry for the long post, but it brings everyone up to date with the situation.
As Wollaston believes that other cars act the same way, I would be interested to know if yours also has this bug in the software. As I say if everyone's car does it, it does not mean that is how it is supposed to be, instead it shows that everyone's car has the same software issue that needs a patch!
We always have the LED ring in the central dash set to reflect the colour of the ambient lighting in the doors and footwells as the 'speed changing' setting was a little annoying.
For clarification, the idea is, if you have your interior lights set to 'blue', then the central LED ring also glows blue.
At first this was fine, but at night we noticed it was too bright. However, we found a menu function which allowed you to change the brightness of the central LED ring (well thought out by Mini, well done........... for now...).
So, we have the LED ring set to copy the ambient lighting and at a low brightness setting to prevent being distracted during night driving.
Perfect, working fine for a good week or so.
But then...... !
We noticed that the LED ring would intermittently go from really dull to really bright when we are driving, which was quite dangerous at night as it goes as bright as it can, which is very distracting, to the point where you have to turn the feature off completely and have no central LED ring on.
So, to try and fix the issue I went back through the menus to adjust the brightness setting again, however, when the vehicle is having this issue, the brightness controls have no impact on the LED ring brightness at all.
Here is a video of it (apologies for the aspect ratio and quality):
http://vidmg.photobucket.com/albums/v282/v8_nate/BMW Mini/MOV_0561_1.mp4
It is intermittent as I said. Some times you can drive the car and it operates perfectly, other times it is just doing it's own thing and you have no control over it apart from turning it off.
I went through all of the menus, tuning on and off different 'triggers' for the central LED ring such as Bluetooth, speed etc, but nothing made any difference.
So, we booked it into our local Mini dealership (Wollaston BMW, UK) where they had the car for an entire day. When my partner went to pick the car up (as it is her car), they said that they couldn't find any codes and it seemed fine. This was typically on one of the days where the LED ring WAS functioning correctly, despite me stating that it was an intermittent fault. I imagine someone sat in it for a couple of minutes and did no more with it apart from play with the menus.
Wollaston then said to my partner to bring it back in immediately if it does it again for them to check at that moment in time - great I thought, that is very proactive of them.
So two days later, I get a message from the wifey saying it is happening again. I ask her to go in her lunch break to Wollaston so that their technicians can observe the issue. She did exactly that, but no one was interested in looking at the vehicle, instead they just asked her to book it back in!!! :|
I am now thinking, the next time it is booked in, I bet it is working fine again. Fortunately, the next time it is booked in, the LED ring is showing it's fault!!
But no.
After a few confused phone calls from Wollaston, the main result of another two days of extensive 'testing' is that they also tested another 3 cars they had and all of them do exactly the same thing, so "that must be just how it is".......
Even more disappointing, their 'Product Genius' stated that 'you cannot control the brightness of the LED ring, you can only change the ambient lighting brightness.'
I explained that it was a shame that their Own Product Genius did not extensively know the menu system and that there was in fact 3 main brightness settings:
- Ambient Lighting Brightness
- Central Display Brightness (the screen)
- Central LED Ring brightness
I am fairly sure their might be a fourth brightness control for the dash brightness as well, but I do not have the car here to check.
I also explained that it is intermittent, some days it is perfect and does exactly as we want it to, other times you have no control over it.
Finally, I explained that it cannot be 'just how it is' as that brightness menu function (the one in the video I have posted) would not be in the system for it not to do anything!! Why would a software engineer place that in the menu for it achieve nothing?
Wollaston conceded and said they would have another 'look'. It ended that they could do no more with it and I had to suggest that they contact Mini directly to raise the fault with them in order to find a solution.
I am convinced that it is a software fault as the LED ring 'works', so it is not hardware, instead it is the system telling it the wrong brightness setting and not always responding to user input - that is a software fault!
So, sorry for the long post, but it brings everyone up to date with the situation.
As Wollaston believes that other cars act the same way, I would be interested to know if yours also has this bug in the software. As I say if everyone's car does it, it does not mean that is how it is supposed to be, instead it shows that everyone's car has the same software issue that needs a patch!