My 04’ MINI Cooper S abounds with computers (not necessarily a good thing, as you will see in a moment), one computer lords over the trip computer, one for the climate, one for engine management etc, etc. All the digital readouts normally display distance in miles and temperature in degrees Fahrenheit. One day, every display reverted to British units: distance in Kilometers, and temperature in degrees Celsius. The battery has never been disconnected or run flat, and I have not been to the shop in over a year. My owners manual stated when this happens, bring it to the dealer. My question is: If MINI anticipated this situation enough to post a note in their manual, why wouldn’t they make it easy to switch the readout’s back? Is my MINI lonely for a dealer visit or to live back in mother Briton? Should I just go with the flow and learn the metric system?
Truthfully, it just sounds like one more glitch in a German-designed electronic system!
(Yes, I know that the car was made in The UK. It was designed by BMW, in Germany.)
A very similar situation used to occur to a friend’s 3-series Beemer whenever the ambient temperature dropped below 25 degrees. When exposed to very low temperatures, the display unit on his dashboard would revert from English to German. The first morning that he was greeted by Achtung!, he almost freaked out, as he had visions of Nazi SS men taking control of his car.
Despite their lofty prices, BMW and Mercedes vehicles tend to have electronic problems far in excess of American and Japanese brands of vehicles. VW also used to suffer from a very high incidence of weird electronic glitches. So, unfortunately, I think that this is just something that you have to expect on a German-designed car.
Never underestimate the power of a Google search.
How do you change the temperature gauge on a Mini from Celsius to Fahrenheit?
In: MINI Cooper [Edit categories]
Answer
If you have a car with automatic climate control, you can change the temperature display from Farenheit to Celcius (and back again):
pre-2004: Hold down the “Auto” button for a few seconds. 2004 onward: Press the AC button (2nd from top left) and the footwell fan button (lower right) together.
RBMini
Coool, I thought I did my google homework, but I guess I was not thorough enough.
This seems another case of (me) not framing the question properly.
Thanks, wentwest.
True enough, having owned six Volvos “featuring” Bosch Electrics, one BMW 2002, and one MB 300D, I know intimately the German Achilles Heal. I was really hoping the MINI wouldn’t have the same affliction, oh-well.
Once you own a German car, everything other manufacturer doesn’t have the same road feel; high maintenance and all, you just get hooked.
Old Volvos were a funny cat, SU carbs and ATE brakes from England, Stromberg carbs, Girling brakes and Bosch electrics from Germany… the AMC of Europe.