[thewelshone]

Hi I've been having some problems with a 6 week old electric mini level 2 spec. The weathers been a little chilly at the moment floating around 1 degree down to -1 degree. Cold but not ridiculously cold. My mini is on the drive outside and gradually Ive been having more and more issues with being able to unlock the car doors and more annoyingly being able to open the charge port and often even if the charge port gets opened, either the car won't charge if I insert the cable or won't let me take a cable out if its been left in over night charging as the locking mechanism for the cable seems to also be effected by the cold. I've noticed its easy for water to ingress into the charge port area as there is no seal around the edge of the charge port flap. Water gets in, freezes and causes havoc with the mechanisms to lock and unlock the door and cable. I called Mini support and they said the obvious to pre warm the car and then try. It actually took a couple of pre warm sessions at 20 mins a go to get the car to charge again or release the charge cable. However this week, the remote services that are part of the mini app to remotely pre warm the car or unlock etc have completely stopped working. This morning the car doors were frozen so I couldn't get into the car to manually kick off any heating either. The mini while a brilliant little car is proving to be not so great or usable in moderate cold weather. A little disappointed tbh especially because of its German DNA, it gets very cold in parts of Germany. Does anyone have any ideas about how to avoid having the locking mechanisms freeze up and does anyone have any idea about how to get the app working with remote services again? I've not tried removing and re adding the car yet. Mini suggested brining it in for a service but the next appointment is months away given the current situation with Covid 19 in the UK. Any help greatly appreciated. The mini could really have done with a charge port warmer and if the car is updated its charge port and door need a re design as now they are inherently flawed. Water ingress with no door seal and that the ports are actually angled down into the car mean water pools and freezes. It's a serious design flaw thats left me with an electric ice cube stuck on my drive way for the past few days.


stuck

 

[dk6780]

Silicone/rubber grease all around the seal on the charge port rubbers will help, likewise some light silicone spray into the charge point locking mechanism to prevent it freezing.
But to be honest I'd threaten to reject the car as faulty and give the dealer a week to resolve the issues. That'll focus their minds and get you an appointment quickly.