Hampton Roads Club Mini

Are you all happy with the out put of your a/c system no matter the temperature outside? I bought my 07 MCS earlier in the Spring and when I checked the a/c system it appreared to be fine, but the first hot spell we had in May it didn't seem like it was putting out very cool air. I took it in to a local shop not knowing the whole time my warranty would have covered this and had them check the charge on the system. They told me it was a little high and when they got the charge back within spec that the coolest they could get the air coming out of the vents was 44 degrees and stated that they felt that the compressor was a little on the weak side. I looked at my warrandty and when I discovered that my entire a/c system was covered under warranty called Checkered Flag and scheduled an appointment for yesterday the 20th. They called me and left me a message late yesterday that my car was ready to be picked up. I picked it up this morning and was told by Frank Lindsay who was my service advisor that the technician who worked on my car that they couldn't find anything wrong with my a/c system and that they measured the air coming out of the vents at 28-30 degrees. So I take my car drive to work this morning and it was only in the low eighties by then and the system seemed to be working ok, but still not as cool as I'd like it to be. When I got out of work today to drive home the car measured the outside air temperature at 93 degrees and I had a 24 mile drive to get home. The air blowing out of the vents with the system on max and on recirc didn't seem all that cool(barely cool enough to keep me from sweating). When I got home I used to ifared thermometer and read the air temp coming out of the vents. I got a low of 48.5 at the innner drivers side vent and a high of 55-57 at the outer drivers side. I didn't even check the outer passenger side as at that point I figured what was the use as it was only going to be worse. I called Mr. Frank and if I understood him correctly he stated that the Mini a/c system blows out 45-50 cooler than the outside air temperature and that all though I was a little on the high side that it wasn't really that far off. I didn't argue with him, but just stated that my 2003 GMC Sierra P/U will run you out of the truck even at 100 degrees outside. He offered to check the system again and with my warranty give me a loaner car. It goes back in on July 5th. Is this the best this car is going to do? If so I'm very disappointed in this part of my purchase. There has got to be some issue with this thing. If this is it a Mini may end up not being for me. That would suck as other than that I really like this car, but being cool on a hot day is very important to me. I'd probably have to take it in the shorts to the tune of at least a couple a grand to dump it on a trade in, but I just may have to do just that.   

You don't understand it's been serviced by both an independent shop and Checkered Flag Mini. One says a weak compressor and the other says no issues at all. So once again what gives?

It may come to that, but what if they say the same thing in that it's within spec. I like my a/c systems to blow cold enough to be able to run you out of the car after about five minutes no matter how hot it is outside.

Question ?  Do you have the Automatic Climate Control option ?  If so, try turning off the "Automatic" part of the system. Just select a different set of vents when in Auto mode and it should run A/C only at full blast. Works well on my Gen 1 Mini.

I appreciate the responces, but please give a me a little more credit for understanding the cars a/c system. It doesn't matter if you use the manual max setting, or have the automatic climate control on the lowest setting with the air set on recirc it yeilds the same result. It cools, but not very well. It never gets cool enough that you would ever want to turn either the temperature up, or the blower fan down. That is the part that is driving me crazy. I did get a call from management at checkered Flag today after filling out my online survey about my service appointment. The person on the phone stated that when I bring my car back on July 5th that the service manager would look into this along with the tech who will be assigned to it. Maybe I'll finally walk away happy. I'll give Checkered Flag credit in that at least they are going to try and make it right. I still think the compressor is either weak, or too small for the car to begin with. I've even thought about searching for an aftermarket unit that has a higher efficiency than the factory unit. Maybe an actual US company like Delco Remey might have a unit that would fit it, or at least find a manufacture somewhere else other than Asia.

I have an 09 and just started paying close attention to it so I could respond to this thread.  If the sun is shining and it is very hot, the sunroof seems to keep it hotter inside and take longer to cool.  On a cloudy hot day it seems much faster for cool down.  As for the max usage.  I turn the temp up and the fan down when my earlobes get chilly.   Bottom line, I have no complaint.   My 04 had a much harder time keeping the car cool.  There was a noticible difference between the two cars.

I thought the same thing on my 07 since I bought it new in 07.  It seemed a little weak, cooling-wise.  I had my windows tinted, the sunroof is both tinted and covered in white vinyl and neither because of the AC, because I can't tolerate bright light.  I will say that I rarely used the Max AC feature on mine or put it on recirculate until recently.  It will positively run me out of the car on Max AC.  With that being said, since I bought the car I've been put on prescriptions that have a side effect that make me tolerate heat much better but not tolerate cold worth a hoot.   

 What I do is run on regular AC with the temp set to the lowest setting and I run with the sunroofs popped to vent mode for a few minutes so that the car can chase the hot air out of itself while it's moving.  Then I close the sunroofs and put it on Max AC and it cools off inside MUCH faster.

 For what it's worth, I don't think Checkered Flag is giving you a line, I think that the AC system is a little on the weak side but it is tolerable IMHO.  I also think that most American cars have over-sized AC systems and foreign manufacturers tend to be more conservative and considerate of size limitations and economy.

Well the second go around is no better than the first. I was given a 2011 MCS loaner car with only 1,000 miles on it while Checkered Flag had my car. In 95 degree heat by the time I got from the dealership to Greenbriar Pkwy the loaner car was blowing nice and cold and I had to turn the blower fan down. When I picked up my car and drove home from work yesterday my a/c really didn't work any better than when I took it in the first time(my car showed 94 degrees). The only difference was that by the time I had rode the the 24 miles from work to home the system seemed to finally be picking up steam and was cooling a little better. So now I've rode in a 2003 and a 2011 MCS and both cars a/c systems work the way I believe they are suppossed to.  What Checkered Flag did differently this time was check the charge(found slightly low, but last time was ok when my car came in), evacuated the system, recharged it adding the dye additive to check for leaks, and was test driven 40 miles. I was told the tech reported that his hands were going numb on the test drive from being too cold(I call BS on this one). I'll wait for my next online survey, but I won't be nice this time. I'm going to start keeping a log book for the next couple weeks and then take my car to another Mini dealership(probably Richmond ) and go through this whole process again. They are going to learn I'm not going away. At this point they need to just admit they can't fix it and replace the whole dang system and be done with it. If it were me and I wanted to retain a customer and cared about my integrity I'd have already done just that.