Retrofitting Auto Air Conditioning Guide

[Mab01uk]

Official instructions below for fitting the MINI Automatic Air Conditioning kit (pdf file). The diagrams are a whole lot easier to understand if printed out on A2 size sheets!
These are the 2002 instructions, later MINI's from 2004 have slightly different wiring with a later pdf guide to suit.
Though not an easy job for diy, (The whole dash assembly has to be removed), I know a couple of owners who have successfully carried out this upgrade without using the expensive BMW retrofit kit of new parts........one using the official BMW retrofit air con wiring harness and secondhand MINI air con parts, the other by transferring all the parts and wiring harness from a scrap MINI including the BC1, etc, to save the cost of a BMW MINI dealer coding the original BC1.
Note the retrofit air con wiring loom (BMW Part number : 611 200 2 9730 approx £45) is only available for Automatic Climate Air Con which uses a different main heater unit with several servo motors controlling the air flaps, etc, rather than bowden cables as used on the manual air con unit.
If anyone else has carried out this conversion I would be interested to hear any advice or tips..........apart from simply buying a MINI with air con already fitted!

[Ant FR]

i would honetl ask the question


WHY???????


In all honesty i have the Mini suto climate in mine and it is one of the worst auo climats i have had, not a patch on the VW, i would'nt bother personally

[MiniPetrolHead]

i would honetl ask the question


WHY???????


In all honesty i have the Mini suto climate in mine and it is one of the worst auo climats i have had, not a patch on the VW, i would'nt bother personally

But it does looks better though!

[Nightscape-MINI]

I already had air con, but i wanted to remove the panel to change the colour.
Just getting that panel out is a pain in the ****.

[Mab01uk]

i would honetl ask the question


WHY???????


In all honesty i have the Mini suto climate in mine and it is one of the worst auo climats i have had, not a patch on the VW, i would'nt bother personally

Heard varying reports on the performance of MINI Auto air con which makes me think many MINI dealers have no idea how to set up and fault find problems with the various temperature /solar sensors, flap servo motors and electronic control panel module.
Does yours not maintain the set temperature? What happens when you manually override?
I would much prefer to install the simpler manual air con but that would mean making a custom wiring loom to suit and working out all the complex connections through the BC1, etc, from scratch.

[BigShow]

I want blue dials... those look the shiz!

[Nightscape-MINI]

I want blue dials... those look the shiz!

They are pretty funky if i do say so myself