those cold winter days!! Warm up your BMW

[CamZo]

Hi guys been doing research on this not sure if it will work here but I am going to try it out on monday... sometimes its k@k cold outside and when you jump in your car its freezing (vice versa for summer) aswell now this is supposed to warm your car up as soon as you unlock it... not sure how true this is but I got this straight out of the Manual (only auto climate control)

Tips for pleasant driving
Use the automatic mode – switch on
with AUTO button 6. Select the desired
interior temperature.
Detailed setting options are described
for you in the following section.
You can make the settings of your
vehicle in such a manner that,
when you unlock the vehicle with the
remote control of your personal key,
your own personalized setting for the
automatic climate control is initiated.<

Has anybody heard of this?

 

[Twinz]

Yip, comes with my X3...dealer set up the settings for me...same as setting your seat and mirror settings. When you unlock the car after someone else has been driving it and perhaps changed the seat setting or mirrors...i only have to press setting 1 and feel and see the seat and mirrors perform their magic...this is not really new tech

The climate control is configured via idrive.

 

[CamZo]

Is it available for the e46 aswell?

 

[Twinz]

Not sure. These preset memory configurations are normally optional extras when you purchase the car unless it was a dealer option when you purchased the car new. Explore and see what you have.

 

[Sankekur]

The e46 you could get memory seat , but not much more than that.

 

[Don86]

I don't have electric seats, but If I unlock my car with the spare key my radio and climate control changes to what it was the last time I used the key, I thought I was going insane for a while! So this is possible on the E46, the dealership can enable this for you... It doesn't do the mirrors though

 

[Sankekur]

Electronic stuff can work like this, but remember that things like the heater and the AC on the e46 requires the motor to be running and the heater requires the engine the be warm.

 

[Bayn46]

Using the "Auto" setting on the e46 climate control just means that the car does its best to get it to the desired temp i.e. It pumps the fan speed up and manages the temp until you hit the set value.

 

[Fordkoppie]

Apparently the e39 can do this.
P1000 can elaborate

 

[AshG108]

so far on the E90, the settings for mine are via. the key, my spare key settings are for my wife and my key has my setting, ie. for climate control and lights and locking/unlocking etc etc

 

[P1000]

Okay, this only changes the settings. It does not activate any type of heater. What it means is that the temperature settings are linked to the key, so one key can have the temperature set to 16C, and the other to 25C, and as soon as you unlock it with one of the keys, the setting is changed to match the key. (My car is already set up like this)

The only BMWs I know of with an auxiliary heater is the e39 530d (I don't know if subsequent 530d's also had it). What it is is a diesel burning heater that would aid in heating the engine and cabin in conditions where the outside temp is less than 10C. You also had a "telestart" option, where you press a button on the remote and it would start the heater and run it for 15 mins, so when you got in, the engine is up to operating temp, and the cabin is nice and warm. This heater is a >17000btu heater, which is in the order of 4-5kw, so if you thought they could just run the heater from the battery, think again.

 

[Funky Toyz]

Sounds interesting...

I know when I unlocked my car the last time with spare key, my radio settings were different.

Also on the E90 when I push the 'REST' button, the climate control is activated while the car is off. However my understanding this is a function that will only work after you have driven the car. Wonder if I can have this activated in the morning to heat up the car. But then again, the heater uses engine temp if I'm not mistaken?