I need to check the other areas then.
Me and the car spent 3 winters in Chicago.
Those 3 did it's damage on other things. Wont be surprised if there's more rust hiding.

 

Here's my door sills. :(

 

Tail light areas and rear hatch

 

Yeah, door sills should be covered, and I'd start there. Some of the brown stuff behind the tail lights is just grease or what not that's applied on the car, but I can still see some rust.
You can email those shots to your mini dealership, too.

I removed my headliner and rain gutters, noticing tiny, minute specs of rust, but, hey "squeaky wheel gets the grease".

 

Your tailights look ok. I think the problem usually starts because of this seam which leads to rusting right below the light. I might add some sealer to mine right after the warranty expires. In the meantime, I always try to make sure to wick the water out of the gap after washing and pull the tailights to apply some wax twice a year.

 

RB - I will keep my eyes peeled on the tail light areas. What kind of sealer?

Ti22 - Is it tough to pull the headliner / or put it back? Rain gutters too?

The last 2 pics are the top of the hatch area (on the car).

 

I'm not sure... I was probably going to use some automotive body seam sealer, but maybe some clear silicone. The main thing is I wouldn't apply anything, other than wax, before the warranty runs out.

If they see anything, it will give them a reason to deny the repair because of prior work or repairs on the panel. I think wax should be OK, and not noticeable, if you just apply a light coating and don't polish the area.

 

Headliner wasn't bad, and it gets removed from the passenger's door.
I didn't NEED to remove the pillars, just the visors, mirrors and handles.
I have an anthracite one going back in. It does require some slight bending, but I think the 2005-2006 headliners are different. I have 155K miles in mine and no sagging.
I haven't fully removed a rain gutter, but that's the part I would like MINI to look at next. It is held in by screws every few inches.
I took a pic and noticed some surface rust, similar to a door sill. Having mini fix this one would be a sit in the dark. Truth be told, I just want a black roof!!

 

When you bring it in, are they looking for the rust .. or are you showing them the rust? or some combination of both?

 

Initially it was an email and then I'd stop in.
This is a picture of the gas cap, and they covered the chip I caused.

 

This was what I saw when I removed the tail light and emailed it to the dealership.

 

Oooooooooh .. I see that clearly. Luckily, neither of my tail light areas have that yet.

 

You will have to show them everything and they will take pictures and document it, then it may take a while to hear back from the regional rep. Then once ok'd , they will send it to the body shop. I had it done before on the R52.

 

As shown, I checked the sills, the tails and the hatch. Anywhere else it would be hiding / I should be looking?

 

Anywhere else I should be looking?

 

It went in today. They took pictures and are sending them out to Mini Corporate. From what I hear, the next step will be Mini Corporate coming to look at the car. They've looked over the car - looking for overspray (if it had been damaged) because allegedly, that would void the rust warranty. They say that the fan surround (with the rubber seal) is new but they can't find any overspray saying there was any damage. May have just been replaced.

There are a few rock chips on the lower hood (under headlight) that are down to bare metal and beginning to rust - might see if they can take care of that too.

Stay tuned.

 

Hopefully with some luck, maybe they'll consider painting the hood spots too.

 

Is there any rust on the hood already?

 

Questions .. Here are some other shots of the hood - with the grille out.

If you look at the hood lip where it meets the grille, you can see some 'yellow' marks - obvious that the grille was rubbing right there. Would this mean anything .. or is that primer? I also tried to get a shot of the space below the Mini logo on the front - that's metal over metal.

In addition, in the last picture, you can see the what the dealer called the 'Core Support' - the piece that goes around the radiator. According to him, this is new - and may indicate some frontal damage. Allegedly, if the vehicle has been resprayed, this will be their loophole to not paint it. Any ideas?

To add, the hood, roof, bumpers and body are all the same color. The scoop is the only 'different' color black.

 

Picture 5 is under the left headlight. Looks like rust to me.

 

And last but not least - the 'grille screws' are a pisser!

Is this seriously the best they could come up with?

I think I'm going to need a new grille shortly.

 

Parts of the car that do not have factory paint or damage from road debris, like rock chips on the hood ARE NOT COVERED.
Some rust on bolts. Screws, etc are common, and expected.... You can ask...they can only say no...that is part of the life and death of a car..its like car Cancer....expensive to treat, and often it is best monitorerd....done locations can benefit from AGRESSIVE treatment...large panels, you need to catch it and stop it...but the actual car was dipped in a rust prevention tank/bath before painting....so any paint chips don't rust for a long time...the parts that tend to rust are places water gets trapped, sometimes with dirt or salts...that's why the boot, around the taillights, and under the doors weather stripping is such an issue.

 

I guess it depends on what they say, but the rust under the headlight looks like its from a rock chip. Usually that would not qualify. I remember some posts a few years back where they were denying warranty repairs for lifting up the door trim to check for rust because they said you damaged/broke the "factory seal" and that caused the rust to happen.

Lame on MINI's part because how else were you supposed to check if you were getting rust in an area that was well known to rust on a MINI.

Depending on how bad the rock chips are, and if your car is a daily driver, I would prefer to just touch them up instead of getting a respray. Resprayed clear coats don't hold up too well compared to the original paint, especially on a top surface like the roof or hood.

 

I don't disagree .. I'm working on a plan if they won't cover the hood. The car is .. for the most part .. a daily driver.

 

Zippy - totally understand if the hood was repainted, they're not responsible. My question was if you think it was resprayed. Might be nice if they did it though.