I did post this in an old thread about sticky Clubman Suicide doors but I'm so pleased with the way it worked and figure other owners may have same complaint with inoperative doors OR you may just want to rid yourself of the dumb two-step door release process. Here's the post copied:

... I have a great fix for the suicide door sticking problem. This is my first post after much lurking on this excellent forum. My wife's clubman had the sticky door for many months now, eventually it stopped working all-together.

The spring-loaded tab at bottom of door which must be pulled out to release the door stopped springing out at all, and no amount of futzing with it would work. I did try some lube solutions BUT upon serious investigation I found the plastic hinge mechanism was all smashed to bits and tore away from the spring-loaded-hinge. No amount of lubrication would solve it... but my solution was dead simple. Sorry no pics, but its easy to imagine:

a) completely remove the bulbous bottom door latch (just the bulbous portion, not the whole mechanism). Pry it away, loosen the clip that holds the wire in place and free the wire.
b) We need to slide a crimper on the wire so the large cylinder shaped wire-end has to go. Use wire snips and snip it right at wire junction so you leave yourself max amount of exposed wire to work with.
c) Wait!! before you snip (b) above, ensure you have needle nose lockvise on the wire itself so that when you do clip, the wire doesn't spring back into the door panel (don't worry it did happen to me, just loosen the 4 hex bolts that hold whole mechanism in place and work it back/forth the wire will protrude again).
d) Slide a crimper onto the wire, try yr best not to fray wire as its a hassle to thread the crimper on. I used 1/16" crimps I found at Home Despot for $1.99 pack 10. They look just like dis:
http://www.boaterbits.ca/sailboat-ha...ping-1-16.html
e) Feed the crimper all the way up the wire to the max position, closest to the door, pull the wire so its fully extended. Crimp the crimper into position very tightly.

Note: I did this all with the suicide door open, I'm unsure if it matters...

Done. Now the wire is PERMANENTLY extended and the inside latch can be activated ANY time the passenger door is opened. Yes, if you are reading between the lines now whatever "safety" procedure was intended by the two-step process (pull plastic latch, reach in and activate suicide door) has been defeated. The plastic latch is always "on" so all you need to do is reach inside the door and pull the latch. But the door still operates normally, it catches and locks in place when you close the door and opens when you release the latch. The only step missing is the annoying reach down and fiddle with the spring-load.

I am dubious what benefit the two step process had, I guess it was intended to say "there is a responsible adult outside the vehicle who will now allow rear passengers to exit." But my 2010 Honda Element had dual suicide doors and they didn't have any double-latch system. Once the front door was open, passengers could open their own door from inside OR outside.

Good luck all and thanks again for the great forum!

richierich
2009 Mini Clubman
Hot Choc with Silver roof/accents
Dr. Missus richierich's daily driver