We had a 2015 MCS manual and loved it except for the manual shift. Traffic around here sucks and while it is a blast to drive when the road is open it was not much fun otherwise. My wife mostly didn't like it and she used it a lot to commute in so that vehicle left and ever since we have missed the Mini Cooper life. Last fall, we test drove a convertible MCS with a JCW exhaust and had one of the best test rides of our life! It was such fun and with the exhaust sounded awesome. I have been thinking about that ever since and decided now might be the right time to find a nice used one.

Well, today was the day we went out to check one out. It is a CPO 2017 MCS Convertible with about 23k miles on it. With the top up, the rattles were crazy. Tons of them from the rear, sides, and front. WIth the top down the wind made them harder to hear but some could still be detected. I know convertibles sometimes are known for developing rattles due to having no hard roof, but this seemed pretty excessive. Our 20125 felt like it was built pretty darn solid. After the MCS we had a 2 series BMW and that was built the same way. Are convertibles kind of known for developing rattles with relatively low miles like that?

 

Fwiw our 2016 Justa has a squeak every once in a while, but otherwise tight. I do treat all seals and libricate all moving parts each season. Also may want to check "easyload" levers in trunk that allow extra headroom when loading items. See pict. Have found that if those are not secure or the hatch portion is not aligned properly you can get rattles. Also consider rear seatbelts, which depending on position can make loud rattle against trim.

I was actually very concerned aboit rattles when we first got this car, but have been surprised how nice and tight it is. Has 33K on it.

 

Oh that is good news. We are going to check another this afternoon so
it will be a good comparison.

 

Drove another one this afternoon and it didnt have any rattles at all. I could feel a little flex from the missing roof but that was expected. Pretty impressive. I don't know what the heck was going on with that first one I drove. Maybe it got dropped or something.

 

I have a 2019 F57 with 27,000 miles and the only "unusual" noise that it has is to be expected for a convertible. That is, the windows make some creaking noises against the roof seals. BMW solves this by using a felt-like rubber on the seals that the windows butt against, but I guess MINI was too cheap to do the same haha!

 

Agree that squeaks do develop between the frameless windows and seals. But this 303 product seems to work well. I lube all the seals in spring and fall. The built-in sponge applicator makes it pretty easy to apply. FWIW

 

Yep thats and gummi pfedge works good on the seals, used it on my R52

https://www.ecstuning.com/Search/SiteSearch/gummi/

 

My r52 with 100k miles rattles quite a bit with top up. I can hear something in the back and some roof components. It's much better with roof down. You definitely want to get a wind deflector.
oiling all hinges and Gummi pfuge helps too.
there are like 50 moving parts in the top so it will make noise.

 

Agree that the seat belts can clunk around and be difficult to pinpoint. The wind catches them with top down.