So my Clubman, Feb built 2016, is in again to try and fix the passenger seat. I was wondering if anyone else is having this issue? The passenger seat makes a metal click or popping noise either upon acceleration/deceleration or if it's really bad, when you move around in the seat. It's as if something is shifting with a metal on metal noise, almost a creek in a way. At first we thought it was just ours until the service tech and I tried out a few other Clubmans with lumbar and they made the noise simply when you would move around. Then we found out today when we picked up our loaner, a 2017, that it's not just those with lumbar like we previously thought. The loaner is worse than the one I own. Apparently the Clubman has a completely redesigned seat than the other Mini models. Since just about every Clubman at the dealership is doing this to varying degrees I figured that there has to be others out there who are experiencing it, right? By the way I am 6 foot and 211 pounds and my wife is 5'4" and much less than me but it has made the noise on her.

 

Loccusst

Is this the manual seat or the electric seat you have?

Ours is electric and we don't have this noise.

Ian

 

It is a manual seat. I went off a bit on the Service Advisor about my frustration with having my car for two days this time, saying it's fixed and as soon as you move around a bit in the seat it made noise. I wasn't a jerk or anything, just let him know I was not a happy camper at how many times now the seat has supposedly been fixed. I proceeded to show him where I thought the issue was in the seat and he spent some time with me testing the seat to try and narrow it down to a small area of where the issue might be. You know, what they should be doing themselves. We narrowed to the left hinge area of the seat back, which is where I told them I thought it was in the beginning. I got to know him better and he was able to do the same with us. He also stayed a bit later after he was supposed to be off to work with us. The dealership has been great at how the are dealing with us and my frustration has not been with them as much as it is with Mini for putting out a batch of crappy seats. They are also just basically asking the dealership if they have tried this or that, not really working on a solution themselves. I was not a nightmare customer but let him know this was not acceptable. I also told him that they can use the loaner car that was worse than ours as a guinea pig and that I was tired of them using my car as one. They already have to order a new lower B pillar panel because there are gouges from removing the seat, the back of the seat cover looks like an old used car now from being stretched so much and the passenger door interior panel has scuffs that wont come out. He knows about this already from wife complaining and has said let's fix the seat first. Understandable because there is no point fixing these and then having to possibly do so again.

 

Talked to the tech this morning when I stopped by on the way to work. He was able to come to the same conclusion as me which is that it is coming from the left side of the seat and is in the mechanism itself. Since you can't order parts like that they have finally ordered a new lower portion of the seat. I told them it better be here before I go on vacation in the middle of October because I am not dealing with 30 hour round trip of that seat making those noises. He agreed that it would be extremely annoying. I'll update when we learn more.

 

After replacing the lower portion of the seat the issue has been resolved and I couldn't be happier.

 

wow!!!when will they start owning their products? Where is the QA department from all that. I wonder if anyone else has the same issue!