One of them was the rear seat back latch. When I put down the seats, it went away, so I guess it needs to be tightened up?

While the seats were down, I was able to find my second rattle/groaning sound. It's the rear hatch. You can check by grabbing the lid at the plate and jiggle up and down.

Anyone have experience with the dealer fixing this annoying stuff, or is it strictly do it yourself?

Thanks for your help.

Regards,
Red

 

I have a 07/03 build and both of the things you mentioned were pointed to by salesman as being recently updated. The hatch problem was pretty common at one point. I haven't noticed the back seats rattling but I have four or five other noizes, :evil: so I could have missed it.

The dealer should be able fix them both. Unless they can blame it something you did, of course.

 

For a quick fix on the hatch rattle, you can adjust the two rubber stops on the hatch itself. Just "unscrew" them a turn or two and see if it helps. Mine started rattling once it got cold here, and a couple quick twists on the hatch "bumpstops" made it quiet again.

 

Thank you both for your quick replies. Has to go back to the dealer for other issues, so I will see what they can do before I start adjusting, etc.

The car is a 3/03 build.

Regards,
Red

 

Red, let us know how it goes. My 1/03 build Cooper had rear seat latch rattles which I sorta fixed myself. The rattles have been gone for 10 months, but my fix wasn't exactly "elegant," if you know what I mean. If there is a dealer fix I'd like to know.

 

The boot latch on my MINI rattled as well, but this only happened during the summer. I've been meaning to take it back to the dealer to check it out, but since the weather turned colder my MINI's been rattle-free and wonderfully quiet. Won't know for sure until late Spring if warm weather truly is causing some minute change to the boot, but I have made no modifications to the MINI that would have possibly eliminated that annoying rattle.

-- Conrad

 

If you're really talking rattle, turning the bump stops out (so that they're longer) tightens things up and gets rid of a rattling hatch.

If you're talking about a creaking sound, it's the d-ring on the hatch. It rubs against something in the latch mechanism on the car. The fix is a chrome d-ring, which apparently gets along better with the latch.

Duct tape on the d-ring takes care of it if you need a quick fix.

 

>>Red, let us know how it goes. My 1/03 build Cooper had rear seat latch rattles which I sorta fixed myself. The rattles have been gone for 10 months, but my fix wasn't exactly "elegant," if you know what I mean. If there is a dealer fix I'd like to know.

Was your fix duct tape on the ring as Friedduck did on the hatch ring?

My rattles seemed to get worse as it got colder.

Regards,
Red

 

I think most people find that. I find that at zero degrees the rattles aren't too bad, but anything between 3 and 7 or so it really gets noisy. Quite a problem here in the UK! During our really hot summer, the car was dead quiet.


>>>>
>>
>>My rattles seemed to get worse as it got colder.
>>
>>Regards,
>>Red