Has anyone else experienced this? It doesn't happen all the time. I've crawled back there to watch the hatch close. Seems to be catching on some small rubber protective feet, preventing the deck from completely meeting the rear wiper motor housing.

Just wondering if anyone else had an issue with this.

-joe

 

Mine's been doing it for several months now. My dealer did a stupid temporary fix of attaching some double sided foam tape (risers) on the lid. It worked for about a week, and continues to catch. My wiper motor housing is very scuffed because of these constant rubbings. If yours is anything like mine, slamming the boot, causes the boot to bounce back because of the boot lid. So I have to close it twice before it allows me to close it.

I've got my 2nd service coming up in 5,000 miles and will be complaining very loudly about this. It doesn't seem to be a very common complain though.

 

This is a near daily problem for me. It seams that the rubber rods that slip into the slots aren't always staying in place well. The lid always seems to pop out just as I get the hatch about 75% closed and then of course catches on the wiper housing. I seem to have better luck when I push against the lid prior to closing the hatch and then close the hatch slower. What a routine, I know.

 

I have this problem too. Makes me wish I had a proper trunk.

 

I experienced this problem a while back, and the fix, at least in my case, was fairly easy.

I flipped the rear shelf over, and pushed down REALLY HARD in the middle of the shelf. I pretty much used my whole body weight, all 200 pounds of it. In my case, the middle of the shelf was sagging a bit, causing the wiper motoring housing to catch. I bent the shelf just enough so that it clears the wiper motor housing.

Hope this helps.

 

I was thinking about doing something like that. How long ago did you do this? Do you think that heat from the sun has something to do with warping that piece? I'll give this a try - if it doesn't work, I'll have to add it to my list of fixes for my dealer at the next service. Thanks.

-joe

 

I looked at my lid, and it doesn't look warped. The problem seems to be that the lid drops in place (goes from angled to horizontal), before the boot lid comes down. If the lid stayed more on an angle before the lid were closed, I think the problem would be fixed.

 

>>I looked at my lid, and it doesn't look warped. The problem seems to be that the lid drops in place (goes from angled to horizontal), before the boot lid comes down. If the lid stayed more on an angle before the lid were closed, I think the problem would be fixed.


How 'bout adjusting the length of the strings that raise the deck lid when the hatch lid is opened? Perhaps put the back seats down, crawl back there with the hatch closed and see how much shorter the ***** must hang in order to raise the lid up about a quarter inch or so?

Theo

 

Yeah I was going to do that, but I wanted the dealer to fix it. LOL. Guess I will have to try.

 

My rear shelf didn't looked warped at all. I think I might have bent the rear shelf back by 1/16 of an inch, and that's all it took. I did this a few months ago, and it has been working fine since.

When you close the boot, the rear shelf is designed to drop into place first. As the boot almost closes, the wiper motor housing is supposed to push the shelf up a bit, and go under the shelf. If the shelf is wraped a tiny bit, the wiper motoring housing won't go under the shelf, and instead bounces the boot right back at you.

My rear shelf wasn't wraped because of heat. I know the exact cause of it - my 15lb Bichon Frise rested on it for a few minutes.

 

>>>>I looked at my lid, and it doesn't look warped. The problem seems to be that the lid drops in place (goes from angled to horizontal), before the boot lid comes down. If the lid stayed more on an angle before the lid were closed, I think the problem would be fixed.
>>
>>
>>How 'bout adjusting the length of the strings that raise the deck lid when the hatch lid is opened? Perhaps put the back seats down, crawl back there with the hatch closed and see how much shorter the ***** must hang in order to raise the lid up about a quarter inch or so?
>>
>>Theo
>>

Tried it. Shortening the strings does nothing but prohibits the hatch from completely opening. Look in the trunk area with the hatch closed. You'll see the little rubber weights dangling down - quite a bit below the deck lid. If you shorten the stings enough to keep the lid slightly above its normal resting position, you'll never be able to open your hatch all the way.

-joe

 

>>Tried it. Shortening the strings does nothing but prohibits the hatch from completely opening. Look in the trunk area with the hatch closed. You'll see the little rubber weights dangling down - quite a bit below the deck lid. If you shorten the stings enough to keep the lid slightly above its normal resting position, you'll never be able to open your hatch all the way.
>>
>>-joe
>>

Yeah. Tried it last night, too. Hatch wants to pull the lid off the guides. :???:

Oh well,

Theo

 

It’s very easy to resolve either of the two possible boot lid closing issues, but first you need to understand the purpose of all of the interrelated parts.

Step 1 is to tie a length of cord to the “U” shaped latch on the boot lid and fold down the rear seats.

Step 2 is to get into the car and pull the lid down a few times and watch the lid, the hat shelf, and the strings with the ***** on the end. Now you know the function of of each component and how they interact.

It becomes obvious that the strings only function is to raise the hat shelf out of the way when the boot lid is opened. They have nothing to do with determining the hat shelf’s position when the boot lid is in the range of closed to partially closed. The lid is resting in its “home position” whenever the boot lid is more than halfway closed.

The hat shelf’s “home position” is determined by the rubber thingys that OctaneGuy’s dealer “fixed” with double sided foam tape.

Step 3 is to get out of the car, remove your test cord, a slowly close the lid while watching the action of the hat shelf and the rear wiper housing.

The wiper housing should lightly brush past the hat shelf when the boot lid is about 3” from fully closed. If there is more than a light brushing, then there are three possible causes:

Cause 1 is that one or both of OctaneGuy’s rubber thingys is damaged or missing.
Cause 2 is that the hat shelf has been slightly bent down in the middle.
Cause 3 is that one or both of the rubber sleeves on the hat shelf’s pivots is damaged or missing.

The fix for any of these three problems is pretty obvious.

Note: The MINI is NOT an American car! There is no need to slam or use any force on the boot lid when closing. Just ease it all the way closed and then apply a slight down force and it will be latched. If you do slam the lid closed as you would do on an American car, then even a properly functioning hat shelf/boot lid will have interference.

 

Nick_T,

Sorry to say, but apparently there is a cause 4. Today I removed my fiancee's rear lid, and installed it in my car. Same effect. And the fix is getting more and more away from pretty obvious, seeing that her hat shelf functions completely normally in her car. :evil:

-joe

 

Joe - - -

You’re right, there could be a fourth cause; the plastic wiper housing could be improperly positioned or even deformed. If the boot lid is closed slowly and the hat shelf is fully seated in its pivots and there is no interference, then I would think that the problem must be one of the three that I listed earlier.

I’m sorry that you were offended by my comment about how to close the boot lid, but I have found that rapidly swinging the boot lid down will pull the hat shelf slightly aft causing interference.

If the hat shelf pivots slide out of position too easily and the rubber sleeves are not damaged, then there are a couple of possibilities:

The seats for the pivots and/or the rubber sleeves on the pivots may have been wiped with an excessive amount of a silicone treatment making it difficult for the seats to retain the pivots.

The seats for the pivots are slightly out of tolerance. An easy fix is to remove the rubber pivot sleeves, wrap the pivots with a turn or two of electrical tape, and reinstall the sleeves.

Good luck in fixing your problem!

 

Joe --

I think the answer is obvious...cannibalize your finacee's car while she is asleep!

But seriously, let me know if you want a second set of eyes on your problem. I can zip over in a couple of minutes.

BTW, your sig picture looks like it was taken from one of the overlooks on the Mt. Tom Range. From Mt. Nonotuck, perhaps?

Theo

 

Yes, theo. Nail on the head. I took the photo right after a fresh coat of Zaino. A little photoshop action, and voilla'. Although - I think this website did a little too much resizing. It looks a little pixelated. Might have to reprocess it.

Yesterday, I was playing with the side pannels a little bit, and mine will actually move up or down by about 1/4". I really think that the side pannels have something to do with the problem. The pivot seats seem to have about the same amount of tension as on my fiancee's car, so I am thinking that is not the problem. In any case, my first maintenance will be coming up in about a month or two.

Oh, Theo - Did you get my PM on mini2? Looks as if we'll both be able to make it to yankme candle for that little rally. How many are you expecting?

-joe

 

Actually, I'll tell you why, not using any force isn't a good idea. I'm very tired of closing the boot gently, getting in my car, buckling up, and then seeing the boot light warning is on. Happens every time. When I close the boot, I'm going to do it once.

I close the boot in the same way that the instructions show you. It's also the way that MINIUSA shows on one of their video's where a woman is shown closing the boot.

Now, to me the warped idea has a little bit of promise. I didn't think so before, but I realized everytime the lid catches on the wiper motor housing, and the boot lid bounces back, the force is being distributed somewhere. My thinking is that it's just continually warping the lid a bit.

Since this problem is something that occured over time, and not because of a failure of knowing how to close the boot because I followed all the official procedures, I hardly doubt it can be pinpointed on the driver.

Good try, but we'll continue to look for other possible answers.


>>Note: The MINI is NOT an American car! There is no need to slam or use any force on the boot lid when closing. Just ease it all the way closed and then apply a slight down force and it will be latched. If you do slam the lid closed as you would do on an American car, then even a properly functioning hat shelf/boot lid will have interference.

 

Agreed OctaneGuy - The rear boot needs a bit of shove to latch fully. This has nothing to do with the rubbing parcel shelf (a known problem), or swinging the boot down quickly. You can have the parcel shelf replaced under warranty, but be prepared to have it replaced frequently as the shelf seems to warp quickly (for the worse).

Cheers,
Ryan

 

>>Oh, Theo - Did you get my PM on mini2? Looks as if we'll both be able to make it to yankme candle for that little rally. How many are you expecting?
>>

We've got about eight faxed registrations for Yankee but based on the number of reservations made at the Red Roof and verbal committments, there seem to be a bunch of folks who are coming but haven't sent in a registration. I'm going to guess at about 20 - 30 MINIs. If you have a moment, would you fax/mail me a registration for you and one for your finacee? Click my sig for the MOT website where you can find a registration form in pdf format.

Incidently, there are about 90+ registrations so far for MINIs on Top in NH! A number of folks from the midwest and mid-atlantic states are coming. We even have one person from California who will be driving here!

And, if that wasn't enough, MINIUSA will be at MOT. I'm hoping they bring the cabrio like the one at the Dragon!

Theo

 

Hey, that's called Hijacking a thread.

Btw, I took a harder look at my parcel shelf. Thanks Ryephile, I understand what you mean. It seems what the dealer had in mind is the right direction, just wrong/poor implementation. I'm going to try screwing in some rubber feet where their double sticky tape is. Hopefully it'll be adjustable so I can raise/lower it if it gets warped anymore. I'll let you know if that works.


>>We've got about eight faxed registrations for Yankee but based on the number of reservations made at the Red Roof and verbal committments, there seem to be a bunch of folks who are coming but haven't sent in a registration. I'm going to guess at about 20 - 30 MINIs.

 

>>Hey, that's called Hijacking a thread. :???:

Theo