It's been raining alot here in Boston lately. One day I was driving home, and noticed my left shoulder getting wet. What the! The seat belt was wet. The whole interior was dry and I didn't leave any windows and sunroof open at all. Leak between the outside and interior panel where the belt rolles into? So I called in for a service. Next Tuesday 10 am. No big deal.

The real problem started last night on my back home. Rain was pouring hard, and all the a sudden all my windows and the sunroof opened as if someone was pressing on the remote key's unlock button. Rain poured into the car. I paniced, and pulled over. Closed them. As soon as I let the switchs go, they opened again. Up and down. I jiggled with it for a minute and everything closed. My MCS and I were soaked. I wiped the leather seats w/ some towel. Back on the road... 10 minutes later... all open. panic! Got soaked again. I jiggled. Closed. Wiped. It happened 3 times on my way back home. (30 min. drive.) IT SUCKED!

I got home. Locke the car. Went into my apartment. I forgot to bring something from my car about 30 minutes later. So I went out. GUESS WHAT!? All the windows and sunroof were open under the pouring rain. Everything! I mean everything was soaked wet in my car. Even the carpeted ceiling was dripping water. I tried to close them using my key. (turning it to lock position until everything is closed) I felt several clicks and rejection, but somehow got it closed. I have to check and make sure they are closed every 10 minutes.

It's gonna rain some more this evening so I can't crack them open to ventilate/ dry. The inside stinks like wet leather, wet carpet. Did water get into some electrical system and freaking it out? Anyone had this problem? My MCS is still under full warranty. What should I have the dealer check and replace? HELP!!!!!

Thanks for reading my long post. Sorta had to vent.

 

I had a wet seat belt problem once - there was an imperfect seal somewhere in the roof area - Gary & the guys at MINI Peabody fixed it.

Do you have a sunroof? Some reports of the sunroof drain clogging, then water runs into the car - if it ran down the passenger A pillar it can get to the car electronics and they can be affected. There was a "rain protection" mod developed for early ('02) MINIs to reduce the problem.

 

I do have the sunroof. But the driver side seat belt is wet. Not the passenger side. Hmm... Is there any electrical stuffs on the driver side?

I car stinks like a wet dog now. It's not good. I am gonna have to ask if I can get the leather and carpet replaced. Arrrgggg!

 

Disconnect the battery until Monday and drive it right back to the dealership they owe you big time

 

Sunday was sunny and hot, so I left all my windows and the roof open all day. Stink has gotten better, and elec. system doesn't freak out on me anymore. I am gonna ask them to replace everything, although everything seems okay except some wet spots here and there.

 

Wow, that's terrible! Hope you can get to the dealer soon - I'm also in Boston, and we've got thunderstorms forecast at random times all week. I have my car at Herb Chambers today for a water problem that I thought was bad until I read your post!

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=46707

Good luck,
Chris

 

Locate the fuse for the power windows/sunroof. If it acts up again you can pull the fuse and not worry about it happening again. Good luck getting this resolved..

 

My MCS is in the shop. (Herb Chambers Mini)
Service advisor told me they will take out all the panels and carpet and completely dry out the whole car, check all the wirings and harnesses. They are not replacing the seats. Carpet might be replaced.

He also told me mine is 3rd car with water/ leak problem this week. I believe one of them was yours, Chrisnl.

I got a loaner car, Ford Escape. Getting around is no problem, but it's no fun. Miss my mini. This thing is a boat. Oh well... I will keep u posted on the status.

 

Mine has the two following problems:

1-Right/passenger side window goes up but not down. Replaced the center console switch but that didn't help at all. Also verified that the motor in the door is fine so this is something else. Are there any relays between the console switch and the window motor?

2-Sunroof opens after I disconnect and reconnect the battery then stops working.

Bizzare. I'm out of warranty so I will continue to try and figure it out before I pay $$$ to BMW.

Any ideas?

TNX

Helder

 

Yes.
Inside the BC1 which is in the passenger footwell area.
If all is quiet you should be able to hear the relay click on/off when you action the toggle. If you can hear it when trying open, the switch & wiring is OK.
But I think the same wires from motor to BC1 do both directions - then I think you won't hear the relay click for open.
Since you changed the switch panel, the fault is in the connector behind the switch panel, the wiring from switch panel to BC1, or inside the BC1. Last option - replacement BC1 - is most likely and most expensive


Don't know really.
Suggests some sort of faulty "end stop" switch or sensor - then the electronics discovers a fault and stops the sunroof working, but the memory of that fault is cleared when the battery is disconnected.

Does it open then not close? close then not open?
If you "auto close" it does it stop at the "not quite closed" / tilt position or keep going till fully closed?
Does it open/close if you try holding the key in the door lock/unlock?

According to MINI complete there is also an "initialization" procedure:
After carrying out any repairs to the sunroof the module must be initialized, this is achieved by pressing and holding the switch in the tilt position for approximately 15 seconds. The roof moving from the raised position to the close position confirms the initialization procedure

 

Ian, thanks for the suggestions. I'll check out the BC1 and I suspect the BC1 is the main computer behind the kick panel, correct? Are you suggesting it has relays or are the relays built into it? Seems that it's just a circuit board with the 4 connectors attached to it. How expensive is a BC1, do you know?

I do hear the clikc when tiping the switch to go up but no click when tiping the switch to go down.

I'll try the sunroof reset procedure and see what happens.

Thanks agains for your input.

Regards

Helder

 

Yes, the BC1 does have relays inside it, as well as solid state controls.
A picture of the insides is here. The relays are on the other side of the board, lower left of pic where those big tracks are (big tracks carrying motor current).

A year or so ago, I was told that the BC1 has an EXCHANGE price of $600.


No click indicates either that the BC1 is not seeing the signal from the switch, or that there is a fault inside it.
The connections are listed here if you are able to acces it and check that the switch signal is present (the signal is floating when the switch is open and goes to ground/0V when the switch is closed).

 

Ian,

Thanks a million for the information, however the sunroof problem persists even after the reset thus my next course of action is to try and find someone who can clear all the fault codes and see if that does it.

As for BC1, I've opened it and it does have 4 NEC relays. However they seem to be welded to the board (can't pull them out) thus I'm SOL.

Next I'll try and trace the wires and see if voltage is getting to the relays. I suspect that it is since the wires seem in good shape (no cuts, etc.) and everything from the switch panel to the board/relays works fine with one exception (the down motion of the passenger side window) thus it must be something within a relay or the board itself.

If I end up going the way of replacing the BC1, do you have any good sources?

Thanks again for all your help.

Helder

 

If you can confirm that there is voltage to the relay coils but the relays don't switch over, then you would only need to replace the offending relay. Don't know the relay part number of pinouts but certainly that info can be found. Then you know which two pins are the coil and you can meter to see if there is voltage.
You probably could buy a replacement relay somewhere and find someone to do the soldering - not a big job, and much less expensive than a new BC1.

You might find a BC1 on eBay (that is where my spare came from), otherwise from a MINI dealership. Either way, if you replace the BC1 the car has to be recoded by MINI.

See here:
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...00&hg=61&fg=25
These prices are much better than I was quoted at MINI Peabody!

 

I will do that tomorrow. I can trace the leads and figure out which pins are going to which relays. In this case, it's pin #4.

I also can probably find those relays at Fry Electronics or something but if I have to go the way of buying a new BC1, the prices in the link you sent me are a lot more reasonable than what the local dealer here quoted me.

Thanks a million. Next time I'm in the Boston area, if you have time, I'll buy you a drink. I grew up in Pawtucket, RI before coming out to California thus I know the area well including Peabody.

Take care and I'll let you know what I find.

Regards,

Helder

 

Today I opened it up and realized that it has had severe water damage. Lot's of corrosion and it seems that the leads from pin #7 (switch to BC1-close passenger side window) are corroded and no voltage flows through it.

I also realized that other 'gremlins" are popping up. For instance:

The driver side windows goes down incrementaly while you're driving the car.

The sunroof still does not open/close after a reset.

The left side front/rear turn signals don't work but fuses are OK and the side marker works and the bulbs are fine.

Only thing in common is that all of this functionality goes through the BC1 thus I suspect the water really killed it.

I'm going to order one from the site you sent me. The price is reasonable but I guess I also need to make an appointment with BMW in order for them to install it and rekey it, etc. correct?

I can't wait to clear all of these hurdles and have fun with this car but I must say that all these electrical glitches have been very irritating.

Thanks for all your help/information. I'll keep you abreast of what happens.

Take care.

Helder

 

I know what your problem is with the windows and sunroof opening by themselves. It's the door lock accentuator. Started having all the symptoms yours had several months ago. My dealer knew exactly what it was and fixed it in 45min. You need a new door lock accentuator. I think that's what it is called. The accentuator part is definitely right.

 

Do you know where we can check to make sure the drains are ok? I'm not that worried giving where I live but would be nice to make sure. I do wash the car A LOT and the dust and leaves here they can get plugged.

 

badalo4,
What year is your MINI? Assume quite old ... how friendly is your dealership?
There was a retrofit kit for I think 02s which was basically a water protection kit for the BC1; later MINIs have the wiring route to the BC1 changed so that water is less likely to affect the BC1.
You might try seeing if MINI would do a "goodwill repair" if your car is an early US model - since there is a recognized issue & fix.

At the least, when you get them to do the install & re-key you should ensure that they also fit the necessary water protection.


EBMCS03,
Sorry, don't know. Although since the drain tubes start at the sunroof and come out at the trunk door frame, I think you would have to remove the headliner to see them!

 

Ian,

It's a 2002 built in June. It's in excellent shape and has 30K miles thus I'm not sure if it's in warranty or not. I bought it from a 3rd party. He did tell me that it had the water issue occur to him so I knew I'd have some troubleshooting and some $$$ to spend but I guess I didn't expect it to be so troublesome since all it seemed it was, a simple window switch and the sunroof. Boy was I wrong.

I will go to BMW and see what I can do. If not, I'll just pay them the $$ to have it fixed once and for all. I love the car and these are minor irritations.

Not sure about the door actuator but I suspect BMW should be able to see what trouble codes are there and advise me what to do.

The local BMW dealer in San Jose, CA is kind of a jerk so I'll probably get screwed but there's not much I can do. I'll mention the retro kit you speak of and see how it goes.

I'm anxious to get this resolved and enjoy the car. I have big plans for it.

A good friend of mine Tony Goncalves who is a guy that designed an old mini http://www.mr2mk1club.com/MiniMR2.html on top of a mid-engine Toyota MR2 (Kit Car of the year Award a few years back), is working on designing some widebody kits and some minor body flares and I can't wait to modify the Mini's looks a little bit as well as beef up the HP, etc.

Thanks for your help. This is one of the best boards I've ever seen and everyone seems very knowledgable and eager to help. A pleasure.

Regards

Helder

 

YES!
You have three years / 36K free maintenance - so that might have expired or be close to expiring. If it was built in June it might not have been sold till mid to end July, so you might have a couple of weeks maintenance left.
When you turn the car on, the odometer will display distance-to-next-service for a few seconds - it is is displaying a nice low number (<500 miles) see if you can squeeze one last free maintenance/service in the next week or so.


BUT more important: the WARRANTY on the car for faults etc is four years / 50K miles. So you have nearly a full year left.
Your MINI dealership should be totally responsible for the BC1 issues you have. Your only issue will be "covering your tracks" because if they can show you disassembled the BC1, they will no doubt try to refuse warranty.

But if you can put everything back together well, you can just present yourself with this "just bought car which has these problems with window & sunroof - and you read somewhere online that it might be something to do with water in the electronics, and there was some retro fit kit to protect early MINIs from such problems".
From there, the dealership should figure the BC1 is faulty, replace it, and install the protection.

Hopefully.

 

I'll give it a shot. Everything is back together very tightly but certainly if they look carefully at the BC1, they will see that it has been opened but I'll try it.

TNX

Helder

 

Finally I got my car back. Still stinks like a dog, but it will eventually go away. I hope...

They found a leak near 3rd brake light. So they took out the headliner, re-secure the drain hoses. ZKE module and the 3 stop lamp were wet, so they replaced those. They also replaced the battery terminal. It's still kinda wet in the boot area. I gotta dry it up.They replaced the boot lid grip as well. I don't know why, but they got the chrome lid grip instead of body color grip. (like in regular Cooper) It looks pretty funky. I don't know if I like it or not. They ordered the body color lid.

I thought ZKE module was something that controls xenon self-leveling thing. Would this trigger windows and sunroof malfunction? Anyone know?
It better not freak out on me in the rain again. Driving rental Escape around wasn't fun.

I have to remind myself not to leave any changes in the ashtray next time I am in for a service. Bunch of quarter are missing.

 

I hope that'll be the last of your worries... I usually leave a bunch of stuff in my car when I take it in for service... Havent had much problems... I'll keep that in mind tho.

 

An update! The Mini finaly went into the dealer and as most suggested, a BC1 replacement fixed all the gremlins.

Everything in these cars runs through the BC1.

So, got it back and now it's time to start looking at some upgrades. Any suggestions on brakes/suspension and minor engine mods would be appreciated. I realize that there is so much stuff out there and IMHO, the Works Kits from the dealers are way overpriced.

Tnx

Helder