Everytime I wash my car or when it rains, i get a damp spot just below the footrest and a little bit along the rocker. Now yesterday it rained pretty bad, and i noticed this morning, besides the wet dog smell, the entire foot area is soaked! I took the floor mat out and water was dripping off that aswell!!
I have a factory moon roof but my liner feels completely dry.
And of course, when i remove weather strip, it is moist also (but that is another Mini issuse...)
I have an appointment on the 27th of this month, i hope they can figure this out. It feels like my Mini has been in the shop more than i've owned it!!!

 

This has happened to a number of MINI owners.

I believe that the problem was a leak in the rain gutter.

If you look up top on the A piller (I think) you should see a little hole. (This is on the roof)

I think that is where it was leaking for the other MINI owners.

 

I've noticed the hole at the top of the gutter (both sides) also. Im assuming they are ment to be there though...?

 

Yes, is is possible if not probable that they are supposed to be there, and yet they are the source of the problem....but not the entire problem.

There is a corresponding hole down low where the water is supposed to drain out. If this is like an Audi I had, that drain is plugged.

I had an Audi where I started hearing sloshing. Took some digging but eventually found the rocker panel had over an inch of water trapped. I removed it from above - who knows what the rust issue was at that time - thought I was solid..and sloshing came back real soon. Drove me nuts.

Had the car to the dealer for something else and they were a dealer that washed the car when they were done. As the car was being handed over to me the service manager noticed water running out from underneath. "where's that water coming from?" he asks me.... and gets down to look.

Then he proceeded to pull out a half a dozen plastig plugs from under side and water comes streaming out of each. They were plugs placed in the unibody when undercoating was applied, to keep the drain holes open. Problem was after the coating was applied, the plugs were not removed as they should have been.

Sometimes drain holes just get plugged with crud too, was the cause of A'C condensation getting to the carpet on both a Camry and a Miata of mine over the years. Each case, found the plugged drain hole and problem solved...except for the concern of what corrosion might have been initiated by standing water.

But routing water from the doors, or sunroof pocket thru some inner route, is a common thing. It just needs to be able to get out.

Maybe a Bentley Manual has information about these drains?

 

Is this the same on the Cabrio, too? I'm deathly afraid of leaks with the rag top...

 

Yes, at the top of the A Post on each corner of the windshield. If you park your car with the top down under trees, etc. these drains can become stopped up.

 

Good to know- thanks as always, Mishka!!

 

So if these holes are clogged, then the water flows down the 'A' pillars? Seems like a poor design? The holes are only about a 1/4" in diameter....but past the hole is a just the voild of the 'A' pillar!
I suppose i could poke a pipe-cleaner or something down there to make sure it is free of junk. Im afraid of disconnecting the channel from the hole if i do that though...

 

No - what I'm saying is you are probably fine at the top. The water goes down that hole. Maybe to a piece of tubing - and yes, maybe just down the channel - strange but true. Problem I've had is the other end. Someplace that water is supposed to exit the car...outside of the pass' compartment. If it can't follow this path, it is finding someplace else to go....

One way to try to figure this out is to introduce water to that hole on the other side....where does the water come out? Then go back to the 'bad side' and try to locate the same exit....

 

I'll try that when i get a chance today.
What i've noticed though is where I think the water exits is half way down the weather strip at the front of the door frame, there is a 'chute' where im assuming the water is suppose to drain away.

 

Similar problem--sloshing in the car. The thing is, I know exactly where it came from. The wife had one of those half gallon jugs of water to take to work. Forgot to close the top. Entire contents leak all over back seats . Mopped up a little, but I had to figure there was more. So I started tugging on the seat and finally pulled up the entire seat bottom (it snaps out). Almost 2 inches of water in the seat pan, with more dripping out of the foam part of the seat ! What can you do? At least it was water and not lemonade or something...

 

A gy in my club that's famous for his obsessive detailing (his car looks like it just rolled off the assmebly line) tells me that you can remove all of the plastic trim along the lower edge, in order to wax the paint under there and prevent autobody rust. Seems like it might also be a golden opportunity to check those holes as well. Even his car, as clean as it is, had a bunch of leaves and gunk crusted under the trim, he said, and that soulds like exactly what might be clogging things up... I'm a bit nervous about pulling mine off, though- he says you have to use pliers on plastic clips, and I shudder to imagine what a slip wuold do.

 

Thanks for the tip, OKeefe! I went out on my lunch break with a mug full of water, opened the sun roof and pured half of the water down the drain hole on the passenger side. Next thing i heard was water splashing onto the pavement...Worked perfectly.
NEXT, went around to the 'troubled' driver side and poured water down that drain hole, sure enough, water was flowing down the insided plastic plate that faces the door and out the plastic 'knee guard' and onto the carpet!!
I really dont want to start poping off the plastic covers by the windshield just because there is a nice 'live' airbag right there...I think ill just have to hope it doesn't rain until my appointment on the 27th!!!

 

Something I haven't see mentioned here--yet--is the rear drains getting blocked on the cabrios.

My previous 2 cars were Chrysler Sebring Convertibles. When the top was down there was a cover to put over the folded top. I would sometimes not use the cover, and didn't think much of it.

About year after getting my first Sebring we had a hard rain. I got in the car and as I was driving I could hear water sloshing back and forth. When I got home, I checked the car and found the carpet in the back floorboard was soaked. I took the car to the shop, and they found that the rear drains were blocked with derbris that had apparently got in around the folded top when the cover was not in place. They cleaned it out, and I used the cover from that time on and never had any other problems.

On our MINI Cabrios I can see a potential for that same problem, and we don't have a cover we can put over the top.

 

My drain tubes cracked in the cold weather and when it rained my carpet got soaked. They run down the "A" pillars, and that is where I traced it, water running down the passenger kick panel. That was Dealer Visit 3 out of 10.

Good luck!

regards,
Red

 

My son had a problem with the water as well . He mounted his boost gauge on the headliner by the clock ,and running the gauge tube behind the liner he knocked one of the sliding roof drain tubes loose . This caused the same water problem .The dealer fixed it on my sons dime and $500 later all was well .

 

Is it easy to pop the side-pillar panel off? Im worried the clips are one of those 'one-time-use' clips that have to be replaced everytime you take the cover off....
Also, will the airbag drop out if i do removed the cover??