Interesting, first report I've read of the seal making any difference. I may have to spend the 22 bucks as well. IMO the door also looks better with it installed.

 

The part number mention earlier in the thread, 51767146093, does that include 2 seals or is it just for 1?

 

That is for one seal. You will need to order two.

 

That's what I thought. Thanks!

 

Are you sure about this? aem421 said he spent $22 in post #150. I assume this $22 contains shipping cost as well. The part number 51767146093 shows as $15 on the pelicanparts website. Two of them would cost $30 without shipping. So perhaps the part number 51767146093 contains two seals?

 

I bought mine from the dealer. No shipping costs involved.

 

I checked with Pelican Parts and you would need to order 2 from them. They are sold individually.

 

OK, thanks for the clarification.

 

Just for the halibut, I asked the service adviser at the local Mini dealer about the missing rubber gaskets on the bottoms of the doors on my '07 MCS. He didn't know anything about it. Not a good answer.

- Bob

 

See post 135 in this thread.

 

I have read the Mini document but it fails to mention why the seals were discontinued. I would really like to know why because I am on fence as to whether I push to get them from dealer or just buy myself.

I wonder if Mini will stop making the part and stop supporting and future warranty replacements or does this discontinuation just apply to that particular build week on. I don't understand this decision at all. It seems to me, they should have also published a memo to remove all current R56 bottom door seals as well.

 

I would think if they found the seal to cause a problem like contribute to rust/water build up in the bottom of the door, then they would have released a memo to remove them from the models that had them installed.

No body really knows why they were removed.

 

Well if it's true that the seals do nothing for wind noise and very little for water, I can understand the decision. Small things like that can save a ton of money for the manufacturer.

 

I would accept that answer if it came from Mini. I just don't understand why they are not forthcoming about this decision. If the memo mentioned to remove seals off all R56's for reasons x y and z, it would make sense. Just stopping installing them from August on and giving no reason just bothers me.

 

It does seem weird that they just decided after 8 months of the R56 to drop them. I admit there isn't much difference having them so my guess is that as mentioned it was a little cost savings multiplied by a lot of doors. Something they probably wouldn't go out of their way to note.

 

That service bulletin says "eliminating this seal does not have any negative effects on body sealing."

What more do you want Mini to say about it? Door has a seal, sealing of door is not affected by the seal, no need for seal. Seems like a perfectly fine reason to me.

 

Good point on Mini's choice of wording. I don't have the seals on my R56 and I personally do not have any perceived obvious issues. However I have no basis for comparison. One negative I do see is that the door as manufactured today appears to be missing something because the mounting holes are still there. I know the majority will never see this but I know about it Did the previous generation have a seal like this? This may already have been mentioned but this bottom seal should at least keep the door sill a bit cleaner or dry.

 

Honestly I would think the absence of it would help keep it cleaner because now the dirt and water can escape through the bottom instead of being sealed up

 

That's my one reason for considering them as well. I know they don't do anything in the way of an actual "seal", but the look kinda bothers my OCD side.

 

That's why I haven't put them on mine. I have no wind issues with the doors sealing. All those mounting holes are just extra places for water to drain out. Since I will be the only owner of this car, in the long run, it's probably better to have more drains.

 

Look at the location of the mounting holes. They are not at the most dependent portion of the door. IMHO, not useful for any effective drainage or any other effective function (other than they were engineered into the original stamping specs to allow for mounting of the bottom seals). They remain only because they are not going to re-tool the stamping (again, my opinion).

 

Has anybody with an R 56 checked the design of this more important weatherstripping? After reading this thread, it appears that MINI is still having issues with water penetration in this general area. Both my R 50 and 53 had surface rust under the weatherstripping and both were repaired under warranty. My suspicion is that if you poured water on the roof near the A pillars, the weephole will still channel the water right down underneath this weatherstripping and it will stay there for a very long time since the stripping will prevent it from evaporating. There are only a couple of very small holes along the top of the weatherstripping that MINI thought would allow sufficient evaporation to occur, but they don't, unless they've enlarged the holes in the R 56. I'd check it out at the dealer, but they're over an hour away.

Back to your issues with the less functional trim piece on the door itself, if I bought an R 56 and saw those mounting holes without the strip, I'd be more than a little upset. It looks like the bottom of the door is unfinished - I'd expect that in a Scion but not in a MINI! (I should know-my winter beater is an xB )

 

I don't know if this is the same thing or not but I notice when I'm on the highway in the rain I get an interesting water pattern on the side windows that looks as if water is coming out of the A pillar on to the windows. I know it sounds weird and maybe if my wife is driving I'll take a picture. There's definitely some sort of either weep hole in the stripping or water is coming over the pillar from the windshield.

 

Well i dont mean particularly that the holes will help...i mean that will the gap between the metal sill not wedged with rubber now should allow the water that enters from the top portion of the door (like water that enters after raining) can now just fall out instead of being trapped my the rubber seal holding it in

 

This whole thread was silly...