Once you clean the black trim off you may still have a stain...from what I hear Black Wow (available here) is great at taking care of that.

 

Or you could give your dealer a really stern talking to and make them replace the trim piece.

 

Thank you, Checked out the site. I may have to do some ordering.

I don't like this option. I don't want to think about dealership guys tearing into my Mini for replacement parts already. If there's a fix I'd like to give it my best effort first. Besides this stuff hasn't went away. My DH has cleaned the underside of the hood a few times now. On hot days it just re-occurs. We are almost finished out with the warmer weather, and I'm crossing my fingers that this isn't an issue next summer.

I noticed today that the stains are on both sides of the front wheel molding. My husband said he did try the WD40 solution upon noticing the stain. It did not touch the problem.

 

My seeping seeps to have stopped. I worked on it several times w/ some solvent the dealership was kind enough to give me. 5/17 delivery.

 

Its a citrus based cleaner and won't hurt your finish...use black wow if it gets on your plastic pieces...

 

[FONT=Arial]Thought I would share my experience with this stuff.

I visited my local Mini dealer about this problem today. I didn't think I had an issue with it until I noticed the other day that one of the rubber wheel arches had been stained in two spots by the liquidized goo. It has been very hot here in Ohio lately, so the stuff turns to a liquid and runs.

If it gets on metal, it comes off fairly easily. However, the sun will bake it very quickly into your rubber pieces. I wasn't able to remove the stain on the rubber without removing some of the rubber top coat (leaving the material below looking blemished). The dealer knew about the problem and did not give me a hard time in agreeing to order a replacement arch. Their detail shop said they couldn't get it off either, so I guess that is how they handle the situation at this dealership. Your experience may be different.

The dealer didn't think it was cosmolene, but more some type of rust proofing. I thought they were one in the same, but the dealer didn't think so. Funny how there are different opinions on what exactly this stuff is. It certainly is a poor design at best though. These cars are fairly well engineered, so I am surprised someone didn't think, "Hey, this stuff could get hot and run all over the rest of the car. It may even damage all the rubber these cars have."



At least my dealer was willing to help out and that I am thankful for. I guess that is what they mean when they talk about it is normal to have problems, but how someone fixes them becomes key.

Thanks![/FONT]

 

When I had my little exit interview with the salesman (mini of pittsburgh); going through all the features of the car; he popped the hood, told me what it was (sprayed for anti-rust?) and that it will show up in certain spots as the car heats up on the first few runs. he was right. i think because i knew about it in advance and knew to look for it, i was able to clean it off right away with no worry.

i figured all dealers did this -- now i realize just how thorough he was!