So yeah. first of all, let me give a tip of the hat to the service department at Roadshow MINI in Memphis. They were super nice. Having a positive sales experience is one thing -- you're giving them a bunch of money, after all -- but being treated well on a service call is the sort of thing that wins loyalty from me.

Anyway, they were able to identify both noises, fix one and order the part to fix the other.

The more annoying sound was being caused by a loose metal clip (or something) inside the toggle housing. Dude plugged it back in and it's tight and silent again.

The A-pillar noise was, by far, the more subtle of the two, and it is apparently being caused by a slight looseness to the a-pillar trim, caused by one of the four clips breaking when the door was closed WITHOUT the window doing its magical automatic-quarter-inch-drop trick. They've ordered a new part to replace the broken one.

 

I wonder if that's a different sound than you're getting then. Mine reminds me of a rat, mouse, etc. chewing on a seed. TICK TICK TICK TICK TICK TICK TICK TICK TICKT ICK TICKRITCITKFITRKFE

Any vibration at freeway speeds is enough to get it started (with the top closed). If I push up or pull down on the top above the driver window it stops, but its DEFINITELY coming from where the room and A-pillar meet.

It's also loud enough to cut through the freeway noise of runflat tires at 75MPH, to give you an idea of what im dealing with lol

 

Hi,

I didn't read every post so I am sorry if someone has already covered this answer:

I removed the plastic assembly on the top of the seat belt pillar on either side of the car. If you squeeze this lightly you can hear it creak and moan. This assembly does not like ruff terrain down here in Australia...was driving me up the wall...

I wrapped all edges of this unassembled module in black plastic tape to mitigate the sounds caused by the areas rubbing during ruff terrain. None of the tape is visible and once reinstalled squeezing the assembly proved to remove the sounds mentioned above.
I also wrapped 1 layer of tape on the inside of the entire assembly to add some strength to it and placed some over the screw holes in pillar before reinstalling everything. took around 20 minutes and a little agility and care, 5/10 for difficulty (imo)

I also noticed that the seat belts mounting on the floor click in certain scenarios. This sounds like a small metal on metal vibration (happens on both sides of the car). Pulling the belt tight stops this sound so I got to thinking about a solution.

So far I've inserted a home made black plastic washer to add some friction to the area...sound gone. I need to think of a longer term solution to this issue but it seems to have worked for now.

If anyone is interested I can take some photos of my cars problem areas and my solution.

There is one last rattle in the 6x9 speakers in some conditions (audio loud and ruff terrain)...(never at idle) and I think I need to remove the back panels in the boot and look into this further, a task for this coming weekend perhaps.

Anyway hope this helps someone.

 

I have the exact same noise.

 

Hi, I have a 13 Roadster convertible, I drive in LA top down 90%. LA roads are n/g with ripples, I found an annoing rattle, it is the small metal support that meets with the rubber section of the top. I had to add some cloth tape as the material that covers the metal has disappeared. Anyone else have this same issue?

 

placed felt tape in the boot area to mitigate the snake bite effect.
Electronics shroud rubs against the paint.
One of the annoying sounds I had is now gone.

(In case you don't know the top right area of the boot where the electronics are cabled for the boot release, a black plastic duct shroud wraps the cabels and this rubs against the car paint work, $2 worth of felt tape, issue gone)

 

I have this rattle as well. I tracked it down to the stock Turbo Heat Shield. It's more noticeable when I first start my car and when the fan is on for the AC unit. To track it down, I turned my AC on full blast in the car to make the rattle noise, popped the hood, and used a wrench to press down on certain parts of my engine until the rattle stopped. I asked the guys at the dealership and they claimed that this is supposed to happen and isn't an issue, but I have yet to meet any other S owner who has this rattle issue. I've tried tightening the bolts down, but no luck.

As for the squeaking, check to see if your head rest is rubbing up against the back of the car. I had this issue as well. Put a piece of double sided velcro from local hardware store on the spot where it was rubbing and the squeaking stopped.

Like posted above, using that little rectangle on the seatbelt, to hold the seatbelt tight against the top part of the mechanism, will get rid of the rattle from the seat belt itself. Hope this helps.

 

Hi, my 13 roadster conv top rattle was fixed. It is when the top is down and the top rests on a support frame. mini of Long Beach said there was a service bulletin and they fixed, so far no noise.