does anyone know if this has become an official recognized problem by Mini? My roadster is from this March and based on this thread I'll keep an eye on how my top wears; it does touch in two spots.

When I talked to dealership person today he didn't seem to know about this and his first reaction was to take a wait and see vs saying its a known problem so don't worry your covered if we see wear during the next 4 years of warranty time.

 

Does anyone know if this issue with wear marks on the convertible top has become an official service bulletin, warranty item, or similar?

 

Do you see wear marks?
I'm curious because mine got better from overall natural wear of the top.

If anything I'm more frustrated with folds mark on the rear corner panels.

 

Based upon my experience MINI is treating the top similar to how they treat stripes.

Essentially they will replace the top once as a warranty item if there is damage and if asked.

Outside of warranty and you're on your own.

Again just based upon my experience with my SA.

 

"Essentially they will replace the top once as a warranty item if there is a damage and if asked."

Thanks for your input

 

Just the faintest of wear starting to show. <6 months old and < 2000 miles; 95% of the time the top is down while driving.

Do you keep your top up when not in use? This may be compounding the wear/look of the fold marks that you mention.

 

When I raised the wear mark issue with the dealer on my 2012 Roadster this summer they checked and said there was a service bulletin on the issue. They ordered and installed a new top. This included the entire frame structure for the top. I was told that there was a design issue with the original top. After two months, I have seen no new wear marks.

 

That was what they told me too. I also talked to someone during a factory tour in Oxford in 2104 and he stated that there had been supplier issues and that even on the line this was a well known issue and they were taking extra care in adjustment and had involved the supplier.

 

So far I haven't been able to find a TSB for this issue. It would be appreciated if you could track down this reference from your dealer and share with the rest of who do or might have this problem down the road while we are still in warranty.

 

@ s bright: I typed a response twice and my post didn't show properly with the quote, arh... I'll reply again later

 

Have you had a chance to try to post again?

 

lol, I should have by now

I'm not sure what happened before. When I would try to reply with quotes it would shop off most of the text I just wrote


What I wanted to say about the wear marks on the soft top rear corner sides:
The car almost always has the top up when not in use unless we are going in and out of the house frequently, or we are parked in front of a restaurant where we are seated outside and can see the car.
The wear marks are not wear mark per say. It just has this shine such as when one over iron a piece of clothe. It's better when I use less soap washing the top. And worse when I use the soft top protectant. But overall I wish it would keep it's black color like the rest.
All I can think of is that some how I am not able to find the time to let it dry enough after the wash before driving the car again.
Any suggestion? Am I the only one with this issue here?

 

Pressure marks very faint, I have them on the R52 and to help the fabric show less of these marks I just clean and seal the top twice a year and mine on its second top with over 200,000 miles on it, had it replaced at about 50K.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...k-for-top.html





Some people have had the top adjusted at MINI on the R52 , R57 and R59 to that when its closes all the way , they will lift the top up a hair to create less fabric on fabric marks from the top closure.

 

Hi, I had my roof replaced (not the frame) in January just before the warranty expired. At the time, I wrote to my dealer stating that I was accepting this as a temporary fix not a permanent solution to their known design fault. In September I reported back to them that I now have wear marks on the new roof. They have sent photos away and I am awaiting a response.

 

I have a 2015 Roadster, came off the line in February of 2015. I have 6600 miles on it with 125 hours with top down.
Long story short.. I am going to the dealership today to pickup my Roadster after having the top replaced!
When I pointed the wear out to them, they seemed surprised and said that it was supposed to have been fixed in later years of the Roadster!
As was pointed out on here, looks like they just replace the top on warranty and cross their fingers!
If you have a Roadster, no matter what year, check for the wear and get it in before the warranty runs out!

 

Picked it up, looks good! Unfortunately can't put the top down for a week per MINI's recommendations.
Service Adviser says they install it slightly forward to get it away from the rubber that wears on it! I will keep a close eye on it!
Oh BTW, he says the top assembly is $7,000, plus labor for installation!

 

Thanks for the update.

Yea, had my R52 top replaced ( wear marks) and you have to let the top settle and stretch, they are pretty tight from the factory. Then once you wash it , treat it.

The R52 was about 5K all together.

 

In BMW's defense, they replace the top, the metal sub assembly, and provide all labor as well. The sub assembly I was told was a new design. My top was replaced about a year ago and it performs well. ��

 

At the risk of giving my opinion too loudly and sanding against the grain, I think this wear mark issue is really overblown...

I keep an eye on it and as I said before, once the felt material effect wears out, which it will, the wear mark is almost gone. I did do a small tweak to the rubber edge placement but having the top change for this is just overkill. To me it feels almost the same as wanting your bumper change because it developed wear marks from the wind and dirt due to bad aero dynamics... I say "almost" because, yes, in this case it could have been prevented from the get go.

And, I don't believe for a second they would have done any changes to the frame, and I have yet to be shown the difference. At most they tweaked the adjustments which in term may put stress elsewhere like windows rubber seal and such...

Now having said all this I would agree that it's not customers mistake. This could be handle a lot better by MINI BMW if someone had actually sat for a day or two and figure out how to adjust the top properly, provide instruction to do so, or simply come-up with a small fix rather then let be an entire top assembly change... But hey, swapping parts makes the dealership business happy I'm sure...

 

I too have some early wear marks, nothing serious enough for gasket trimming but will keep that in mind!
I do have a thunk if you will that is coming from right rear when top is down only. I'm thinking it may be the top shaking in the well where it lives when down? Only occurs on bumpy roads, anyone have this annoyance?

 

Might be the top lifting up and then down very quick over a bump. Do you have pressure marks? If so I remember they can adjust the top so when it sets down its not tight.

 

I would love to understand more about the adjustment on the top.
I'm certain their are some adjustments but I have know idea how it all works...

@femurdude: Mine does that too. I think it has to do with the foam pad near the old manual lock or something like that. Unfortunately I don't know how to fix that.
I believe there's a few post on the subject but I never got enough details from it to understand where and how to replace it.

 

Regarding the I believe if you partially close the top you will see a metal platform the top rests on (center point directly behind the circular button where the manual latch goes). The rattle "fix" was to simply place a foam pad on top of that platform.

Regarding the adjustment, as I mentioned in a prior post above I have white fold marks/creases on my top from leaving it down all the time. In 2014 I asked the dealer how to prevent further marks and was told that I could get a new top as a warranty replacement.

Well last week I had the car at the dealer for an engine light (another 2 sensors went out, sigh) and asked about getting the new top installed.

At first they declined due to "normal wear and tear".

I originally had delayed because my top did not rub against the rubber gasket so I did not have that issue.

However, and this is the relevant part, the driver's side now does rub at the expected point. And even though the damage is very minor the dealer agreed to replace the top under warranty.

So instead of the adjustment you might ask the dealer about a warranty replacement.

I understand how it may seem like overkill; but this issue is Mini's doing and as long as they are paying for it...

After I get the new top I will need to figure out how to keep it looking good when I have it down all the time. My current one simply looks awful.

 

Do you have a picture of the "awful" top?

 

Yes, i would like to see what the wear looked like also. Had the wear on my R52 which the top was replaced also.