I happen to love my Roadster and have very few performance or maintenance issues, which is great! I take Dahlia (2013, 40K) in for regularly scheduled maintenance, have replaced the tires, and that's about it. The one irritation that I have encountered is that both exterior door handle latches have become "stiff" and difficult to depress with normal finger pressure. My frequent co-pilot, who has a bit of arthritis, but not bad, simply cannot open the passenger side door anymore without my assistance, and there are times that I have struggled with opening the driver door.


I had assumed this would be a minor maintenance issue that could be remedied by a little grease on the actual door latch mechanism or perhaps some well place W-D40 or graphite powder. However; after mentioning this to my SA, the Mechanic determined that both door handles should be replaced due to "internal seizing". Its still covered under warranty (for a few months); but because I have a "Black Carbon-Fiber Design theme, including the door handles, which were expensive and will probably be trashed with the installation of new handles, plus the fact that it seems silly to totally replace the handles if just a "squirt of something 'there' or a lube of something 'there' might fix the problem.


So, my questions: have other Roadster owners experienced this sticky/stiff kinda-hard to open exterior door handle issue, and if so, how did you remedy it? Is my only option replacement of both handles? If so, have you had any luck removing Carbon-Fiber door handle covers from your MINI?


Thanks!

 

Hi JP.

To answer your question, yes I have.
Same here, my wife had a hard time opening the door after some time of our new MINI owner ship. This happened maybe 9 month after the car was delivered to us (produced in July 2013 and has now 30,000 miles).
It probably doesn't help I like to keep it maintained and cleaned. The soap probably get's in there and wash off some of the grease.

I mentioned it during service and they indeed greased it. This made a big difference. Unfortunately I do not know what area they lubricated and really wish I did so I could keep on top of it for the long run.
Also, I doubt WD40 is the type of grease to use. That doesn't sound like it would keep lubrication long enough.

Having said that long term effect of not having enough grease may have a more permanent effect. It's hard to tell without looking at the parts in hand.
It is still worth greasing first and see if this solves the issue.


Now if it's under warranty and the black carbon fiber was from MINI I wouldn't hesitate to get it replaced for free. You can then keep an eye on it so it performs for the long run.
I'm also guessing the carbon cover can be removed and recycled to the new handle mechanism if it was something you got elsewhere. I'm not sure, I have never looked at it.

 

I looked online and there seem to be a lot of discussion on the subject. It might be worth the search. It seems to be a common problem not well addressed by BMW MINI.
The lock mechanism is a bit complexe apparently. Good luck.

 

My door handles are similar, but it seems to come and go quite frequently. One day my wife can barely get in, the next it's fine. I've had it looked at multiple times but it was never "fixed" permanently.