I've got kind of an odd one. I just bought an '03 MCS with about 55000 miles on it. So far, I love it. One of the odd things about this car is that there is some weather stripping missing on either side of the car where the front pillar joins the roof. I have no idea why these particular 4" pieces would be missing. I have not noticed any leakage into car's interior, but I worry about what is unseen. Anybody know anywhere I could get replacement weather stripping? I have looked at JC Whitney, but I would rather get the OEM replacement rather than a shlock job. Thanks in advance for any help!

 

Those are to prevent water going down inside the A pillars. The 1st time I had my windscreen replaced, one of them got broken and came off the next time I got on the freeway. My local parts department told me (2 years ago now) that I couldn't get just that part, I had to buy the entire side's trim. That may have changed by now, or at a different dealership. I was still inside warrantee at that point and when I told my service advisor that it blew off at 80, she got it replaced under warrantee. That won't help you if you're at 55k though.

 

Thanks, I called Mini and it sounds like $120 for both sides (the molding and entire rain rail). I can't imagine that it can be that difficult. I did it on a '48 Ford, I'm sure a Mini can't be that bad (famous last words eh?). Anyone have experience with this?

 

[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]I bought the replacement rails ($77 a piece!!!!). I tried the cheap route with some generic weather stripping, but that didn’t work so well. The guy at the dealership recommended that I do not try installing these myself because their technicians have “special tools”. Apparently, they thought that I lacked a Phillips head screw driver. Removal is relatively easy. There are 4 screws in the top of the door frame that secure the drip rail to the roof of the car. You have to pull back the door seal to get at these. Once those screws are out, it is just a matter of pulling the back end of the drip rail out of a few clips over the rear window. In addition, you must remove the A pillar cover, which is another 4 screws. Again, you must pull the door weather seal back to access these. There is also an adhesive tape that helps to secure the A pillar cover to the pillar itself. This is easily removed with a little force. [/SIZE][/FONT]
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[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]Installation is pretty easy, with the hardest part being aligning the holes in the rail with the holes in the roof. From start to finish, this took about an hour. I am sure that the other side will go quicker now that I know what I am doing. I am not too happy about having to do this, but glad that the car looks a heck of a lot better.[/SIZE][/FONT]