So everyone knows how the MINI door works. From the inside you have to pull twice. First pull to unlock the doors, second pull to open the door. Well no matter how many times I told people, they would pull on it the first time, and their reaction (instead of letting go) is to completely ignore me yelling "LET GO AND PULL AGAIN PULL AGAIN!" and to just start YANKING on the door handle.



Well today, finally, I heard a snap. Now The first pull of the handle only halfway unlocks the door (the little lock **** next to the window comes up about halfway) and then pulling the handle again does NOTHING!

Again...

The only way to let people out of the passenger side door, now, is to unlock it electronically with the unlock switch underneath the air con. Then they have to pull the handle and push fairly hard on the door to get it to open.

Again...

What, if anything, can I do to fix this? I'm imagining this could end up being a very expensive repair that would have to be taken care of at the dealership.

One more time, with gusto. !!!

 

Severely hurt whoever broke the door is a start

 

Are you out of warranty?

By the way, once fixed have the dealer reprogram your car to auto-unlock the doors when you turn off the ignition

 

Precisely why I refuse to allow any passengers.

I kid

 

Wow, that's cold.
I thought I was bad tying and gagging them. And then the LOOKS you get from people for driving around with 'The Gimp' in your car.


Sorry about the troubles, WING - sounds like a mechanical issue. The door panel isn't too tough to take off if you have mechanical skills. Then you can just look at the mechanism and see what the issue might be.

 

Sorry to hear about your door.

Another option would be since YOU are well aware of the problem and your passengers forget, unlock the doors for them BEFORE they attempt to exit the car. It has worked over 5 years for me so far.

 

That would be my mother.

eager2own - Yes out of warranty, unfortunately. However once it is fixed, I may look into getting the dealer to reprogram my doors to do so.

SumWon - I must take accountability for not catching it every time. I was hoping on just "training" my mother to pull twice so therefore I never got around to making habit of unlocking it electronically every time. But I couldn't catch it every time and finally it broke!

For a while it was working out that I could unlock it electronically and they could then open the door. Now, however, the handle has broken COMPLETELY. Now when it is unlocked (electronically) the door handle won't even open the door. I have to let out passengers from the outside... (very awkward today when my friend Andrew was with me).

So, the handle is now officially useless. Won't unlock the door, won't open the door. I just gotta hope now that the electronic lock doesn't go! Then it would be no passengers for me!

 

Unless the pull handle itself is visibly broken, it sounds like it is just the bowden cable. I have the same problem on the driver's side and I plan to fix it this weekend. The cable itself is $12 at the dealer, but I'm out of warranty so I'll be doing it myself. Do a search for "bowden cable" and you should find plenty of info on it.

Hope this helps.

sprung

 

Passengers irritate me, one of my friends who i didnt want to give a lift to dove in through the window, his belt scratched the painted door handle on the inside.

 

That is when you stop, turn to your passenger, look coldly into thier eye's with a stone face and say "Get out." Terminator style.

 

I can see quoting the Terminator, but in my case it would be a different quote.