This evening I went to jump another car from my MINI and found the battery in the boot to be covered three-thirds up from the bottom with water. The entrie rear carpet area was soaked also. The roof is not wet at all.

We recently had heavy rain here due to leftovers from Hanana.

I was going to remove the 3rd brake light but its snug in there so I don't see it being the culprit. Any not agree with me here?

2004 MCS

Anyone have an idea where its coming from.

Here are some pictures.






So I removed all of my rear interior panels and seats to make sure I had gotten all of the water.



Any help or idea on where the water might be coming from would be great.

Thanks in advance.

 

With the carpeting removed, have someone hose the trunk of your MINI and you (being inside the vehicle) watch were it is coming in from.

Acouple of the places I have seen leaks from are the clips behind the chrome trim at the bottom of the hatch glass. And I have seen leaks from the vents which are under the bumper, sometimes water leaks in at the top of the vents and travels to the battery box.

I would try and remove that fuse block where the Red cables run to and clean out as well as you can. When the ends of those cables corrode badly you will be buying a new cable (not cheap) runs the whole length of your MINI.

Hope this helps some

Greg

 

Yep, I planned on doing. It doesn't work to well by yourself. HaHa

Alright I'll make sure I pay close attention to those areas. Thanks for the hints bout them.

Sounds like a good idea. Def. don't wanna replace that entire system. I'll try cleaning that tomorrow.

It's a step in the right direction.

Thank you Greg!

Matt
MNEEME

 

the 3rd brake light is usually the issue - I have an '06 and mine had this problem...I noticed it while sitting in a high pressure touchless car wash....I saw water shooting through and dripping down the glass on the inside.

 

I'll have to check it again then. I pulled the screws but when I went to move the light itself it didn't budge at all. So I figured it was sealed pretty good.

Maybe I should make a trip to the car wash then and see what happens. Maybe that'll help me find the leak.

Is there a trick to getting it out with the spoiler on?

This is the issue I had in my '02 MC, replacing the light cured the issue.

Thanks PGT.

 

pull the plastic trim, remove the three torx screws and push up from the bottom.

that's a ton of water...we had a lot of rain lately though. was it dry recently? or, is this building up?

 

Thanks!

It was dry before that. I had just been unhooking my battery recently before the storm. And it was bone dry. So it had to of come from the recent large amount of rain we've had recently.

I know it's a lot water, hence why it shock me greatly. I was quite surprised to find this. Hopefully I'll find the leak soon. I'm gonna try and hit a car-wash tomorrow.

Thanks again,

Matt
MNEEME

 

yeah....that seems more like a major weatherseal failure vs. the brake light.

 

I would still reseal the brake light seal. I have seen it on a bunch of Minis and it is the easy, most obvious problem area. After that I would look at the tail lights but frankly I have not seen any leaks there before on any car that did not have the lights removed for some reason.

Rich

 

Yea, I know. Maybe the boot wasn't shut completely. I'll try running through a car-wash tomorrow and see what I get. Hopefully maybe the seal didn't seal right or something too. I'll def. be keeping my eyes open.

Thanks again for the help. Greatly appreciate it.

Matt
MNEEME

 

Really gotta agree here. Those things have had an issue with leaking. I went thru the same thing: mine felt tight and snug, but when I finally got around to removing it, it had moisture all around it. The skinny little seal they put in there flattens out and leaks.

 

My MINI is @ MoT as I type for this problem. Here is what has been done:

• Replaced 3rd brake light
• Replaced boot latch
• Replaced weather stripping all around.

Also, that fuse box looking thing near the batter needs to be replaced as well. It was giving me an airbag light which I thought was the wiring harness

Now, I am no longer covered under warranty, but I have had a water issue in the past, so this was under a continuing issue which was covered under warranty.