Hi Everyone I have a leak coming from in between the skin of the bonnet and the structure that keeps it rigid. It looks like vasoline and it has leaked between these two pieces of the bonnet and has leaked onto the plastic of the wheel well. This is affecting the clear bra on my hood and has stained the plastic on the wheel well. Washing will not take it off. Has anyone seen this before. I will post pictures tonight.

 

Sounds like cosmoline.

 

What is Cosmoline used for?

 

It gets sprayed pretty much everywhere to preserve the car during shipping and protect it from the elements.

Is your MINI new?

 

3.5 week old

 

Ooh, that is totally cosmoline. Get some of Prima's cosmonaut to take care of that nasty stuff.

 

As it gets hotter, more of it will leak from the crevices. Prima's product has gotten great reviews for removing the sticky crap. If you do a search on this site, you'll find lots of cosmoline threads. Some dealers have even replaced stained wheel wells.

 

Thanks everyone for the aid. I have ordered some Cosmonot from Octane guy. Will that remove the stain from the wheel arch?

 

Possibly not a lot of it depends on how hot the cosmoline was when it ran down and how long it was on there.

Take it to the dealer before cleaning the cosmoline out and have ti recorded that it is a problem and they should replace the arches for free. But don't let them replace them until the cosmoline has been cleaned out. other wise you will be going back to have them replaced again.

 

Do a search on cosmoline, a lot of threads on the issue Yep, my Mini is peeing Cosmoline also. I bought the Cosmonot and quickly found out not to use it on the underside of the Bonnet, it will remove the un clear coated paint. As far as the stains on the Black trim, I found Black Wow as suggested by others does a great job on removing 99.9% of the stain. A awsome product but really really expensive. I tried Cosmonot on the black trim and was not happy with the result at all. Also the cosmoline seems to be running out from areas of the bonnet that I cannot get to so how do I remove it ???? In addition to running down the wheel arches mine is also dripping on garage floor.

 

Does it look something like this?



PS - This is my 1.5 year old car, which just started leaking more this summer. Oy vey.

 

I had the same issue as the picture in post #11. It is cosmoline and since the cosmoline is a petroleum based chemical once it stains your wheel arches NOTHING will completely remove it as the stain is a chemical reaction(I have two years as a polymer chemist and have done polymer design and research for both NASA and Samsung so I know what I am talking about). My professional auto detailer took it as a personal mission to get it out and hes tried every product he could locate and still gets pissed about it since it makes his work look bad . I keep telling him hes wasting his time but he thinks he can beat science fact with another chemical.

The only real solution is to get the arches replaced. My dealership said they would be willing to replace my arches ONCE as a courtesy but that if it happened again they would not replace them a second time. They suggested I wait at least two summers before I had the arch replaced to make sure they leaking was done. We have had some record temps here in Texas lately and more has leaked but in far smaller quantity than last year.

 

The Cosmoline will keep seeping out for a long time, but keeping a good coat of dressing on the arches (Black Wow or similar) might help keep the Cosmoline from staining the plastic before you have a chance to remove it.

 

If you act in time and prep it before it starts leaking. Not everybody is aware of the problem until it's too late... I know I wasn't expecting it.

 

True - I just meant that in the future, it will probably begin to leak in new and exciting places, so it's worth keeping a good coat of dressing on the trim.

And the dealers are probably just as frustrated with the Cosmoline as we are. They're not the ones tasked with removing it - it's supposed to be gone by the time the car leaves the Vehicle Distribution Center after arriving in the U.S. from England. The problem is, the factory seems to be able to get the Cosmoline *into* nooks and crannies that the VDC can't get it *out* of.

 

Does anybody have pictures or know in which nooks and crannies the Cosmoline is hiding/pooling?