Anyone getting rust bubbles around the bottom of their taillights? The rust on ours just became noticeable this winter. My wife drives to and from work on a toll road that gets heavy MagChlor during ice/snow events.

 

Oh yeah, like this....






If you remove the tail light, you will see this.



From what I can tell, between location, the ability of water to sit, and the fact that the foam gasket ring for tail light assembly holds water like a sponge, this shows up around 100K or so. MINI has an extended warranty for this depending on year and mileage.

The process is to remove the entire rear quarter panel and replace with new one...Door sill/side skirts are removed, fender trim, rear side glass, inside trim panel/any electronics ect is removed ( have to be careful of radio antenna wires attached to glass....) then a cut is made about 2 inches above belt line at B pillar. New rear quarter is tack welded at the joint leaving some space between them then a bonding agent which looks like tar is applied at the new panel joint. Old trim is re-used so if you have trim in need of replacing this would be the time to do it.

What the new rear quarter section is comprised of here.

 

+1 on what Raven said. On the Convertible its the Rear whole side panels that get replaced if its bad enough. The water sets under the taillight and the salt does a number on these. Check with your dealership on the warranty. I believe 2004 cars and newer had a standard 12 years unlimited .

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...or-2004-a.html

Thanks

 

Here is what both sides look like on our 2002. I will research.

 

Thanks for the link, I did not find this thread when I searched the forum for rust.

 

Actually it is the same process and 1/4 panel part for all the 1st Gen. Shop cuts the entire quarter panel out separating it from the b/c pillars with a saw....

Some tack welds and body adhesive puts the new panel in.

 

Got mine approved for repair today. They are doing both sides. Which also take care of some clear coat issues. Mine is an 06 MCSC 11/05 build date with 114,000 on the clock. Very happy about it.

 

That's good to hear. Ours is getting worse. I just replaced all of the steering and suspension components and she runs like a scalded cat, but I don't know what we will do with her. The is no warranty for this on the 02's and it is not a cheap job done right...

 

Did the same on mine about a month ago, all the bushings are now Powerflex. Huge difference. Got mine at 74,000. So I didn't know what tight was!!
Body shop manager said its a huge job to do this. Sorry.
Not right that BMW/MINI won't do anything.
Good luck!!

 

Just saw this thread, and we are getting the same corrosion/paint bubbling on our 2003 MCS. The car unfortunately just got hit, but on the wrong side of where the bubbling is. Hopefully while they have the car apart for the left side they can quickly fix the rust and respray the right side.

 

My 2005 MCS went in for warranty work back in 2011 for rust on door seams and hatch. Now in 2014 I have rust bubbles below the taillight.

It looks like I will be testing the warranty again.

 

I wish my 2003 had that warranty. The body shop guy looked at it and said it could be anything from a $400 job to over $1,000 depending on how much they had to grind and if they had to weld any new metal in. As the car isn't really worth that much any longer we're just going to live with it I think. Kind of bummed as the car is otherwise close to flawless.

 

My 2004 MCS with 127,000 miles on it is in for repair of the right tail light area and the rear hatch (rust above the latch handle). The warranty was good for 12 years, which is up this coming November. I am not sure how extensive the repairs will be, but so far, Mini has taken very good care of me. I will update as work progresses.

 

We carry that , I know the Range Rover and Land rover guys use it. As well as some older BMW used it with success.

http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/SiteSearch/Fertan_Rust_Converter/

 

there are many rust treatments .... some call themselves removers, others converters

the oldest may be "Naval Jelly" still sold last time I looked for it (now a LOCTITE product) ... and I'm a fan of the line of products for this purpose sold under the POR-15 name (for best results you need to use the three products in the "system") I've tried several over the years as I keep my 79 on the road & chase rust.

I've asked to have a sample of this product and will compare it to what I have on the shelf on some test metal.

but I don't know of a miracle cure for rust under bubbling paint ..... you're gonna have to get rid of the old paint ... treat the rust then repaint .... no shortcut to that process. That is so long as you don't consider, cut out and weld in new metal, to be a shortcut.

****************

FOOTNOTE

Have you ever heard that you can use Coke or Pepsi as a rust remover? It's true! If you examine the makeup of most rust 'conversion' products they are a solution of phosphoric acid .... which is also a food additive, used in many soft drinks, especially colas.

 

I said I'd report back

didn't expect it to be so fast

but I reviewed the MSDS for FERTAN

I'm not saying it works better or not, as I've not gotten my sample yet

but the MSDS says phosphoric acid ...... and the instructions mention leaving a ZINC coating

Same as all the similar products I've looked at or used . . .

 

POR 15 works great. I use it on my 1965 Mustang. Thing is if it's in an area that you are going to paint make sure you top coat it with a primer before the last coat totally sets. Otherwise you have to sand the shine off and let me tell you that is no easy task. The stuff dries very hard and is very tuff after full cure. Other thing is that it doesn't like the sun so if your using it in any place that gets exposure be sure to top coat it.

 

I just got my 2006 MCS back from the dealer today. Both rear fenders and both doors were replaced under 12 year rust out warranty! I didn't even notice the door rust until they pointed it out.

They also did some rust prevention with hatch and door sills as well as a full detail of car and engine compartment and I drove their free loaner for 5 weeks.

The paint work is first class.

This was all unexpected to say the least. I'm not even a good customer as I do all my own maintenance.

 

I didn't know they extended the rust issue. I thought it was 10 year coverage. I think mine needs to go back in (door sills).

 

Might want to see this thread:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...2862-rust.html

 

I've read about a thousand rust threads and cant get an answer. Here it goes:

I've owned a few R53s, the last were facelift which I was told solved the tail light rust problem so I never worried about it. I just bought a mint 04 JCW which has never seen a single snowflake or grain of salt. I just drove it from the south up to Iowa where it saw a few inches on the way up and tons of salt. I gave it a quick wash and now am paranoid about rust.

Is there something I can do to keep the rust under the tail lights from forming? I recall someone saying something about a drain plug? Anyone have knowledge? Basically, can I keep water from building up and lingering in the weak points?

 

Keep it clean and maybe treat the back side of the panels. Pull the taillight out once a year and clean them and grease that area with a coating or the underbody grease spray.

 

Plus 1^ ECSTUNING !!

Here in Boston I do similar things to ALL my cars. Put them up on a lift....scrape and rustproof !!!

Tail light not that difficult to remove. It took me about 10 minutes

 

Yep.

 

I recall reading something about a design change involving a drain plug so water doesn’t collect to begin with. Was there a design change for facelifts? I don’t remember seeing nearly as many 05+ with rusty tail lights.