It is great being Down South, but I too have some sill rust which bums me out, however, I too count myself lucky as our Northern friends have a rough go of the never-sleeping rust-monster...

...recently saw this rustbucket at a wrecking yard in North Carolina,
Classy Chassy indeed!





Michigan ain't no joke, it will eat up the car.

Sill rust of course:




Another well known hot spot:



Boot got it bad.



Never seen this though:



Adding insult to injury,
rodent damage!



Also note how stupid rusty those expensive valve cover bolts are!

 

MINI spark plug boots are a tasty treat for rodents. I think there are soy products in them.

 

I just sent him an email and its 2021, 😜 Do you think he will be happy? I hear he went ea,rly retirement with a nervous breakdown.

 

LMAO! Imagine a manager of 20 MINI dealerships claiming he wasn't aware of the largest MINI site in the USA! I saw pictures of him being escorted out of his office in a rubber suit and a few more of him in a padded cell, but you know you can do anything with Photoshop...😉

 

not sure if I still have photos of that , but I'll be happy to send mine along from when I had the issue if I can find them.

 

I caught my door sill rust just in time.
wire brush followed by Ospho, Epoxy primer then matching spray paint & clear coat.
I re-check and dry after every wash.

 

Just an update, I had my R52 redone a while back by the dealer and its still holding up.

But... I looked on my 2012 R58 JCW while doing some side skirt work and its on the can in very small spots, looks like i will be doing that on my own. R55-R59 will have this same problem, mine was never driven in the snow/salt. It looks like spots the paint missed or the chassis was held?

Its does not look to be covered under MINIs rust warranty like the Gen 1 MINIs. :(

So.. check your Gen 2 MINI under the front driver and passenger door sills rubber

 

Thanks for reviving this thread again.
I had discovered the sil rust a few years after warranty and successfully repaired and repainted it myself.
last year(?), I posted a write up after taking the opportunity to see how my workmanship held up over the years. Again, I found rust had migrated to the previously unaffected area(s) and once again preformed a complete strip-down, rust neutralizing treatment, repair and paint.

While today, months later, I pulled up the rubber on the sil's after a few days of heavy rain, only to discover just a few new spots of rust starting to form. After a quick rub down with 80 grit and a good application of Ospho on the sil's, I turned the rubber over to find the culprit. An accumulation of old rust from the previous afflicted areas still lodged within the channel of the rubber. Liberally (but carefully), sprayed Ospho and ran a flat blade within the channel to remove the chunks of old rust particulate. Now that the rubber is nice and clean I swiped in some silicone lubricant along the inside of the channel.
After Ospho has a chance to convert/neutralize the new formed rust, I will once again repaint and seal the door sil(s) again.

This is the 3rd time I've been vigilant in my attempts to keep this rust under control.
It is true what is said = "rust never sleeps".

 

Hi just found some rust on my r56. Besides the sophomore and the silicone lubricant, what else did you use to seal and paint?





After wire brush

 

Now that you've wire brushed the affected area; I would highly recommend applying . Ospho is amazing at neutralizing/inhibiting and preventing rust. After a half hour of applying the rust inhibitor - Paint as you would and then use/spray a clear coat. After allowing the paint(s) to fully cure re-seat the rubber. You should be good

 

Yep i figured the R56, R55, R57, R58 and R59 people will have it as my R58 JCW never sees snow/salt. And i have it.

 

The fact that MINI hasn't changed how the sills are handled during painting shows that they really don't care about their customers. I was an early enthusiast, buying an R50 way back in May, 2002. Followed up with an R53, and finally and R60. No more MINIs for me at this point. They've destroyed the original vision, and the current models are all bloated and overweight.

 

i was wiring some things in the FRM and was shocked to see the rust on both doors. This car rarely sees rain as well. However about 3-4 days after washing with a foam cannon I found a good amount of water and soap under the seal. Might need to start removing the strip after each wash to dry.

 

The whole back side of the gasket needs greased after the fix. I have seen that gunk on GM and other makes so they don't rust. On some cars its a tacky white substance.

 

@ECSTuning - I agree to wiping in a little or some sort of water resistant/ repellant "goop" in between the rubber groove - just "because". I just happened to have a left over tube of silicone lubricant. ...Although a little sticky (didn't use much), having recently checked for rust - It seems to have prevented reoccurring rust issues.

I just hope I'll never decide to repaint that sill again.
No way paint will ever adhere to it again.
​​​​

 

After reading several write-ups in the last few days I pulled up the weatherstrip on my '03S and found rust similar to what others have dealt with. I had looked years ago and just touched up tiny spots, but now it'll take a bit of work. I ordered a can of Rust Bullet on Amazon after checking out rustbullet.com and will be treating the affected areas. They say no need to topcoat and you don't have to do nearly as much prep as you do for POR 15. We'll see how it goes and I'll update.

 

Yep in the thread they have what the dealer does to clean and paint, after that i would put some sort of grease on it.

 

I, too, have been chasing down the infamous fottwell water leak. I'll describe what I found on my late 2006 R50 (October, 2006).. First of all, I have no rust on the pinch weld under the rubber door seal, you know, the $959 rubber door seal from BMW. I think that is because my water leak just started so not enough time to rust. Rust is a syhmptom of the problem, which is water inflitration. Water is entering the passenger footwell from under the door seal. The water travels as it should down along the outer edge of the seal until about a foot behind the front of the door opening. At that location, the seal is no longer tightly pushed down onto the pinch weld, and water crosses over the pinch weld and under the seal, and infiltrates the footwell at that spot. My THEORY is that the door seal shrunk and or hardened over time, making that gap for water to traverse. My attempted fix, don't hate me, was to buy the best used seal I could find at the junk yard. Found one for $5 and it is uniformly tight all around the edge that fits onto the car. I slathered silicone adhesive sealant onto the pinch weld before installing it. After installation I used duct tape and plastic clamps to pull the seal against all mating surfaces. On the bottom portion of the seal that covers the sill (part name?) I place a 2x4 piece of wood, and two anvils to keep it sealed without the former gap. Good news is that leak is gone. Additional news is there remains one more leak, but I fould it (them). The remaining leaks are the holes that the A pillar black plastic cover snaps into. Actually the plastic fasteners or clips go into those 4 holes, and the A pillar cover is atached to those clips. I bought a new gasket that goes between the A pillar cover and the A pillar. I have yet to purchase 4 rubber washers that those clips go into. Those washers seem to function as weather seals. Mine are flatened out. I think I will replace those as well as use more silicone sealant on them for extra insurance. Then I will try the hose test again.Your results may vary, and I kn ow I am doing sloppy work but I am on a time crunch and need this car to commute to work. Plus side is that no silicone sealan t is visible with everything assembled. An interesting note - In the course of this repair I purchased 3 seals, each at $5 to $10 each, the last one being in the best condition.Even the best one had rust residue at that spot where the water crosses under the seal and over the pinch weld. I cannot pay $1000 for a door seal, that's why the sealant. Maybe someone out there knows if there is a way to stretch or make the existing seal more pliable for re-use, whether through heat, mechanical or chemical means.

 

Does anyone know if MINI has fixed this problem on the latest gen cars? Pretty sure they didn't do anything different for the 2nd gen models, even after they knew about the issue.