Checked my 2002 MCS JCW and 2005 MC; moisture, no rust. The 2002 has the "tabs" that aren't painted the body color, but sort of a yellow. Until MINI comes up with a plan for this, I just include the weather strip in the drying process. Additionally, when my 2002 was delivered, I noticed 3 threaded holes in the undercarriage that I assumed were used for tie down on the way over. Went in and wiped away surface rust and painted them balck. Ditto the 2005. They’re in front, in the crossmember.

 

keep taking them in to help build the case

 

Add me to the list of 2003 rusty MINI's

 

please get to the dealer....is there a dealer in Bghm yet? Dave Cote at global has seen my car.....

 

I am also seeing rust on my 03 MCS... already contacted the dealer. I am sent them pics and waiting to hear from them.

 

I took a friend out to his '04 MCS at lunch and found 3 tiny orange flecks of rust, all about the side of a pin head, at the top of that seam on the passenger side. We didn't even pull the drivers side. There was plenty of moisture under the seals and it hasn't rained here, other than a few sprinkles that didn't require the wipers, for over a week. He hasn't washed for at least 3 weeks (and the brake dust on your front S-Lites show it, Rowdy )

I'm tempted to pull the seals on my '06 and wax them liberally this weekend.

Here's an extract from my '06 Service Manual and Warranty book:

------------------------------

From page 30 of "MINI Cooper and MINI Cooper S Service & Warranty Information 2006" which came with my '06 MCS in December of '05:

Required Maintenance:
In order to keep this warranty in effect, the vehicle must be inspected at every MINI Inspection I and II or at least every two years.
The Inspection / Maintenance consists of:
- Repairing any damages to undercoating or paint due to stone chips, gravel erosioni, scratches, or other external influences

THIS INSPECTION / MAINTENANCE IS EXCLUDED FROM THE RUST PERFORMATION LIMITED WARRANTY. ANY AREAS REQUIRING PREVENTATIVE MANITENANCE MUST BE REPAIRED, AND ARE AT THE OWNER'S EXPENSE. (Caps are original to document)

(farther down on the same page)
This warranty does not apply to the following:
a. Damage caused by negligence, improper accident damage repairs or improper use.
b. Damage attributable to failure to perform required inspections / maintenance at the specified intervals or in accordance with the MINI rust inspection / maintenance program instructions. Proof must be provided by a paid invoice or filling in the appropriate boxes in teh Service Section of this Statement.

(on page 15 of same document)
Underbody maintenance

The underbody has to be cleaned at least once a year, in spring, with plain water in order to remove mud, chemical sediments and other deposits. If those materials are not removed, corrosion (rust) will occur.
Your MINI Dealer will do this anti-corrosion service for you.

 

I finally checked ... nothing ... painted perfectly and the paint looks excellent. The passenger side WAS damp, not drivers side.

I wonder if some WD40 in there would help since the primary purpose of WD40 is to displace water?

WD-40 literally stands for Water Displacement, 40th attempt. That's the name straight out of the lab book used by the chemist who developed WD-40 back in 1953. The chemist, Norm Larsen, was attempting to concoct a formula to prevent corrosion -- a task which is done by displacing water. Norm's persistence paid off when he perfected the formula on his 40th try. http://home.howstuffworks.com/question155.htm

 

No, we don't have a dealership yet, and I won't go to Global for a number of reasons not relevant here. but I will get to a dealer when I can and see what can be done.

I may just have to wait until some of you get some more information out of MINI before I do anything.

I have passed the 50k warranty a few months back, so I am out of luck on that if it was to be a warranty claim. I don't know all the details of the rust warranty, so I'm just going to have to watch and see what happens

 

Surely MINI can't argue that stones or gravel could possibly get under the weatherstripping to cause the damage, but could they argue that rain or water from a hose is an "external influence"? I wouldn't be surprised.

When I asked for this service to be performed at my dealer earlier this week, I was told that they didn't have a pressure washer and couldn't do this for me.

The silence from MINI is deafening. :impatient

 

See my post regarding filing a nhtsa compaint:

 

I called my dealer in St. Louis yesterday, and they said the Service Manager would call me and set an appt with the Field Service Engineer. I haven't heard from him yet...

 

Thanks for the link, Davecoopers; I registered my complaint but I don't think they're going to take this too seriously. They're looking for vehicles catching on fire, with deaths and injuries. A similar issue came up recently with the Scion xB-rust was found on some door welds. A poster went all the way to a hearing with these guys and came up empty. If you want more details go to www.scionlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=116812.
Your suggestions for a solution to this issue make a lot of sense to me-I hope MINI doesn't think it will cost them too many dollars to implement them. I wouldn't recommend holding your breath in the meantime.

 

Thanks for the heads up.

I checked my 8/05 build MCS and while there was moisture under the weather strip on both sides, no rust. Like some of the other '05s, the sill was fully painted.

Looks like this will be one of those ¨spots¨ to check like the bottom corner of the windshield of a 911 C2/C4.

 

How is the 50K factory warranty on mechanical defects in materials and workmanship expiration relevent to the rust warranty? Unless something has changed that I am not aware of, depending on which rust warranty you have, it is either 72 months (6 years) or 144 months (12 years) regardless of mileage.

 

Dave Cote e-mailed me back today and said that it's been documented and forwarded to MINI Engineering. He told me to get in touch with my service department.

 

Just another data point:

I just checked my June '03 build and the results:

Driver's side: dry as a bone - rectangular area still has plastic sealer tape, but it is ripped on the top edge. No visible rust.

Passenger side: inner channel of rubber trim noticably wet, 8-10 very small rust spots on the upper edge of the metal, none of which are on the rectangular area.

I washed the car 5 days ago. I'm thinking that the rubber door trim has a spot somewhere above the bottom that is letting water in, and it's flowing down to the bottom rail via the trim's inner channel (as someone else has already hypothesized).

The grip of the trim would make it unlikely that enough water could splash up from the sill to make the inside of the trim that wet. Gravity must be involved, so it makes sense that the breach is on the upper region of the trim and the water simply flows down and sits on the rail.

That also would explain why so many of us are seeing one side wet and the other dry - only one of the seals has failed.

 

I dont know if this is a little bit off topic but here some input from a different car manufacturer, i showed this problem to a bunch of Volvo Tech guys that is working with prototyp models and the quality manager at Volvo PVÖ ( i work there ).

They were amazed that someone will put some tape bits on the metal part that is not painted...
The white stuff some people have found under the rubber seal is only Vaselin that is used in production when installing this rubber seal.
That means this part is not protected against rust in any way !

I also showed the pictures that is on www.motoringfile.com.
They said at first glance that the problem was the weather strip on the door and the rubber seal, poor design not preventing water been collected.
The metal under the rubber seal should have been treated with a wax anticorrision solution as volvo and other companys uses to prevent water geting in contact with the metal on these parts...
The rubber seal does not have any ventilation holes but adding ventilation holes to the rubber would not help anyway. If you live in countrys that uses road salt that would not help at all, water will meaby find a way out but the salt would be collected under the rubber. Conclusion to this problem according to this tech guy is... This problem will not be fixed with a new rubber or a new weather seal and this is a concept error on these parts and on the sideskirt. The side skirt is helping to collect the water under the rubber seal, if BMW will fix the rust on warranty do that and keep a eye on this part in the future and put some antirust spray like zink or something else...
After this long talk to these guys i was convinced that if BMW will fix this issue by repainting this part it will only come up again after a while :(

 

I have a good 2 inch long spot of rust on the drivers side of my 02 . I do not know wether to take care of this myself or try to work with Mini. The time element makes it almost a wash.

 

Any idea why having a roof rack was mentioned earlier?

 

I can only assume MINIUSA has some suspicion (as also suspected by some on this forum) that the water is getting under the weatherstripping at the top of the car and pooling on the sill. Perhaps they believe that the roof rack creates a more effective channel to where ever the water is getting in???

 

probably because my car has factory roof rack and an aero kit..... they are looking for a cause....... i took my car to the body shop today to get the roof rack de-installed.....and they are going to fix the rust...... he was more concerned about whu it happened rather than the fix... "the fix is easy" this is Magnum collision in Marietta GA which does all of Global Imports body work.... the person dealing with me is the owner "Mike"

 

After reading the MINI Corrosion Warranty, I sent a question to MINI USA via the Owners Lounge. Here is the question and the response.

Question:

Answer:

 

And that is why I doubt they will do anything. If it isn't a hole, they are not concerned. I think it just amazing timing for the earlier cars since the warranty will run out just about the time the hole will appear

 

I will pick up my car a week from Monday as i will be out of town and I should be able to tellyou the cost of professional repair....now who is paying is another topic

 

This is the same reason you should change your oil more than the "recommended". Once you are past the warranty period, BMW doesn't care if part of the car fails. Your engine could probably get to the end of the warranty on two or so oil changes, but get it to 100,000... probably not. But they won't care if it's past 50,000.

PS - Nice Sig Aaron.