Experience adjusting the MINI's doors?
 

I need to adjust my passenger side door. The window is whistling at highway speeds around the top aft portion, and the window barely rises above the bottom of the weather strip with the door closed and window fully up. The door is adjusted by an almost identical set-up to the nose landing gear door of the aircraft I work on. I just wanted to ask around to see if anybody has done this themselves and knows if there are any adjustments needed besides the hinge arms such as any latches or bumpers.
It is an '02 S.

Does your door line up with the adjacent body panels? If so, you might want to 'reset' the windows. I can't remember the exact procedure for that, but it should be in the owner's manual.

I think you turn the key to the on position (engine off) and hold the window switch in the up position for a little while.

I would much rather reset the windows than change the alignment of the doors with the rest of the body.
Has anybody done this? Or can someone look in their owner's manual for the procedure?. I bought my MINI pre-loved, and I guess the owner had some sentimental attachments to the owner's manual.

I just went outside in the freezin' cold snow to look at my owner's manual. :razz: Do your windows open slightly when you open the door? I guess the reset procedure is to make the windows roll down slightly when opening the door. I'm not sure if this would change how far up the window rolls when you close it.

Page 28 of my 2004 manual:

To initialize power windows -
If the battery is disconnected, e.g. for changing batteries or vehicle storage, re-initialize the power windows. Otherwise the windows will not be lowered when the door is opened.

1. Close the doors
2. Close both windows.
3. Hold both switches of the power windows up for appox. one second.

AKIndiMini: Thank you for your bold and nobel sacrifice. My auto windows are working properly, however. I may be stuck with rigging the door:sad: .

One of my coworkers moved to Wasilla last year. He and his family absolutely love it up there.

You might want to give that window initialization procedure a shot. It won't hurt to try.

Also, if your door appears to fit properly in relation to the rest of the bodywork, I don't recommend that you readjust the door to get the window to fit correctly.

Do you have a Bentley manual? I just purchased one not too long ago, and there is a section in it for adjusting the window position.

There's a pretension adjustment (inward rake of window...or the force of the window 'pushing' on the weatherstrip at the top of the window). To adjust this, there's some sliding adjusters at the bottom of the door. Move the sliders in or out to decrease/increase tension.

For position adjustment, it looks like there's some "toothed washers" holding the window to the regulator that you loosen so you could reposition the glass. There's a BMW tool you have to use to do this: 51 3 240. It appears that you don't even need to remove the door panel if you use this tool. Just requires the removal of the window strip trim.

Hope this helps!

The door seems to be lined up pretty good.
I am not familiar with the lettered pillar designations, but upon shutting the door, the top aft corner of the window is contacting the slim black trim between the door window and the window immediately aft of it. It has a pretty good wear mark right now.

Sounds like the inner door panel needs to come off, and the glass re-aligned. If this is not something you are comfortable with, check around with your local club; someone may have this experience. Failing that, a body shop familiar with MINIs would be the next step (body shop labor rates are typically lower than mechanic's rates).

Is there anyone with a Bentley manual that can send me the procedure for adjusting the windows? I would order one, but I am moving next week and won't have time to do it during the move.

Well I figured out how to adjust the pressure of the window against the weather strip, but no luck fixing my problem.

I am curious how your coworkers Mini handles the Alaskan winters (cold ). I was stationed in Anchrage in the 70's and it was always interesting cold starting any car for that matter.

I'm in Alaska, with a Mini. :)

So far the Mini handles winter like a champ. With a good set of winter tires, it's glued to the road almost as well as the AWD Subarus that are common up here.

No problems with starting it up in the cold either. Mine's usually garaged, but I've had it down to -10*F (straight temp, not windchill) and it fired up like a charm. I was very happy to see that it didn't have any strange drivability problems like I've seen posted on here: yo-yo, cold start hesitation, idle stumble, etc.

Happy camper here! :thumbsup:

It's a great manual to have! One of the best non-factory publications I've come across so far. Very thorough.

Let me see if I can borrow a friend's scanner. I'll let you know if I'm able to get the procedure sent out to you.

Thanks AKIndiMini. If you get it and need to email it to me: afnos@yahoo.com. I won't be able to check it until later tonight, though. Darned LAN security.

He doesn't have a MINI, but he does like mine. We are both crew chiefs in the AF. He is stationed at Elmendorf AFB and lives in Wasilla. I know a lot of the guys up there get engine block heaters for their vehicles.