Dear MINI friends,
The rear hatch door on my new MINI-S will not latch. It had been a sporadic problem but now is a permanent thing. As there is no authorized dealer in my home town, I have called MINI service depts in neighboring states but have found no solution. Any suggestions? thanks much, jim

 

1) duct tape
2) coat hanger
3) get it fixed by a far-away MINI dealer
4) beg and plead with your local BMW dealer to fix it

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~Yucca Patrol~

2003 MCS, BRG/W on the truck to my dealer!

"Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement."

 

>> The rear hatch door on my new MINI-S will not latch. It had been a sporadic problem but now is a permanent thing. As there is no authorized dealer in my home town, I have called MINI service depts in neighboring states but have found no solution. Any suggestions? thanks much, jim
>>

Jim this is a fairly common fault. It happened to me too. A forum search on "Boot Latch" will show how common the fault is.

There seem to be two solutions:

(1) The trunk latch is defective. Have it replaced under warranty. Until then use duct tape and/or coat hangers.

(2) Try to fix the problem yourself.

I took the latter approach. For me it happend the first day I had my car and I was playing with every possible widget. One of the advertised features is that if you hold the "wing" button on the key down for more than a few seconds, the hatch will pop open. So I held the button down, and after a few seconds the hatch unlatched with a click-click-click ratcheting sound. Then it wouldn't re-lock.

After muttering choice four-letter AnglkoSaxonisms used previously by Chaucer, and questioning the genus of the designer's parents, I decided to reverse engineer the fix. Try this:

(a) with your right-hand, lift up on the rubber-covered external latch release as if you were opening the boot.

(b) while doing (a), use your left-hand to press the shiny wing button on the key for several seconds until the latch chatters.

(c) Release the button on the key, then let loose of the rubber latch button. See if it works OK now.

I think that, unless you are one of the unlucky ones with a defective mechanism, the latch will again work correctly. Apparently, the internal solenoid can get out of synch with the electronic signal originating in the key, But that's only a guess.

Since it happened to me, I have never tried to reproduce the fault by using the "open boot from a distance" "feature" for fear I WILL become one of the unfortunate folks who actually ended up with a broken latch.

Hope this helped -- Tom

 

tom, thankyou so much for taking the time to respond to my question.. I noticed my message was posted at 4:44 am. Must be something wrong with the clock. I may lose sleep over many things but it's not the boot hatch. Anyway, I tried your method with no luck. In the beginning, I suspected an out of synch problem and did just what you recommended and it worked at times.. but not now. Looks like it will need to go to the shop. keep on motorin' jim :smile:

 

dear yucca, I have tried your suggestions quick fix solutions but looking for long term fix. thanks jim :smile:

 

overeasy,

I know that my suggestions might not be entirely helpful, but the good thing is that it is a warranty issue and is relatively minor although irritating. Glad someone else had some better ideas than I did!

 

no big deal.....that's the first rattle I had in my MCS....warranty fix, then had a sunroof rattle, also warranty fix, then had dash rattle, also warranty fix, then seat frame broke, also warranty fix...all working fine now....add defective runflat, malfuntioning supercharger, blown air compressor....all warranty fixes....hopefully they are correcting the early 02 build problems on the new deliveries....good luck !

 

While it's still a "bug", I think the problem can be avoided by not holding the latch handle for two long. Only long enough to hear the click, then let go. My dealer warned me of the annoyance, and not to hold the handle too long. Haven't had any problems. Good luck. JR

 

I had this problem also. Used a bungie cord from net hook to hatch catch until latch was replaced. I works pretty good and no tape residue.

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cb


Greta...DS "S", premium, cold, 17s on all seasons, DSC, fogs, lapis blue leather, chrome mirrors

 

This may come too late. But I have just found out that there is a rear latch upgrade that your MINI dealer will put in under warranty.

Mario