Twice now I've found the barn doors on my one month old Clubman S wide open. Once it was in my garage (which caused a small scrape on the right door) and today my boot was sitting exposed in an open parking lot in San Francisco for who knows how long.

Barring a malfunction, it seems like I must have accidentally hit the trunk key on the fob while I was in my house (or at work). Fortunately there was nothing at all in the car. But what if there was? Can I no longer store anything of any value in the trunk? What if there was a Lotus parked right behind me?

How are people dealing with this? It seems like a huge design flaw. In the US at least, the boot button doesn't care if your car is locked or not, so all it takes is a single button press within 20 or 30 feet to expose your trunk. My dealer tells me they can disable the remote button entirely, but then I have to unlock the door from the inside.

 

Just not pressing the boot button while in range of the MINI would solve your dilemma.....

After a Google of your door lock issue, it would seem no one else has this happening so I would hesitate to call this a "major" design flaw, more operator error IMO.

 

There is 1 (one) other possible explanation which is that water had gotten into the wiring connector for the door handles. This was a problem on the 2008 models. Problem solved by wrapping connector in sealing tape after drying it out and connecting it again.

Now I will say I have not heard of this on the 2009 or later models but anything is possible.

 

My mother taught me to make sure my barn door was always closed before leaving the restroom.

Anyway.... I have a similar problem with my Cooper, in that I return to it to find all the windows opened and the sunroof open. Yea, I attribute it to that something in my pocket accidentally hit a button on the keyfob while I was in the house (if at work or shopping, I would be too far away).

 

Errr....not sure why yours doesn't care, but mine does. I've had to unlock my doors to get into my trunk several times on my 2011 Clubbie because pressing or holding down the trunk button on the fob hasn't caused it to open right as I went outside to put something in it.

 

oddly i had a clubman loaner and unlocked the car and the barn doors opened. it was weird and thought, that's definatly not good.

 

@GrayRaven, that's great advice if this were a conscious thing. But it's not. I don't DO anything. The button must get pressed when I'm sitting or something. One of the reasons I'm posting is to SEE if this is a common occurrence.

@schatzy, I read those threads with the wet switch, but like you said, it doesn't seem to show up in late models.

@SkaBob, I'm going to contact you directly. My dealer said there was no way of programming this, but it sounds like your car is configured exactly the way I'd like it...

I'm thinking of making some sort of hard plastic sheath to keep the buttons from being pressed accidentally.

Still curious to hear if there are others with this problem...

 

maybe something like this would help. No clue where to get it though.



edit: hmm, not cheap:
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/BMW-MINI-Coop...QQcmdZViewItem

 

I've seen leather "fob gloves" that have the MINI logo on them. They look pretty spiffy...link to ebay item

otherwise, I can say that the hatch release button on my fob always seems to take a harder press to unlock. Maybe I'm holding it down for half a second longer, I just know I've accidentally pressed the button and been surprised when I don't hear the THUNK of the locks. The hatchback might be different in this regard though...

 

My experience:
1. Even if I press the open club door button... The door doesn't swing open! Did I understand you right -- yours do? Mine will only "pop" ajar and I must open by hand
2. Sometimes I go around to open the boot and I can't, and I have to go back inside and press the unlock button again... Although this is obviously when the key is inside the car...

 

I have found my barn doors open a couple of times at home in my driveway, and once found windows down and sunroof open.

I have comfort access so don't think I have ever used the remote FOB to open the boot. I would like to be able to disable the boot button in the OBC.

I think the FOB should have a 2 button press or maybe 2 clicks of the same button for the rear door unlock.

FYI - The range of the FOB is more like 100' so that may be part of the problem. If the range were only 10' like the comfort access system, then that would solve most of the problems I think.

 

After much more experimentation I must conclude that mine opens with the rest of the car locked as well, and I was incorrect before. I must not have hit the button all the way the times it wouldn't open.

 

To open my rear doors with the fob, I have to keep the rear door button depressed for a few seconds before the passenger side one pops completely open. If I just hit it briefly like I do to unlock the car, the rear door will not open, so I have to conciously hold the button down if I want the rear door to open.

Even if my car is locked, depressing the rear door button and holding it down for a few seconds will open the passenger rear door. I get my stuff out, close the door, and the rest of the car is still locked.

Mine's an '11, so that may make some difference. On my '08, the door would just pop ajar, and not completely open like my new one does (they must have stronger gas struts on the '11's to force the door completely open), but everything else was the same, including the car staying locked even if I opened the rear doors.

 

I was going to post something about this issue. I have a 2011 clubman s and have come out numerous times to my barn door being open. Just last week my door was open, i didnt realize it and opened the garage door. Well, guess what. The bottom of the garage door lip caught the bottom corner of my mini barn door and actually "de"-alligned my door so it doesn't close properly now, not to mention the entire edge of the doors paint has been scraped off as the door traveled up until the lip caught the bottom.

Im trying to find the time to get it into the dealer to have the door realigned and possibly a replacement door so i dont have white primer showing up the edge Im glad that if the dealer tells me im an idiot i acceldently pressed the button other clubman owners are having an issue.

For what its worth I have come out to all my windows down in the garage too.

BTW: i have comfort access.

 

if moving your keys in pocket isnt it then maybe... when you are closing it you are applying pressure to the switch and when you do that it pops right back open...

 

@3pedalMINI: The EXACT same thing happened to me the first week I had my car. It scraped the paint on the door lip a bit, but my garage door is cheap enough that it didn't knock anything out of alignment. I feel your pain.

Fortunately, I have (just) enough clearance in my garage so I can pull up enough to make sure that an open french door won't ever touch the garage door again

Sounds like a leather watch fob cover is the only solution for what I still think is a design flaw.

 

In my opinion, I think this is why the partially opened method should have been retained. Or, if you are parked close to something, the door could hit it as it opened. Basically, I think this is a not so good idea...

 

This has happened to me about 3 times in the past couple of months. I'd come out to my Clubbie and find the barn doors open, or tried to drive off and got a warning about open doors. In fact, yesterday, my neighbor at work asked me if my doors were supposed to be open...I kindly told him that if he ever sees them open to please close them.

I'm pretty sure it's from sitting down as my Clubbie is parked in front of my shop and my office isn't out of range.

I also have comfort access and I've come out to see my Clubbie with all the windows, and sunroof open atleast once during this time period.

Richard

 

So I guess you guys don't have a MINI Key Garage?

 

If it's not operator error, it could be yours is having the same issues where water enters the barn doors during car washing or when driving in the rain.

Try stopping at your dealer and asking that these connectors be replaced in the barn doors:

1 repair kit consisting of two connectors - part no. 61-11-9-194-763. - They look like two black push in plugs with two wires coming out of them about 5" long.

8 tiny metal splicing connectors - part no. 61-13-8-353-747.

This wiring and connectors run about 12 bucks.

They will have to remove the inner barn door panels to acess the wiring and splice in the new connectors from the repair kit and then heat shrink the tiny metal connectors for the wires to keep water from getting to them.

Let us know how you make out.

 

Maybe it's just tight pants!?

Dave

 

For what it's worth...

This is how my '09 key fob works:

- Press the unlock button once (quickly) - the driver's door unlocks;
- Press the unlock button twice (quickly) - the passenger and barn doors unlock;
- Press the barn door button and hold for at least 2s - barn door unlocks and the right barn door "pops" open. All other doors remain locked;
- Press and unlock twice and hold the unlock button - front windows open and if continue to hold, the sunroof will vent;
- Press the lock button (quickly) - all doors lock.

I wish it would close the sunroof and windows if the fob's lock key was held down but it doesn't. Maybe on the newer models they will add this feature as I'm always forgetting to do this before I take the fob out.

 

It a 60's thing?

 

If you are some how hitting the barn door button on the remote you better be careful not to also be hitting the unlock button.

 

2008 clubman, this morning I had my second experience with the passengers side barn door popping open, and then popping open after trying to close it a dozen or more times, and then seemingly returning to normal. During neither occurrence was there any moisture (car wash or rain). The fob buttons were not being mistakenly pushed. I have wondered if the fob button gets stuck down somehow (inside) although neither time was when I had been using the button at all. The first occurrence happened when I was stopped at a red light. I hear the clicking sound every few seconds while this is going on, and after a while everything returns to normal. But now that it has happened twice I will be taking it in! I fear that the door will fly open when I have my dogs in the back. egads.