Hello all, I live in australia & own a 2003 mini cooper s manual with a sunroof. I bought my mini 2nd hand in 2007 so it was out of warranty at the time when I noticed the airbag light was on permanently. I took it to my nearest BMW mini garage & spent around $1,200 to get it fixed. They said that there was water around the battery & that had shorted the cable to the airbag causing the light to remain on. They asked me if I knew how that water got in there but I didn't so I called the former owner & they didn't know either. The tax invoice said that they looked for the leak but didn't located it & just repaired the damage to the cable that the leak caused & handed it back to me without telling me that this might end up happening again! Fast forward to 2011 & my airbag light came on last thursday & that evening when I got home from work I pull up the trimming in the boot to discover the battery was half submerged in water. So where do I go from here guys? I have contacted the garage & they said that they need to look @ it but are they going to fix it for free & refund me for not fixing it the last time & the damage the fault caused to the airbag? I have found similar articles on the web to my case so it has to be a manufacturers fault & should have been re-called right? Your site mentions "lemon laws" would that apply in australia as well?!

 

A quick search here would yeild one or two common locations of such leaks....
3rd brake light gasket is pretty common....
around the side of the rear brake lights....
even a miss installed rear boot gasket can be an issue....
some have said a clogged/misrouted sunroof drain could cause an issue....but that might be a long shot.....
Be sure the rust in the battery box is stopped.....and maybe check on it in the future every few months/6-8 weeks in rainy season.....heck, simple check to see if it was happening again....great shop to fix it a second time....

 

PS....lemon law....lol...
an issue caused by an improper/incomplete fix....not even close...
recall....on a decade old car.....lol....
if manfactures had to fix stuff forever....cars would cost 10x more than they do now...
sorry about the lack of sympathy, but crap happens, stuff breaks on ANYTHING mechanical ........it is a fact of life...cars cost $$ to matain.....and older cars can cost more sure to age at times....simple fact of life.
if the shop that fixed it the first time fixes it for even a slight discount, great.....but like anything on any car.....the same things on some cars happen to break/fail repetedly....as the owner, the it is up to you to help save YOURSELF SOME $$ and try to prevent it....like looking at the battery box a time or two after the first time....
good luck!! Hope the rest of the mini has been a blast!!

 

I did check it for a few months each time I took the car out somewhere after they worked on it & I didn't notice any water. When you have paid over $1,000 you assume it's fixed, the garage never told me to keep checking it all the time. It shouldn't be leaking, it's under 10 years old, Ive had cars much older that have not had a problem like this before, yes cars leak but in the boot like this?!. Who checks under the trimming in a boot all the time for something like this. I should have stuck to my previous older model cars that were more reliable.

 

I would also add the boot grab handle as a known area for water to enter the lid, then making it's way down to the lock assembly and into the battery compartment.....The newer grab handles if purchased, have thicker gaskets than before.

You can remove the old one easy enough. Clean up any rust and dirt there ( almost always is ). Apply some primer and then touch up paint. And when dry, apply some silcon sealer to the gasket and re-install.

Nice preventative measure for the MK1 MINI's.

 

Thankyou for all your hints I will be sure to look into all you have mentioned!