Hello,

I'm looking at buying an '04 Mini Cooper, but it has a couple issues. The driver side door makes a pop going up when it gets about an inch from the top. It does it whether or not the door is open, so I think something is binding with the regulator.

The other thing is the passenger seat back won't go to the normal position. When you fold it forward and then back, the first click that will engage is with the seat about halfway reclined.

I think I can get another seat from a junkyard or something. How hard is it to change the seats on this car? It has manual seats, not power ones. I've changed bucket seats in older cars. They just have four bolts, though you can do it in ten minutes. This has an airbag in it, and that makes me nervous. Do you just unplug a couple electrical connector and have at it?

For that matter I've changed the mechanical window regulators (twice) in an older Miata. How hard would it be to replace the power window regulator in this car?
Thanks,
Eric

 

I have an 04 and have a similar issue with the passenger seat usually after playing around with it I can fix it.

 

you can reset the seat. google for it. its not hard to do, but may scare you alittle when you do it.

 

Seat removal in an 04' is pretty easy. I agree that if you play with it a bit you should be able to get it right.

As far as the window goes, the door panel comes off easily also and gives you pretty good access to the internals. If you do some searches here, you'll find all of the how to info you need.

 

+1
I had the same problem with my passenger seat. Googled it and saw people's solution is basically beating it until it pops back in. Worked for me and dozens of others. Although now I'm scared to let people into the back on the passenger side, I don't want to go through that again. :P

 

(wrong thread. cheers!)

 

The seat can be reset. Google mini, reset, seat.

I'd be concerned that the reason it's popping is that the car has been hit and something was never repair properly.

 

I had the same window problem when I bought my '04 last year with 55k on it. Turned out the plastic clip that holds the window regulator cables had broken. That let the cables stick out into the door and they were getting caught when the window went down and up. The noise was when the cables banged against the door when they finally popped off the window.

I replaced the clip (came in a bag of window regulator mounting hardware I bought) but the new one broke very quickly. I wound up drilling a hole in the metal door under the door panel and bolting in a marine-type cable retainer. No more problems.

Eric