Rewind to last week, and you would have said that your MINI showed no sign of rust.

 

The problem with this rust is there is no way you would see it......rust forming at hinges etc where you can brush it off and treat it is one thing but the rust on my car was at a pretty advanced state or corrosion.... anothe 6 months ther would have been a hole.... rust on metal a fact of life....yes but rust on surfaces of a modern car after a few years in an area not likely to be detected.... I disagree..... also, it really is not fixing it or the cost it is more the what else is looming that concerns me..... this is something IMO that Mini needs to address ..... think of the person who does not work on cars and something like this is a total calamity.....pulling up the weather stripping is out of there comfort zone let alone doing the "fix"..... I could go on about this but I need to pack for a trip.....

 

I have no issues with the rust that is forming on my 02 Cooper. That is, the rust that is forming on the underbody. Car was on a lift last week for brake and coolant changes and I took a look while I had the chance. Pretty much all of the bolts have surface rust, and the exhaust has some rust at the connections between the cat and the manifold. I EXPECT THIS IN A FOUR YEAR OLD CAR, even though it is always garaged (and covered), not driven over the winter, and rarely driven in the rain. Door panels are washed and dried (alas, I didn't know I had to remove the weatherstripping and dry under there too every time-wasn't in the owner's manual).

However, what I don't expect in any car is a design flaw that allows water to collect in an area that would not be dried off after washing by any normal or moderately obsessed person. I am not asking MINI to replace my rusted bolts on the undercarriage. I am asking them to remove and repaint the affected areas, and redesign / replace the weatherstripping so that the area underneath it doesn't stay wet for several days after exposure to water. I do not think that this is unreasonable. This surface rust, if left untreated, will definately cause the entire door sill to rust out eventually. I also think that it is not unreasonable to expect that all metal on the frame/body of a car produced in this century should have primer/paint on it. I do agree with not so rednwhite cooper that MINI will only address this on a case by case basis-no letter will be going out to the 150,000 MINI owners out there.

By the way, not so rednwhite, do you think surface rust is acceptable on an 06 at this time? There was at least one poster with an 06, if I recall.

 

Good point Snid! This is really causing more of a panic than anything else right now. Even in people who don't own MINIs and only read this thread.

The simple solution for now, if you have a MINI - go look at yours and then decide what to do. Not bragging, but I looked at mine last night (finally) and both sides were FULLY painted, nothing but Hyper Blue end to end.

Ironically, although the sills are painted, I have one body-panel that's slightly differnet mix than the rest... Gotta love british quality control

Go look at an E46, they've got the same weatherstipping that the MINI has.. If I knew someone who had one, I'd look to see if it's rusted, but I don't... Anyone have an E46 that would care to look?

 

Fearing the worst, I checked the driver's side door sill of my 8/04 build 05 CR S this AM and it is fully painted, end-to-end, from A to B pillars, with no surface rust of any kind. Even the spot weld joints are fully painted, and everything, icluding the seal, was bone dry (despite being washed last sunday and rain yesterday.) I haven't checked passenger side yet but if it's any different I'll be surprised. Now, my 1986 Toyota PU, now there's some serious Neil Young going on; that rust ain't sleeping, folks. Jimbo

 

Nice to hear, Jimbo, as your car and mine were built probably within hours of each other. I haven't checked mine yet, but will this weekend most likely.

 

I guess, like in the old days, if the door sills don't rust then it's not a british made car.

 

I just bought a 06 MCC for my wife. Cool car, 14 days old. I took pictures of my weather stripping to see if they made design changes. I really looked at the stripping near the hinge because I would think if water got in there it would run down and under the door jam. I also wonder of they made changes with the seal at the bottom of the door to prevent water from getting in. If I can figure out how to post the pictures it would be interesting to compare to a 03-05.

 

Also, anyone think it's interesting how the rust is forming at the top edge of the seam? Not down at the bottom were water would sit. Seems like pulling off the seal and touching up the entire thing with POR15 would be good preventative maintenance. Even if you don't have rust.

 

PM me on anything you find--hopefully there will be nothing. Im beginning to think these are isolated incidents and not something systemic in general, esp. when the M2'ers seem fairly non-plussed (and not nearly as alarmist.) At least with the 05s-on (I still wonder why we have longer rust warranties?) Cheers Jimbo

 

Has anyone (besides SpiderX) actually met with the MINI Field Service Engineer yet? I have been trying to schedule an appt with the FSE as advised by Dave Cote, but have not been able to get in touch with the Service Manager at MINI of St. Louis. I left voice mails, and whenever I call, they say only the service manager can schedule this appt., and he is never there. It's been almost 10 days trying to get hold of the manager...who knows how long before my MINI sees the FSE .

 

Ill be dropping my car off there on monday (to get the d/s door hinges rewelded...finally), and I think there will be a Mini rep there because this was a problem right from the factory. Ill be showing them all the rust issues then. Ill also be pointing out the damp carpet!!!

(ill be out of Mini for 2 weeks! )

 

Oh my! Are you really going to let them keep your MINI for 2 weeks because of a little rust spot? I agree that it is an issue worth pursuing, but 2 weeks without a MINI to maybe fix a tiny rust spot is 2 weeks too many for me. . .

 

I printed up a bunch of pictures of some of the worst cases and wrote up a summary of what is going on with a link to this thread. I started to putting them on any of the early model cars I see and talking to the owners I run into. They have all been very appreciative of my efforts. Everyone I talked to had some moisture sitting under the seal. The majority of MINI owners do not frequent the forums but are still very interested in keeping their cars in the best condition they can so spread the word!!

-Dan

 

Well the reason why ill be out of a car for 2 weeks is so they can fix the hinges...(nothing to do with this rust issue most Mini owners are experiencing). When they take apart that whole side to grind and re-weld(noooooo, my poor new car), they unfortunately wont see the rust problem on mine (which is good i suppose), but ill definitely be pointing out the rust on other Mini's in the shop

 

[quote=Wookie]
Ironically, although the sills are painted, I have one body-panel that's slightly differnet mix than the rest... Gotta love british quality control

quote]

That's strange, maybe your car was damaged at the distribution center and repainted:impatient

-Dan

 

Checked my passenger side door sill on my 8/04 build 05 CR S today and dry as a bone, inc. inside of rubber seal. I also noticed that there are two small holes on the outside of the seal about 3 inches forward of the B pillar and 3 inches aft of the A pillar. Those of you with the rust issue have that kind of seal? JB

 

[quote
That's strange, maybe your car was damaged at the distribution center and repainted:impatient

-Dan[/quote]

Thought that too, but had my dealer check - nothing at the VDC, went through there in just over a day anyway. It's actually just the small panel where the side marker light is, between the door and front wheel arch. The color matches most of the time, but under certain sunlight you can clearly see the metallic mix is different than the hood, door, rear quarter... I consider it character

 

Well, after some experimenting on my part, I think i know how its getting in there.

Since it looks to me the weatherstip is very watertight around the edges where the water is sitting, it couldnt possibly be getting in from the top.

So, i pulled my skirt off the side and poured POR into the gaps in the sheetmetal on the top, where the water is sitting. Guess where it went... right out the bottom of the rocker box and thru a seam on the side of the rocker.

Water is getting in thru the bottom of the car, underneath the rocker cover, that would explain why people are saying that even though they hadnt washed their cars in a while, or something to that effect, have rust forming and sitting water.

The rocker box is heavily coated with anticorrosive paint from the factory, so those should be of no problem. There is a seam though, where it looks like the factory should have put a bit more seam sealer on the car. There is enough room for water to get in, but not get out. I had water sitting in the rocker boxes because a few rubber plugs worked their way loose and are open allwing water in underneath the rocker cover, where you cannot see unless you were to take the cover off.

My solution?

Yank your rocker covers, pop any loose plugs back in and sillicone the hell out of those plugs and any exposed seams. That should hold off the problem for a while, if it doesnt solve it.

 

Anybody else afraid to look???

 

Totally understandable, but don't be afraid, I was, no rust, all's fine. Better to get it over with, eh? Jimbo

 

I checked mine and am happy to say that not only is there no rust, but there isn't even any water. This is from a car that is frequently washed and it rained all morning here in the Salt Lake area. What a relief!

 

Excellent!

 

The best solution I have found to stop the rust process is to coat the problem area (maybe annually) with automatic transmission fluid. The heavy anticorrosion package in this oil will stop the rust and the oil will displace any moisture trapped in the pores of the oxisized surface. I suspect that PUR uses similar technology.

 

Finally got a chance to check my 3 week old '06 MCS (not that I expected rust but just wanted to check for moisture). Under the seals it was very wet. The length of the door sills were both fully painted, however. No rust was present, granted the car is brand new. I dried the seams and the rubber seal and reinstalled the seals. Lifted them back up a few minutes later and it was all wet again. I guess I may have to go the POR route to start protecting the area now from the get-go. Would be nice if MINI did release *some* statement with their "official" recommendations for the problem so they don't come back and say the steps you took to prevent it voided your warranty and now you are on your own....