My wife's Mini R57 convertible. Sold!

[big_al_granvia]

yikees, massive bill was it, 

[Aston Martin]

Can yours do this...

 

 

[mk2_craig]

This picture isn't entirely clear, but I took it standing at the passenger side rear of the car facing forward, and you can see that the forward part of the hood is loose on the rubber seal here.  I could easily slide my fingers in the gap, with the hood down, you can see something going on with the fabric.

 

This is the culprit - a metal-reinforced plastic section stitched into the hood which is clipped to a pivot on the inside of the inner wing (the metal bit still sitting on the pivot and just about visible behind the upper three holes)

 

Completely cracked away letting all sorts inside the bodyshell.

 

Repair kit time!

 

Powered back the roof so that I could get at stuff a bit easier.

 

 

The official repair method says to unstitch the original plastic section, discard then rivet the new one direct to the fabric.  I had read elsewhere that it would be better to simply trim off what was damaged, then secure the repair section to the remains of the original, thus producing a tighter fit to the side of the car.

 

 

Above is the inner rear wing viewed from inside the car.  The metal clip on the pivot which holds the roof to the car is to the right of my finger and the end result was a big improvement:

 

Seems to both sit and fold as it should.  

[Aston Martin]

It somehow gets worse... Better for us obviously.

[MarvinsMom]

i feel your pain, years ago we had a Rover 820 coupe that was damp inside when i bought it.

just on the passenger side front footwell. and could i figure out where the water was coming from?

could i hell...

i had the interior out of that too. seats, centre consul and carpets.

turned out that all the sound deadening under the carpet was wringing wet through, and that took weeks and weeks and weeks to dry! the place i was working at had a small annex thing across from the main warehouse/trade counter building that while it belonged to the company wasn't actually used, other than for dumping the bins in, so i hung it up in there!

while it was drying i was still running the car, so it had the seats and consul back in, just no carpet, and all the drain hole bungs in the ashtray, as the water was literally sloshing about from side to side, we christened it "Lake Rover".

turned out it was the sunroof drains that were leaking, as they ran down the a-pillars and just before going into the sill assembly the drain pipes ran into another, slighly larger diameter pipe, thats where the water was getting in from. i rodded them out, before using plumbers putty to try and seal the joint.

that did work though, and when the carpet eventually went back in, i did have the feeling of a job well done, even though it had been an on going thing for months beforehand!

[mk2_craig]

The carpet had finally dried out after spending the entire winter hung up in my garage.  I took a morning off work and retrieved it:

As well as this little lot:

I pulled the battery out to inspect for leaks into the cabin, though nothing seemed to be getting in under here:

 

Interior reinstallation then commenced.  Nice dry and sunny day, so roof down to make it easier:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Battery refitted and connected up.  Engine starts ok.  Good!

Hello, what's this?

Hmm, front windows don't work.  Reverse lamps?  Nope, and the dipped beams are on permanently with ignition regardless of light switch position.  Research the symptoms and...

 

[Fumbler]

Ah, rather suboptimal. What an ungrateful pile of shit.

[Crackers]

Yes, that's less than ideal.

[cort16]

10/10 for not Napalming it. 

[Aston Martin]

😂

 

So what you're saying is that the Renault you have is a better car?

[anonymous user]

1 hour ago, cort16 said:

10/10 for not Napalming it. 

The warning light appears to show it on top of a mushroom cloud, presumably it has a self-destruct mode.

[timolloyd]

This sounds like a nightmare. Think I got very lucky with our old one (now owned by @twosmoke300)

[mk2_craig]

On 22/04/2021 at 17:34, Aston Martin said:

the Renault you have is a better car

It’s funny cos it’s true. 
 

[hairnet]

WTF?

did mini helper learn any new words

you only disconnected the battery.......?

fussy TWA

it needs clarksoning off one of the high places you have on the coastal areas you have

 

[hairnet]

1 hour ago, anonymous user said:

 on top of a mushroom cloud,

think it might be an instruction

 

[Aston Martin]

Which ones yours?

[Parky]

A better battery might be a more sensible starting point, or running some jump leads to another one.  I would have a look at the earth lead on the battery, I have often found that weird electrical nonsense can be traced back to a bad earth so hopefully it is something relatively minor like that.  

Otherwise Mini sold a pack called “extra Chilli” which was an option on the R56.  It consisted of a special boot mounted kit lovingly crafted in a handmade leather pouch containing a litre of Shell’s finest V-Power Nitro and an exclusive to Mini box of Swan Vestas.  At the time it wasn’t popular as it retailed at £799 but it is proving a popular aftermarket add on

[hairnet]

bad man - do you hate them too?

 

[Timewaster]

On 4/22/2021 at 8:15 PM, mk2_craig said:

It’s funny cos it’s true. 
 

I always thought that was a request.

[Fumbler]

6 minutes ago, Timewaster said:

I always thought that was a request.

If only someone with a sense of humour added a comma during printing.

[mk2_craig]

On 26/04/2021 at 19:15, Parky said:

 

I noticed that the driver side window wasn't in the fully raised position, which means I must have had the door open when the battery was disconnected.  I started to wonder whether this fact could have caused the body control module to have a brain fart, though a weekend of online reading had me reasonably convinced that the 11-year-old battery was probably not helping the situation, despite it always being perfectly capable of starting the car even in the depth of winter. 

 

I'd concluded that it was possible to remove the module from the car and have it "reflashed", which would involve sending it away.  I endeavoured to extract the module from the footwell and see what it looked like:

 

 

 

I consulted an electrician mate, who then carefully cleaned off the worst of it.  This had things looking a little better:

I then purchased a repair service from my online auction website of choice, from a company that seemed to have plenty decent reviews.

 

I was still faced with the issue of the not-quite-closed OSF window, which a quick test with a watering can proved was not weathertight.  I figured it would be possible to run 12 volts direct to the window motor, so it was off with the door trim to see what was what:

The bottom two cables looked thicker, so I elected to hook these up.  I pulled the battery from the Renner 19:

 

Success.

 

Will the footwell module be deemed beyond repair?  Will it get lost in the post?  Tune in next time to find out!!

[Fumbler]

The suspense is killing me.

[Isaac Hunt]

If you do get it sorted, I was gonna say ‘drive it like you stole it’ but it looks like the PO already done that.  

[stuboy]

On 4/13/2021 at 9:36 AM, mk2_craig said:

he took the Astra PLUS CASH against this tatty BINI.

hope the missus is on permeant non headaches on date night

[Split_Pin]

Already fragile engine with a turbo bolted to it AND a temperamental soft top. Fair play chap!

[garethj]

Good to see a MINI carrying on the proud tradition of BL heritage by letting in water and having wank electrics.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it failed the next MoT for a rusty fucking subframe 

[Rusty_Rocket]

You poor soul! Did you try plugging that module back in after you'd cleaned the terminals? I'd be surprised if that and the new battery hadn't improved matters! 

[Sham]

I mentioned in passing, to Mrs Sham, that I was 'half keeping an eye out' for a convertible for summer.

She says 'What about a Mini?, They look nice'.

I showed her this thread.

[mk2_craig]

On 27/04/2021 at 06:28, Rusty_Rocket said:

Did you try plugging that module back in after you'd cleaned the terminals?

I must confess the thought hadn't crossed my mind, I had already convinced myself that the module was suffering from some sort of voltage spike-induced amnesia and had latched into a state reversible only by someone who knew what they were doing. Seems a common enough episode so I was fairly sure what we were encountering would turn out to be the same thing.

[Aston Martin]

I am truly sorry for posting this sneak peak. But.......