My wife has a November 2005 mini cooper convertible - 13,000 miles.
The problem is that when the roof is wet (rain or washing) and the door is openned water runs down the side panels and also onto the drivers seat.
Is this normal or is there a cure.

Ive got this problem it is so annoying i think its where the roof meets the windscreen!! we have another mini convertible and that does it aswell so i presume its on them all!!! it really is annoying if you want the window down when its raining it all drips on your leg!! Dont think there is a cure unfortunately :(

There is a lady at my work with a 57 plate Cooper Convertible. She was telling me about this just the other day. To be honest though, you can sometimes get a soaking on the hatch when its raining!

sounds like a design fault.................just like my cooper hatch when you lift the hatch in the rain you get soaked and so does the inside of the boot !!

Unfortunately, quite normal it seems. Having said that, mine was fine until the roof was replaced :eek:

Not sure about that but I went on my honeymoon in December and left my poor MINI in the rain (no garage unfortunately) and it smelt really stuffy when I got back. A few days later I cleaned the car and the carpet in the boot was soaking wet. Scotthall have since confirmed that the seal in the boot was leaking and they are replacing it under warranty. Also found out that my thermostat was leaking!! Oh, and they are also replacing the air box as they think that's why my car 'whistles' (wind rushing by noise) when driving. And to top it all off, my newly refurbished alloy was found to be 'deformed' so I had to get another! Not cheap as a Sidewalk rim is £350+VAT+fitting each!!! At least the other problems are covered under warranty. Although this is the third time I've taken my MINI in and it's only just over a year old (Oct '07 build)!

What exactly do you mean by deformed?????

LOL I don't actually know, but I told Scotthall to leave the rim in the boot for me when I pick up the car (later today), so I will report back. I'm going to get it 'sorted out' so that I have a spare alloy as this is the second rim I'm replacing now (first one cracked in half when I hit a hidden pothole at speed). Either keep it or sell it! :P

I had the same problem, I had just washed the car for the first time (it arrived Christmas day as a prezzie for the good lady!!!!), it's an 07 Cooper S, and I opened the door to wash the sills and the internal part of the door.

Boy, it was just a straightforward river of water dripping straight onto the drivers seat. It really looked like the driver had been scared!!! It's hot orange with the seats with the Orange trim so the stain was awful.... Sorted now though,

However this has got me thinking, when you get in or out and its raining cats and dogs, presumably this will happen again?????

Are there any possible factory or other modifcations that could be installed to prevent this as it rains a lot in this country!!!!

Gaz

Sorry, you have just discovered one of the "features" of the MINI convertible (and maybe most other convertibles too?)

The little "gutter" in the fabric roof can only take away so much of the water, so the rest is almost certainly going to end up on the seat.

But what I have found is that, once you have effectively broken the seal by opening the door, and are driving in heavy rain, further drips of water can get in at the corner where the roof meets the screen. Doesn't happen too often to me, enough to be a nuisance when it does, but not enough for me to ask the dealer to have a look at it......

apparentyly you can get nice MINI umbrellas from Chris @ woodmans

apparentyly you can get nice MINI umbrellas from Chris @ woodmans

Maybe they should be provided automatically with all Cabrios, just like the wind deflector should be!!!!!!

Got the rim back, it has a nasty dent where it has obviously been hit quite badly, although I had my alloys refurbed a few weeks and they were fine and I haven't hit anything major since. What's even weirder is that the dent is on the INSIDE of the rim, on the opposite side to where the alloy is! My tyre was fine too, so how could my car get knocked like that on the inside of the rim and the tyre remained intact? It's also strange that the brake pad indicator came on (possibly from this rim dent) as the brake pads were fine according to Scotthall...Any ideas anyone? Will post pic of dented rim shortly

Here is the pic I just posted http://www.mini2.com/forum/wheels-tyres-brakes/167013-how-does-happen.html