[Kennyhkw]

Just wanted to know if anyone has had any of the following problems.
If i'm in the car and lock the doors with the toggle switch on the dash and then proceed to open the drivers door from inside, the door will not open and will activate the deadlock on the drivers door, eg. i can't open the door at all! even when i hit the toggle switch!!! But this isn't the case with the passenger door, it opens normally when the lock is activated. The only way to open the drivers door again is to use the key fob. This seems a very strange problem and i'll have to get it checked out when i have time. Also the central locking dosent work when i try to lock the drivers door with the key! It only locks the drivers door! How very strange!!!
And lastly the window closure that is suppose to close the windows when u turn the key in the lock and hold, it is not working on my car either!
Dodgy electrics or wot?!

Any one else encounter similar probs?

[fulghie]

OOOh, be careful with this one! BMW somehow thinks it's a good idea to set a car up so that if someone locks the door with a key, you can't get out no matter what you do! Happened with our M3, and I was the victim for longer than I want to remember. VERY scary. A BMW dealer suggested we get one of those tools that breaks the window in an emergency because of this stupid feature......Hope your Mini isn't planning to do this to you.
Your letter brought back nightmares!

[HarryHBMCC]

That's the double locking feature which is different than this obvious problem the original poster has. The original poster should take the car to the dealer as something is wrong.

The double locking feature means when the car is locked from the outside, the doors and central locking button no longer work. This is do you can't break the window and open the door.

Harry

[fulghie]

So sorry!! I realized this post was about a fault in the system; I was just trying in an ineffective way to inform anyone who didn't know about it that there's no way out of the car if the door is locked from the outside with the key. I've seen people who run into stores "for a minute" lock their passengers safely inside while they're gone, and it gives me chills when I relive my experience. With all the quirks our Mini is developing in the first 500 miles, I wouldn't be surprised to discover it possessed a twisted sense of humor and would do this to me on purpose......especially if I was riding nose to the windshield in my messed-up passenger seat!
I would much rather risk someone opening my car door after breaking a window than spend another five endless, claustrophobic minutes waiting for rescue!
I will now shut up and behave in all future posts......

[HarryHBMCC]

If I'm not mistaken, it may be possible to disable this feature as one of the memory functions.

BTW, it isn't just the key that double-locks. The keyfob does this as well.

Sorry to hear about your experience. It must have been disconcerting! I know some people carry window breakers with them in case they drive into a lake and the power windows short out.

Harry

[mr.bill]

This is a known problem. Several posters early on related stories of being trapped in the car when the doors refused to open, even with the locking buttons pulled up. BMW blamed it on moisture in the lock and supposedly redesigned the mechanism. Months ago I suggested that BMW should provide an emergency hammer for breaking the window, perhaps with a nice MINI logo on it.

[fulghie]

Love it...the Mini Emergency Hammer for mini-emergencies.
It could also be used as a whacker for the cable shifter problem, trim replacer, or to help "convince" the dealer to cough up a loaner car! On older models it would aid in removing the cracked windshield. Combined on a ring with a few other tools, it could be marketed as a Mini Army Knife.

[BruceK]

This is separate from a malfunctioning locking system, but when the doors are locked with the toggle from the inside, to get out of the car it takes TWO pulls of the door handle to open a locked door.

Everyone knows this, right?

[Kennyhkw]

Yes Bruce, that is correct, it requires two pulls of the handle to open the door from the inside. Well this works on the passenger door but not on the drivers door at the moment. Sometimes one pull will open the drivers door slightly, to the point where it is still on the latch and when this happens the door will not open at all, every time the handle is pulled the lock jus goes into mental mode and fires the door pin up and down rapidly!
I've got a very shafted central locking set-up and the car has only covered 1K miles!

[chiph]

Quote:

Sometimes one pull will open the drivers door slightly, to the point where it is still on the latch

Is the glass dropping it's fraction of an inch when you do this? If not, be careful, or you'll crack the plastic cover on the A pillar. Or worse.

Chip H.

[Mr.X.]

Also i read in the manual there is a safety ring that opens the rear hatch. it is under the back seat. pull it and the rear opens.. will try it tomorrow

[Basil]

Quote:

Originally posted by Mr.X.
Also i read in the manual there is a safety ring that opens the rear hatch. it is under the back seat. pull it and the rear opens.. will try it tomorrow

Let us know if you find it, as even though it's shown in the manual....ummm......I don't think its actually there.

Cheers

[ricardo]

I hope this hasn't already been covered elsewhere ...

(Moderators please note that I have tried a search but admit I didn't spend hours trawling all the posts so apologies in advance!)

...my Dec 2001 build MINI has this very odd trait:

• nearly every day at lunchtime I have to move my car in the office car park, because my parking space blocks in a colleague's car.
• the "move" involves starting the MINI, driving it out of the space and re-parking again - takes a minute or two at most.
• frequently, after re-parking, the car refuses to lock properly!
• it won't (centrally) lock using the remote, or with the key
• the key simply locks the drivers door without activating the other locks. The remote does nothing.
• if I return to the car 10 minutes later, it'll lock as normal with remote or key
• if I re-start the engine or fiddle around with the dash toggle I can usually get it to lock eventually

The odd thing is, it only ever does it after this short carpark shuffle. I have never had any problems locking or unlocking after "normal" use so I can only assume it's related to either running the engine for a short period, or not driving far enough!!

Could it be related to the self-locking facility that can be triggered when you reach 12mph?

Any ideas, theories, etc.?

[minimini36]

ricardo

I had a similar problem with the car failing to lock or only lock one door. I mentioned this to my service advisor and he said another customer had brought his car in the day before with the same problem. After some research the tech informed him this was normal and was a safety feature. If the car is repeatedly locked and unlocked in a short period of time it will refuse to lock. This was done incase your children were inside of the car playing with the locking switch they could not lock you out of the car. The locking operation will return to normal after a short timeout period. This may be your problem.

Good luck

[ricardo]

I asked for this fault (or trait) to be investigated at the oil service earlier in the week. The cure was a complete replacement of the control unit. I'm pleased to report that it has entirely cured the problem.