Doh! Locked out of MCS boot with batt. disconnected

[Alex5]

Hi

Disconnected the battery of my MCS, and without thinking shut the boot door

Now I can't open the boot door to reconnect the battery... seats and parcel shelf are up so I don't know how to get back in

Somebody please point me in the right direction!

Thanks

[jonnywhite]

Just been outside to have a go and ended up gettin my hand stuck under the seat!

No idea how to do it! Nothing in the manual?

[ScottyBoy]

Lift your seats up and there shud be a manual relase cable in there to open the boot!

[Iain Eyres]

if that doesnt work (as on some early cooper S' they didnt have the realease cable) try pulling the plastic grill out of the parcel shelf & reaching in to release the catch & drop the rear seat from there, its a bit of a stretch but i have managed it in the past.

[Alex5]

Hello again - fitted the induction kit now so back to the battery prob...

Boot release - under which seat sorry? I didn't get the owners' handbook book with the car

Otherwise the plastic grille sounds a good idea - I'll try this aswell thanks.

Alex

[Ant FR]

its easy, and i have fat arms,

Simply prize up your rear parcel shelf and by pulling it in the middle it will then come of the recesses at the side, then allowing you to then move it up at one side. It is a bit of a cafuffle, but will come out if you try hard enough. I had to do this when i disconnected the battery and forgot about the boot lock.

just GGGggggggrrrrrrrrrrr it up and give it some force.

[G-Man]

Befor I found out about the ring under the rear bench seat I managed to unclip the parcel shelf to get to the rear of the seat to lower it.

[Alex5]

EDIT--

Ok found the pull cord and back 'in the comfort zone'

I didn't think there was anything under the rear bench but a load of cuts for my hands, but then up it popped and there was the boot release, accompanied by a load of various dirt and the princely sum of 2p

Thanks for all the responses to help bail me out :thumbup:

Alex

[Root Ginger]

The whole section of the rear bench where your bum sits is just clipped into position. With a bit of force you can unclip it by pulling up on the front edge of it. If you have a release ring and cable it is on the left hand side as you look at it and should be obvious as there is nothing else under there. However not all MINI's have them. Both my Nov 2001 Cooper Works and Jan 2003 Cooper S have no release mechanism even though it's been in the manual since day one.

[Alex5]

Mines a Jan 03 build too... I don't have many extras in my MCS but that's been the most helpful so far

[Root Ginger]

It seems to be hit and miss whether they are fitted or not for some unknown reason. In the early days of MINI2 it was said they stopped fitting them because it was considered a security risk. Someone can come along smash your window, pull up the seat, pull the ring and have full access to the valuables you hid out of sight in the boot.

I have had the displeasure of having to unhook the rear seat by squeezing my arm between the seats and reaching round. I wouldn't recommend it