Leaky rear hatch window... have you fixed?

[MiniAcadie]

I have a 2002 MCS and have noticed that the window on the rear hatch will leak sometimes when it rains and almost when I go through the carwash.

The leak is smack in the middle top part of the window and flows down towards the rear window wiper motor cover.

I'm just wondering if any of you have had this issue in the past and what was done to fix the problem. I wanted to ask the people here before I pop off the the hatch's interior panel to see if I can figure out where the water is getting in.

Thanks.

[wjones14]

I have a leak on the rear hatch window of our 2003 Mini as well. We noticed the hatch area carpeting was soaked a couple weeks ago. I pulled the carpet out to dry it, and the cubby hole where the tool kit sits on the floor had almost an inch of water in it. I dried all that out, and left the carpet out for almost a week while it was drying.

This week it rained again, and again there was some water in the rear hatch area, but it was in the floor area around the took kit cubby hole, not in the hole itself.

Today I closed the hatch, sprayed a hose on it, and went into the back seating area to look from the inside. Sure enough, I see that the water is coming from the top of the window. Our leak is on the left side.

There's a roof drip molding on the outside, covering the window seal. I doubt the drip molding makes the watertight seal, but am not sure. Does anyone know? Is this fixed by removing the drip molding, and then removing the window itself to apply a new seal?


Thanks!

[wjones14]

Well, I feel like a dummy now because this solution is posted all over the Internet - but the leak in our Mini was not the rear window at all, but the brake light that is above the rear window.

I had read about this "3rd brake light seal leaking" before, but for some reason I thought it was the taillight, where there are 3 bulbs.