Rear hatch fixed or is it?

[80spitfire]

The rear hatch on my 2003 Cooper was malfunctioning. It made the dreaded machine gun sound if you left your hand on the release a split second to long. Then it would not lock without major difficulty. My dealer replaced the latch and said it would fix the problem, of course it didn't. My question is has this problem been resolved or is BMW still trying to find a fix? Anyone else still having problems?
Thanks for everyones response.
Ken

[KenL]

I'm not sure this is a fault when you're opening the tailgate by hand. If you pull up on the hatch as you press the button it shouldn't do it.

My car was delivered with the remote hatch opening feature programmed into the key and it made the machine gun sound probably because there wasn't enough force to push it off the lock.

It has been reported on here that the lock has been modified with a stronger spring which is supposed to stop this.

The set up of the tailgate/lock seems pretty crucial though. A badly adjusted one will knock going over bumps as loads of people have suffered from.

[kerryd]

Mine does the same thing. Dealer worked on it, problem came back. When I have a problem closing the hatch, I merely click the switch (on the hatch) ONCE. This works every time for me, so I'm not too concerned about it anymore (but will mention the issue at my next service).
Good luck with yours!

[GordonD]

I just got bit by the hatch latch problem.

On my way home with both windows open and lots of air flowing through the car my hatchback swung up. I figured that I had somehow hadn't shut it hard enough but when i pulled over to do so the damn thing would not latch nor lock.

Fortunatley I was close to home so i drove along with the hatch sticking up. I checked all of the threads on MINI2 and none of the ideas worked. I then called MINI service (it was after the dealer had closed) and they were absolutely no help.

Got it in next day to dealer (MINI Oakville) and a great young guy fixed it in 3 minutes. seems like the lock mechanism is sometimes too low and the striker on the door can shut it before actually engaging the lock. then the poor little computer doesn't know what to do.

he says that it is now part of their PDI but as mine was a 7/02 delivery it was before they knew about the problem. His advice should it happen again was to push the micro-switch in the handle which should unlock it. I thought I tried that but hopefully I'll never have to find out.