Bonnet not aligned properly

[miniklaoud]

Greetings Everyone,

Just wanted to share an issue i am experiencing for the benefit of the community.

After a 6 week wait I just picked up my '07 MCS last week (2nd week December) (I believe build is 2nd week November). Dealer customer service has been excellent throughout the process, but unfortunately the Mini was delivered with a production defect.

Specifically there is an approx. 5-7mm overhang of the bonnet on the passenger side and similarly 5-7mm out of alignment at the top passenger side near the windshield. The dealer has naturally agreed to take care of it, however, my feeling is that the car should never have reached the customer with such an obvious assembly defect. Why didn't Mini QA/QC process catch that and rectify it prior to delivery? If their QA/QC process can't catch such an "obvious" defect, what about the rest of the vehicle?

Hope it's all uphill from here, love the mini but it's a shame that these sort of things don't get caught on a "premium" vehicle. It just damages Mini's reputation. Would like to hear if anyone else has experience Bonnet Alignment issues.

All the best

[Tigger, Eeyore & Roo]

There were regular bonnet allignment issues with the first few month's production of the R56, though this was really limited to the gap between the bonnet and the wheel arch being out of parallel and the bonnet touching the wheel arch at the leading edge. After a few month's production they appeared to have pretty much cured this problem and I haven't heard of anything else since

Tigger.

[miniklaoud]

Tigger,

Thanks for your feedback. Indeed I read a little bit about that bonnet issue you mentioned and some other issues with rubbing on the underside as well. The dealer said he'd never seen this before on any other mini, but take that for what it's worth. I did check out every other '07 mini they had on the lot and the bonnet was perfect. Just my luck I suppose.

I can understand in the initial months of a new model, perhaps the assembly wasn't perfect; but even so shouldn't a good QC process catch that? If the new owner can spot it, a mini professional should be able to spot it...right?

Anyway, I'm hoping this will be an easy adjustment for my dealer's service dept. when i take it in after the holidays. I'll be certain to post the outcome.

Cheers!

[Restyle]

A neighbour has recently taken delivery of a brand new R56 & the first thing I noticed was that the wheel arch misalignment issue still exists.
Unfortunately its always the first thing that my eye gets drawn to, although I have seen a few with no such problems, so they can fix it if they really wanted to.

[caesar]

I had this problem with my July 07 MCS, but found the cause to be the bonnet had not closed properly. Read the instructions in the Owners Handbook on bonnet closure - you have to drop it from a certain height so that the catches on both sides lock it in position.

Hope this helps.

[msh441]

Quote: Originally Posted by Restyle (original)

... they can fix it if they really wanted to.

True, there's a degree of adjustment to bonnet alignment.

The truth is that some dealers A) are just more techniclly knowledgeable than others and/or B) More thurough during their PDI. Wish everyone was on the same page with the same degree of knowledge and attention to detail... but clearly, that's just not the case.

[miniklaoud]

Thanks for your comments and suggestions,

caesar,

Thanks for bringing that up, indeed there were many things that i couldn't figure out with my first MCS that were right in the manual. Unfortunately in this case we tried multiple times with the dealer to see if we could get the bonnet to close in alignment but it just remained in the same off position when closed.

I also completely agree with the comments made regarding the inconsistency amongst dealers. I know it seems evident but it really shouldn't be that way. This is my second MCS and while the second dealer has also been great, the experience has been different. I will say this though, I'll deal with a mini dealership any day over any other dealership including BMW.

I'm just glad minis have such a great community behind them and forums like this where eveyone shares experiences and gives great advise to people when they need it.

Cheers Everyone

[caesar]

Hi miniklaoud,

Further to your thread, there were a series of owners who had your problem earlier on this year, and a number of DIY solutions that fixed the problem. However I would let your dealer do it !!

[South Shore Lad]

First time I've been on the faults and fixes forum for many months.

And, lo and behold, the bonnet alignment thing still seems to be a problem.

My own car (Dec '06 build R56 MC) had this problem - bonnet sitting far too high, leading to the infamous big gap at the arches. Another problem area was/is the chrome strip alignment at the top of the bonnet where it meets the windscreen 'scuttle' (please correct me if my terminology is wrong!).

Problem was thankfully fixed by dealer at 2nd attempt in Jan '07. Service Managers by then were in possession of details as to what constituted acceptable alignment, but by April I was still seeing some absolute horrors on dealer forecourts (no Derek Woodmans, not yours).

When I took it in to the dealer for repair we spotted a few more cars around the place that were just as bad. Repeat this across the country (indeed further afield) and I bet there's probably hundreds or thousands of cars affected. Yet a few months later I enquired about how the QC issues were going on, only to be told that I was the only person to bring it back for fixing.
Now, as I've said before on this subject, there's either a lot of people either in blissful ignorance, or just plain not bothered about these alignment issues!

My advice is - get it back to the dealer. It is easily fixable, although as to why 'Oxford' or PDIs are still letting affected cars loose...well, words fail me!

SSL

[miniklaoud]

Greetings Everyone,

Just wanted to feedback that the dealer was very attentive and resolved the issue directly. They sent it over to their body shop and had it back to me the next day. In the meantime they gave me an similar MCS loaner which was Super!

I will say that just as SSL mentions there is a bit of a misalignment still on the chrome piece at the top near the passenger side window but it's very minor. I did see most of the other mini's on the lot had just a little dip where the chrome piece ends on the bonnet but they were equally spaced on both sides.

Anyway; problem solved, was very happy with the dealers attentiveness and now off to burn up some break in miles!!

All the best and thanks for everyone's great comments!

[mu5c13b0y]

I recently took ownership of a cooper d and the driver' s door doesnt fit flush at the bottom left hand side. only noticed today (thursday) took delivery on Tuesday. After checking the bonnet it seems that too is out of alignment on the left side. Mine is going into the dealers to have the doors adjusted and the back seats replaced, as one of them i higher than the other!!!! im very dissapointed with the build quality!!