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| DRW58 Member Since: 23 Feb 2013 Location: Perthshire Posts: 167   
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Hi I took mine off in the Summer and found the mechanism was seized making them difficult to open or shut.
Mine have the foam seals and even once sorted still allow some draughts through, but what a difference. It's easy but fiddly to do, just use plenty penetrating fluid to loosen the moving parts, the hardest part was putting the bolts back into the back of the flap....if I dropped them once....say no more!!!! Hope this helps DRW I built a garage for my Mini With a place for everything and everthing in its place. Ten years down the line there's a Mini in there somewhere, and  all's where it should be!!!! Ho hum |
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13th Oct 2013 7:09pm |
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| landy andy Member Since: 15 Feb 2009 Location: Ware, Herts Posts: 5800 
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Check hinges are straight and not bent, make sure bolts through bulkhead and vent hinges are free moving.
Thy seals should be rubber and attached to the flap not bulkhead, that's the older ones, and if changing, main dealer parts only. Andy |
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13th Oct 2013 7:19pm |
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| jimbob7 Member Since: 06 Jul 2013 Location: uk Posts: 2055 |
This /\/\/\ I replaced the seized, rusty vent pins wi stainless jobbies, pita to get the olds ones out tho.
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13th Oct 2013 8:12pm |
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| Papa Lazarou Member Since: 11 Sep 2013 Location: West Midlands Posts: 40 
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Ok, thanks
 Everything seems free moving with the mechanism though so I don't think that anything's seized. If the rubber seals are definitely supposed to be mounted to the flaps themselves, then I'll have a look at the hinges again. There's no obvious bend in them but maybe it wouldn't take much to stop the flaps closing fully?
When I push the levers fully up to close the flaps, there is some resistance there and they bounce back down without locating in the notch. It's difficult to describe but it's kind of a soft squashy resistance, which is why I suspected the rubber seals. Maybe bent pins or hinges could give the same effect though? |
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13th Oct 2013 11:35pm |
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| SGoggin Member Since: 04 Jul 2009 Location: Australia Posts: 19 |
When my TD5 was new, the dealer fitted Series 3 Rubber vent seals to the flaps to fix a leak in the roof... (Well they tried at least.)
But the problem with these seals - for me at least was that they were way too fat, and the result was the flaps would not latch shut. They tried bending the hinges to make them work - but they were just to hard and fat to fit. In the end they ripped the rubber seals off and replaced them with the correct flat foam seals that stuck to the vent flaps. They have been there for 10 years and worked perfectly. The roof still leaks though... |
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14th Oct 2013 3:34am |
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| mk1collector Member Since: 17 Sep 2009 Location: West Yorkshire Posts: 6772  
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Mine had the same symptoms of not latching on the top notch and as said by jimbob the pins were rusty and seized. If you open the flaps and look underneath there are two 10mm bolts. Undo the bolts and lift the flap manually while spraying lots of wd40 on the pins and work the flap up and down for a couple of mins. After doing this mine closed easily.
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14th Oct 2013 8:20am |
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| Papa Lazarou Member Since: 11 Sep 2013 Location: West Midlands Posts: 40
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Cheers, I'll give that a go then
The hinges look ok so hopefully this will sort it out.
Failing that, how much of a PITA was it to remove the old pins and replace with stainless jimbob? It'll either be doing that or replacing the rubber seals with the foam ones as suggested. |
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15th Oct 2013 8:26am |
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| jimbob7 Member Since: 06 Jul 2013 Location: uk Posts: 2055 |
Mine were bad, took me over 3 hours to get them out,I think
 you can take the flaps with one or both pins still in but be careful those hinges bend quite easily,so lots of penetrating fluid a good few days before you do the job (still haven't bought Plusgas which is the best,I used GT85 which is better and cheaper than WD40).
Also used a pair of mole grips to try and turn the pins but didn't work initially so just kept spraying more lube into it,you may also need a suitable sized drift to help knock the pin out,especially when the pin shears at one end whilst using mole grips  .When you open and close the flaps,you will see which hinge has seized.
The new stainless jobbies popped straight in. |
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15th Oct 2013 10:12am |
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| Papa Lazarou Member Since: 11 Sep 2013 Location: West Midlands Posts: 40
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That doesn't sound like much fun
 I'm hoping I don't have to take the pins out then  I'll have a go at sprayng everything and trying to get a bit more movement in the flaps then. Cheers |
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15th Oct 2013 9:59pm |
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| DRW58 Member Since: 23 Feb 2013 Location: Perthshire Posts: 167
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Definitely need plenty of lubrication, you certainly don't want sticky flaps...or so I hear
 I built a garage for my Mini
With a place for everything and everthing in its place. Ten years down the line there's a Mini in there somewhere, and all's where it should be!!!! Ho hum |
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16th Oct 2013 5:00pm |
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| Papa Lazarou Member Since: 11 Sep 2013 Location: West Midlands Posts: 40
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Took the advice on this thread and got it sorted
Thankfully I didn't have to resort to removing the pins, just plenty of WD40 over a couple of days and a lot of jiggling They both close fully now so that should make things marginally warmer and quieter. Thanks for your help |
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20th Oct 2013 8:34pm |
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