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Have you had to do any repair like cleaning the intake valve, replace a water pump, or replace motor mounts? And how often did you change your oil and filter?
Thanks
Originally Posted by cmt52663
No to the former, and 5k miles for the latter.
Cheers,
Charlie
5k oil changes - the secret to the longevity of any MIMI engine. Intake valve cleaning - these engines thrive on the Italian car tuneup… Use that redline more than just every once in a while.
Do you guys think 5k oil changes are necessary for a 15k mile per year, daily driver? Judging by Charlie's MINI history, that an oil catch can is unnecessary.
Last edited by dpcompt; 01-01-2023 at 11:03 AM.
Reason: correction
Do you guys think 5k oil changes are necessary for a 15k mile per year, daily driver?
Absolutely. Sort of. There are some who say that the synthetic oil is good for 10K in a MINI. If my recollection serves me correctly, there are people posting on NAM who have had their oil tests by Blackstone and saw the oil good for something like 11 to 12K. Oil is a bit of a fickle thing. Too much heat is bad for it; too little heat is bad for it. The turbo in these cars cooks the oil. A lot of start and stop (turn engine off) driving is bad as it allows moisture to accumulate in the oil causing acids to form. There are additives in the oil that help to mitigate this, but that breaks down after time. I run a couple of my MINIs on race tracks. Charlie autocrosses his. Both are driven pretty “robustly”. On the track, the oil gets cooked because of the turbo (oil temps in the 250 deg range). I will change the oil after 3 days. So it makes sense for us to change oil at 5K miles (aside of my track events). A judgement you need to make is how hard do you drive your MINI. If you think you are in the sweet zone of hard enough, but not too hard you could get away with 7.5k miles between oil changes. That is the next most popular interval. I would be good with that if I just DD my MINI. I would not even think about following the car’s (BMW’s) computers recommendation for oil change interval…. In a lot of people’s minds oil changes are cheap insurance to keep the engine running well and considering all of that oil is recycled, it seems like it can’t hurt.
Originally Posted by dpcompt
…
Judging by Charlie's MINI history, that an oil catch can is unnecessary.
OCC were a big thing with the N14 MINI engine with the turbo. The EGR system sucked on that car. What I have seen posted is that an OCC doesn’t do much on the N18 engine and I have not seen anything about it being used on the Gen 3 MINIs. That doesn’t mean OCCs are not used on the Gen 3s, it just means there may only be a little discussion about it, and I would take that to mean people are finding it to be less of a need or no need.
GDI technology has come a very long way since the late 2000s and OCCs are not something I'd recommend on anything that's a daily driver. Especially not one in a northern climate that sees freezing temperatures.
Seen too many people forget to empty them and end up with a ton of condensation and a frozen PCV system. Not good for your seals and gaskets, let alone the engine itself.
Another boring post from two old farts - Gollum and me.
MoP has just offered more love to Gollum, and thus his oil is refreshed, and his brake fluids are flushed. I am also assured that the blinker fluid was refilled.
Another boring post - Gollum at 114k and I in the waning days of my 67th year.
So.
How do you all get along when the caprice of weather locks your F56 in an ice shield, and the door handle is stiff, and the driver's side window is immobile, and thus the door in un-openable?
I first improvised with a credit card, as though I was cheating a cheap lock, sliding it along the window to door seal to allow the window to perform its little trick.
Not cool. Hard on the credit card, or license, or whatever - and also hard on the seal. So...
A glass of hot water from the tap, poured carefully. And that did it for a while. I was a bit nervous about the darned window shattering due to thermal stress, but it has never happened.
A few days ago, I had to use a half gallon jug! Sh*t got seriously iced in.
I also have an ongoing debate with Gollum on cold mornings...
The Continental DWS6+ tires that I rely on for winter are happy to run at 28-32 pounds, and put more rubber on the ice and snow at that pressure. The sidewalls are fine, and noone is cornering hard anyway.
But NO! Gollum hikes his skirts up if the morning temp and starting pressures are <20 degrees and <27 pounds! I am limited (by message) to only 80 mph! Quelle dolorose!
I resist. I like the traction, and watch the wear patterns on the Conti's...
I feel for you. That window thing is a pain. I am surprised at you are running the tire pressures that low and I didn’t know about the speed cutoff thing in these cars. I know BMWs have it as my cousin with an M2 fights with it when at the track with his car. The cold tire pressure low enough to get to the proper hot pressure, is low enough to trigger that cutoff. There is no way around that nanny. You would think that a car intended for the track wouldn’t have that issue… I’ve never had that issues as I run the tires at a higher hot pressure.
As for tires, the Hankrap AS tires that came on my JCW got me stuck on the slight incline of my driveway with some ice on it. First I found out that the ABS works in reverse, when back the car down it. Then, I found that the traction control does allow for a bit of wheel spin on ice, but the car went no where until it melted enough of the ice to get on pavement…. Why does MINI put such crappy tires on this otherwise great car? One can only wonder…
Not a real issue as the JCW stays under wraps and the Wrangler does winter duties.
So I reckon Gollum can do 0-60 in 5.8 seconds. That's two shifts, as the short geared 2nd won't hit 60 before redline.
The stock car is said to do it in 6.2, but Gollum has a Quafe, and 225mm sticky tires hence my optimistic estimate.
The electric McMurty Speirling can, in half the time, accelerate to 60 and then stop. i expect it would do the same to 100 with a full stop in less than 5 seconds.
Letting that rattle around in my head got me thinking about g forces under acceleration. Rocket science says that 1g of acceleration (which is 9.81 meters per second squared) can get you a lot of speed in a big hurry, and 1g also happens to correspond with the traction limits on all but the stickiest tires.
So how fast could I go at various levels of acceleration, and how quickly could I get there?
Note these shows 1g, and then .5g, .3g, and .2g - remember this is electric (or rocket thrusters, take your pick - constant power)...
So I chuckle because Gollum's performance is worse than the .2g line, even if I grant a half second for each shift.... that's a head scratcher 'cause that car is traction limited in the bottom two gears and can pull.3-.4 in 3rd.
Less surprising is that the McMurty car is working with substantially more than 1g, which I suspect is due to their ability to summon up to two TONS of downforce with fan settings on the wheel, and that downforce is independent of vehicle speed.
So even with coefficient of friction only slightly greater than one, the two driven tires would see a live load of around 2,400 pounds and thus be able to create the same at the contacct patch. That's 2,400 pounds of go versus 2,200 pounds of car (1.2g).
A very long time ago I remember seeing that the automotive designers had derived a formula to predicted acceleration of a vehicle based on its traction, aerodynamics, horsepower and a few other things. It was fascinating to see how close it came to the real world in predicting acceleration. One thing of note was that it was a 2 part formula. The first part was for when the vehicle was traction limited and the second part was when the vehicle was aerodynamically limited. An average car is typically traction limited for only a short distance when accelerating. Even a top fuel drag car of the day was traction limited for less than the full 1/4 mile. Then a few years later when personal computers came into being Car and Driver took a radar gun and recorded the acceleration of Shirley Muldowney’s drag car. 0 - 60 in 0.7 seconds, if I remember correctly, and 6 or 7 g in acceleration at the peak. Crazy. What that article also showed was the acceleration was anything but constant. It reaches a peak shortly after launch and falls off quickly from there. I wish I could remember what the calculated average acceleration was, but I know it was much less than the 6 or 7 g peak. Scale that down from the 3000-4000 hp of her car at that time to the 270-ish hp of your car and I would guess you are spot on. And I would say that Gollum has done well (not worse than) to reach an average of 0.2 g….
With respect to your car…. Are you sure it won’t reach 60 mph in 2nd with those taller tires? I know it is close to 60 with the 205 tires it comes with.
The lads at Mini of Peabody were charged with an oil change, a detail, and the replacement of the Conti DWS06+ with the Falken 660 summer stickies.
The good news is that Gollum looks lovely from beneath despite another New England winter, and more surprising the pads and rotors are happy. That latter note is the reward I get for the Quaife and also a moderation of driving habits (no autocross).
The first set of front brakes on this car (no LSD, autocross) were replaced at about 32k miles. This set has gone 40k and looks happy and ready for another go. Incidentally I am also getting two summers from the Falkens! Stunning....
So I shall post a beauty shot next, but my dear friend Jeremy who is now the boss of the pit crew for the car did notice one thing with his sharp eyes and keen mind.
Looking up through the inspection hatch in the bottom cover he showed me evidence of dried coolant at the bottom of the alternator. Most likely cause is the gasket behind the water pump bracket.
Estimated repair for that pretty bit of kit is $2,400. My word!
So we shall see how long it takes for this possible issue to become real, and then I shall have a serious challenge.
So I shall post a beauty shot next, but my dear friend Jeremy who is now the boss of the pit crew for the car did notice one thing with his sharp eyes and keen mind.
Looking up through the inspection hatch in the bottom cover he showed me evidence of dried coolant at the bottom of the alternator. Most likely cause is the gasket behind the water pump bracket.
Estimated repair for that pretty bit of kit is $2,400. My word!
Nik, nope it isn't. It's 10.5 shop hours however. All that's required is service mode (remove the nose), and then remove everything from the front of the block: intake (all), alternator (which is supported by the bracket), cooling hoses, and all else. Then it's a gasket and a $348 dollar part.
But that is in the future, and I can rationalize that I've escaped the cost of summer tires and a fresh set of brakes.
But one more wrinkle emerged, courtesy of Jeremy's sharp eyes. The left front Falken did not fit! It rubbed the strut. Now mind you these are last summer's tires, so that was a puzzle...
It turned out that the locking ring on the LF JCW Pro coilover had backed off over the winter, and the RF showed 6 threads under the ring, yet the LF showed only three threads!
Thus the wide Falkens kissed the spring perch on the LF corner, which Jeremy sorted by raising that poor low corner three threads to restore balance and clearance. Imagine!
Thus perfection is restored, and I have the privilege of driving the car on tires that are as close to Hoosiers as you can get. Loud, heavy steering, picking up all gravel, and doing whatever I might ask.
Ah summertime - I may just have to do one more NER autocross for the sake of nostalgia and addiction. ;-)
And just for the record, here is what I just sent to Lyon Waugh rather than just giving them top marks in their automatic survey.
Sent to service...
"To whom it may amuse,
I have, over the last 20 years owned four Minis from MoP, racking up over 310,000 miles, about 200,000 dollars, more than 12 trips to the Tail of the Dragon, five regional SCCA autocross class championships, and five trips to the SCCA National Solo finals.
The first Mini (R53) was equipped with the JCW package - dealer installed. I bought that from Gary, who I have heard was last in charge of the Mercedes dealership within the Lyon-Waugh group. A good man, and a square deal. I worried about someone at that dealership tearing the head off my new car, so I watched the beginning of the surgery back at the old Route 1 location.
The hood was opened, and then the tech assembled the required tools, placing them on a cart adjacent to the bonnet, on a towel, and laid out as a surgical nurse would do for a critical patient. I then had faith, and his work served for the next 100k miles and two class championships. I heard he subsequently went to work as a wrench for an Indy Car team - fair one.
The next two Minis were also winners, and Joel DeCoff took over as my anchor for tough jobs, quasi-race preparation, and all matters essential for reliability and performance. Joel wound up running the shop, and is now teaching!
The fourth Mini, and likely my last, is a Works F56 reflecting everything I have learned. Bulletproof, fast, and yet kind for me as I have ceased racing and generally slowed everything down given that I am perennially obsessed but also 68.
Bulletproof due to the efforts of Jeremy at Mini of Peabody, who has now inherited the crown of crew chief for my best Mini ever. Jeremy has maintained my confidence in and loyalty to the Lyon-Waugh group for the last half decade, missing nothing, doing top quality work, and patiently educating me.
Jeremy is fronted by SEs that also deserve and have earned my affection and respect, engaging in my peculiar interests with openness and honesty, and doing their best to support my goals.
This is why, after today's service appointment, that I feel responding to the survey is inadequate. The extent of my satisfaction with the Mini of Peabody team deserves a bit more than that.
Those are very kind words to say about your dealership. It is great that they have been willing to work with you and your cars so that you could achieve your goals.
And congrats on your championships!
Indulge your passion. Do more autocrosses. If nothing else it will help you to maintain your driving skills for the street. Be a mentor to those showing interest in this sport and maybe have a hand at ushering in the next generation of champions.
Most of all, continue to let us all know of your adventures.
Well I knew it was coming, and finally could not put it off any further.
Gollum had the Oil Filter housing replaced last October, and my dear sharp-eyed Jeremy spotted a reoccurring leak. That means warranty, as Mini does 2 years parts and labor on major repairs. That's a curious blessing, because of the other matter...
Gollum is oozing a wee bit of coolant around the water pump bracket, which is of course right next to the Oil Filter Housing on the front side of the engine block. Soooo....... That means I get a break as the car has to be placed in service mode and the front side torn down for either repair.
Still a big bloody OUCH but only half what the whole process could have cost! So that's the first time I considered the wisdom of supporting an aging F56, and that's the result. An easy decision.
So now we're detailed and shiny and have the Continentals back on, and by gum - ready for winter.
I continue my maintenance regime unabated, as Gollum is a keeper. Hence rear brakes, oil, and within a few weeks front brakes also. A pricey winter, which has included the upper passenger side motor mount...
But just to provide context, Gollum is at 129k+ miles.
The rear brakes from new went 82k miles, and thus the 2nd set went about 50k.
The front brakes from new went 27k miles, the 2nd set went 36k miles, and the 3rd set (mind you the Quaife effectively deactivates the eLSD) now having persisted for over 65k miles!
The motor mount was replaced from new under warranty at 72k miles, so the 2nd one has lasted about 60k miles.
Doggone car's gonna put me in the poorhouse.
But with a massive grin......
Cheers,
Charlie
PS: A rather amusing perspective on the original Mini is here, for your dining and dancing pleasure.
At about $350 for a set of front pads for the JCW, for the track and they might last 5 days. Those are not even in the same universe… And I haven't even priced a set of rotors for it. Luckily they last longer than that… And, oh, don’t forget tires….
As my Dad used to say about his sail boat - it is nothing more than a hole in the water that one throws money into.
01-01-2023 | 05:35 AM
I’ve never had that issues as I run the tires at a higher hot pressure.
And I haven't even priced a set of rotors for it. Luckily they last longer than that… 