Went for a long mountain road trip with my son in his Miata, 2 other Miata's and another Mini R53S. smoked lots of twisty turns on and around the Blue Ridge Parkway. Dipped into Tenn. and Virginia too. What a blast! Got her real dirty on some muddy gravel roads too. Then it rained so hard going home on the I-26 that I barely have to wash it now. Ha! Motor ON! The Blue Meanie runs nicer now after blowing the gunk out. About 900 miles all together in 3 days!

 

Had my new Foose wheels put on. Thanks to Gary!

 

Looks real nice!!!

 

Got back from the Indy Motogp Sunday night. Pretty boring ride on I-70 other than negotiating traffic. Monday evening I installed a JCW Stage 1 air box and detailed the engine compartment.

 

Sweet looking ride, looks real close to my Barnaby!

 

Nice wheels Mib!

I'm changing my alternator today (2011 Mini Cooper S)

 

I put an Ultricks 15% pulley on my DD.

I have 125,000 km or 77,600 ish miles on the little beast. I figured it was about time. Also my Dealer was always offering to do it. The operation was not too bad I was very careful.

I got a kit with the removal tool, belt tool, pulley, smaller belt, and colder plugs. I did the pulley on a Friday evening leaving me a Saturday in case I ****ed it up and could still get supplies if needed to bring it back to life by Monday.

Yes I am that conservative. But it did start up and run.

I did the plugs a few days later as I had checked the gap on them and they were all like 0.045 and most of the references called out 0.035 as the correct gap. Once I decided to use the smaller number I regapped the set and put them in.

The plugs that came out were new 18 months ago and were the four electrode Bosch type. The new ones were the iridium NGK type.

I have an MSD coil that had some corrosion on the #2 lead so I cleaned that off. The car started OK so I guess no damage was done.

So what is the result? The car is still learning I think. There was just a bit of detonation at first near 3000 to 4000 rpm under WOT. I just started a new full tank so I have no idea if the mileage is better or worse. The detonation is better either from Italian tune up, or the ECU learning.

I like what is happening. Basically to sum it up it is like I am in one lower gear. What 3rd gear felt like is now what 4rth gear feels like. I liked 3rd before as it was torquey and worked over a reasonable speed range. I can gun it in traffic without gearing down as before. The torque band is much lower. I can drive around town in 4rth and still find torque.

I do not really care if it is 200 hp now or whatever. I do not spend much time WOT anyway. The supercharger whine is more pronounced. In fact under acceleration that whine is the loudest noise the car makes. I like that.

The mini is a momentum car. You are moving fast just turn the wheel and keep going.

I already sold the removal tool for most of what I paid for it. You can only remove the stock one once.

 

Seems that Mini is clearing the shelves of pats that will have no use for new Minis. Specifically, the JCW upgrade for an R56 can be had for a bargain price up to 8/31 (at least at Hendricks Mini in Charleston). So today my '07 Mini was transformed and I must say I like it and it was worth the price of admission. Sounds terrific, too.

 

Nice find on the parts! Gotta love the JCW!

 

Had an issue with my ABS the last few weeks, and my Uncle and I decided to just... rip it out.

Sensor housing snapped completely, had to move the axel a bit and pop it out with a screw driver... Wasn't exactly fun or easy, kind of a pain in the ***. BUT! MY TRIFECTA IS GONE, YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

I'd say last night was pretty good. Oh, and I picked up an Authentic German license plate for $5. Same month/year my cooper was made too.

 

You might want to re-think that, Teh. ABS can be useful stuff, and the sensors are also used for other purposes. (Traction control, e-LSD, even tire wear sensors in some cars!) You may wind up with warning lights that are a hassle to turn off, and may cause you to ignore actual problems that crop up.

Not to mention if you ever get in a wreck and the insurance notices you disabled the ABS, there's a good chance they won't cover you.


As for me, I got my new brake pads and sensor in the mail today. Hopefully I can get them installed this weekend!

 

Oh, we installed a new one haha. I guess I forgot that part. I was so fed up with trying to get the old one out, I kinda got hung up on the fact it was being a pain.
Have fun with your pads & sensor! Hope yours goes better than mine.

 

Bath and WD40 on the plastic trim. My trim detailer is in storage somewhere and I read that WD40 is supposed to work wonders so I gave it a go. Seems alright so far, but the trim is pretty crappy so it needs a lot of work.



James

 

WD-40 on trim? Not sure about the hard plastic bits but keep it away from anything rubber.

 

Got my new-to-me front bumper reinforcement and a new radiator bought today! Planned on getting a radiator support too, but my workplace chumped me out of $200 off my check this week, so it'll have to wait. Slowly but surely, Bernie will make a return.

 

Took her for a nice long cruise around the lake with the top down. Love my Mini!!!!!!

 

Take it from someone with experience rubber and WD dont mix lol it ate away some of my wires and rubber grommits so I dont know about the plastic either..

 

Started installing the Aero Grill on my R50 - it will look fine but this should not be advertised as fits R50 - its not even close.... lots of cutting / drilling and a little painting - I know there's plenty of write ups about the lower part needing cutting - but it's hard to imagine until you're knee deep in it - I now regret not just painting the chrome, I would have been done hours ago....ok, whining over... I have over 210K miles on it so I thought now would be a good time for a mod or three!

 

Finally got around to installing the ATI crank pulley / harmonic balancer and a new belt on my R53, checked all the various pulleys for smooth operation, cleaned the road grime off and generally had fun.

At 69,000 miles the original damper showed no signs of failing, but the new one should be a lifetime part, and it's 2% overdrive so more fun is assured.

There is a nice label on the new crank pulley, with tiny print advising you that it is not going to be a slip fit . No kidding . As tight a fit as it is, I really think the bolt is just for looks!

Next up will be a new water pump, servicing the SC and a new thermostat and housing......

 

Finished up the rear brakes last night. My pain points on the job:

- Oh crap, BOTH of my cars have wheel lug bolts? Good thing I have experience balancing the wheel on my feet while I thread the bolt in with my hands...
- I wish I had found the correct tool for spinning the caliper pistons back in their bore. Using the open vise grips worked, but was not optimal. A good pin spanner would work, I think.
- You really have to get that piston waaaaaaaay back there to make room for fresh pads, don't you?
- Why couldn't they leave 10mm more slack on the parking brake cables? That would have made it 90% easier to get the caliper over the new pads.
- The new brake wear sensor had very slightly different clips than the old one, and they don't hold as well as the old ones did. The should be fine in use, but they popped off during installation.
- You have to reach waaaaaay up forward from the wheel well to find the connector for the wear sensor. And of course, it is the forward of the two connectors in its bracket so you have to work around the other one. (ABS sensor?)

All complaints aside, it wasn't that bad a job.

 

Does your gen have the caliper guide pins and bushings? Did you clean the guide pins? Swap out the bushings?

I recently swapped out the bushings on my rear calipers. Very very tight fit again. I cleaned up the gunk that was building up on the guide pins and put everything back together. I was noticing some accelerated pad wear in back and I think that is gone now. The brake dust on the rear wheels is NOT nearly as bad as before.

Connecting the sensor can be a PITA. The Harbor Freight tool set works great for me with pushing in the rear caliper. Cheap set after the 20% off coupon.

 

Got my new radiator today! ... and it arrived damaged. lol My luck with this car lately...

 

I acquired this fantastic 2006 MCS Checkmate back in 2007 as a CPO with 18,000 miles on the odometer.

It was my reliable daily driver until May 2014 when the wife and I decided a 2 seater convertible was in our cards, and we added the 2012 RoadsterS you see in my signature.

Today I transferred the title for the Checkmate over to my son. Hopefully he will enjoy it as much as I have.

 

My car was brought to my mechanic last week to diagnose a metal sound on the passenger side. He quoted me $500-$600 to fix the idler pulley water pump and thermostat along with the oil service on the supercharger. I would have had to bring my parts.
I decided to tackle the task in Sunday. In the end all went well.
I also washed off a lot of the gunk build up from the crank sensor gasket.
What a pita!! So much muck caked on. What I hated the most At the end was all the screews need to remove the bumper. I highly recommend the oil service if you have the supercharge version. The boost comes on way easier and the supercharger creates less vibration. It was a long job but pretty straight forward




The pita cleaning you have caused my oh my &)$&(,!:





Supercharger out. If you feel a lot of vibration at wot upper rpm ranges chances are you need to service it. What a different it makes.

 

Oh, and not to forget to mention that the battery died while the driver side window was cracked... It's been raining the last day and a half. Use jumper cables you say? Perfect! I'll just grab mine out of my Aunt's truck... which is two hours away. lmao