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General MINI TalkShared experiences, motoring minutes, and other general MINI-related discussion that applies to all MINIs, regardless of model, year or trim.
And it looks like typical early April weather for the NE...
I am guessing you had a great time in spite of that...
Yeah, we had ALL the weather yesterday- sun, dry, cloudy, rain, sleet, snow… We got there at about 1pm, and as soon as we got to the staging parking lot, the sleet started. Turned to rain right before we went out, then stopped as we made our way to pit row. Some dude was there with a Maclaren 6 cars ahead of, and he spun out in the bus stop. He was fortunate he didn’t hit anything. Despite the weather, was still a good time.
So I been chasing some misfires on cylinder 1 on my R50. Short story had to change the head last year to do stuck open injector on cylinder 1. Was do to bad gas. Car has been running fine other than poor gas mileage an random misfires.
So I did a compression check found cylinder 1 at 120 psi an slowly dropping. So I was like let pull some new rings. Pulled the piston an this is what I found.
Anyone got an extra rod laying around.
I haven’t really posted in a bit so here’s the update. So little over a month ago I decided to freshen up the brakes for the upcoming MOTD. EBC yellow pads, ss lines, ate typ 200 fluid, my solid rotors where fine so no need there. Got the fronts swapped no problem so it time to do the rear, yeah I snapped the fitting of my rear hard line on driver side and I didn’t like how the passenger side looked like it was twisted, most likely just the protective covering, but didn’t want to chance it. So mini done for over a month while I tried to find replacement lines, just an FYI for us gen2 owners these lines are not available at all, I called Detroit Tunes, outmotoring, way, and ECS. Detroit Tuned called everyone they could, including mini dealers and a couple calls of seas, no one has them and they are slammed so no bending me up a new set. So hunting junkyards I found a couple of clubman’s being parted out, went and was able to basically cut the driver side one out, just had to disconnect the filler tube on the tank to pull it out. So I cut the bracket of the rear and fished it out, damn rear fitting again wouldn’t brake free even after 3 days in PB blaster. Then last weekend another JCW clubman s popped up on Facebook, so praying I sent him a message and explained everything he would have to do, he already pulled the jcw calipers off the car. We planned on yesterday to pull the line, however a couple days after we talked he sent me a pick with both lines already removed, so instead of spending hours tearing this thing apart yesterday I actually made a new friend within minutes of bsing and spent about 2 hours just hanging out talking mini’s and yes all 4 fittings where free. So today I took on the task of replacing them. You have to drop the exhaust, gas tank, and remove the parking cables. New to me lines Tank and exhaust dropped
the tank is a Giant PITA if full, at least the car was parked for a month with full tank, but I did manage to get it in and out by myself. Yellow pads in, ss lines already in place, and of course the reservoir was empty, so power bled lines with ate typ 200. I need to bleed the abs with a scan tool, any one near Cincinnati that wants to loan me a schwaben for a day, please PM me. My brakes are back but not as stiff as they should be so I think that’s where my issue lies. So now you guys know about my brakes let’s move on to some of the prior work I did before today.
since the mini was down, and my stupid rein water pipe was leaking after a year I decided to replace thermostat and water pipe with OEM. I had a small accident on the dragon last year day before MOTD and I messed up some of my core support, so I found a replacement from a 2013 MCS, that popped up on Craigslist for 50 bucks with fan. I only wanted to touch the coolant once, so since she was down perfect time to tear the front end apart. I replaced core support, fog lights, serpentine belt, thermostat and water pipe all in a day. Pressurized system and it held 15lbs for a few hours, so filled and bled coolant. Way easier to get to the belt tensioner with core support out of the way, so belt replacement was a no brainer and she was do, had some cracks in the ribbing. Fog lights where cracked so new ones installed since bumper was off. I also replaced the chrome trim and grille with a jcw version, so no more chrome, just need to do the headlight trim now. I just need to double check my light alignment, but I’m not planning on driving her at night or during rain/snow for the next couple of weeks, so this will be on the MOTD check list along with oil change, and bleeding abs, other than that I should be set.
So in summary…
I have replaced, thermostat, water pipe, brakes pads, ss lines, brake fluid, fogs, core support, belt, grill and trim, coolant and rear hard brake lines. D@mn near 800 in parts. My mechanic was at 300 for just the rear brake hard lines I’m sure once he figured out the tank had to be dropped, I would have gotten the call it would have been more. Took it out for a little drive and she was back, just need to bleed this abs to feel 100% confident.
Had some time to fix the bulb that blew for the rear fog on my R53. After taking it out of the bumper, the lens fell off, and it didn't seem like I'd be able to perfectly glue the lens back on, so I ordered a new one. I didn't realize how scuffed the old lens was until I compared it to the new one. It's so much brighter now!
Fabricated a bracket for the Braille 2618 battery I just got in similar to the one @bump32 fabricated in his build thread. Padded parts of the bracket in contact with the battery with thick self-adhesive felt to add some sound and vibration damping. Quite secure.
Done! AEM cold air intake & upper stress bar. Now sell?
It took forever to complete the installation of the AEM cold air intake in my 2015 JCW Roadster. It came missing a couple screws (I always inventory the parts list but this was the first time something was actually MIA) and that took a couple weeks to get replaced. Of course I had already waited over 6 months to get the intake because of pandemic delays. Then I got started, thought great this may be almost as easy as the Eventuri one I installed in the Clubman......until I got to the turbo inlet tube. It literally took me all winter to get it unstuck. I had a couple strong young guys try so it wasn't a hand strength issue. A neighbor who is an auto enthusiast suggested Blaster and big wedge shaped screwdrivers. Blaster is like WD40 on steroids and while the fumes are strong, the stuff works to dissolve the crud that had apparently formed which was acting like a weld between the two parts. There is one YouTube video showing the screwdriver part if you to get stuck. Although the AEM instruction photos were not completely like what I had under the hood which caused concern, everything went in as it should.
Then I installed the AEM front/upper stress bar in bright red which will fit over that intake which was truly quick.....well, the two screws near the edge were hard to access but everything under the hood is so tight that this had happened before.
Unlike the Clubman where I could tell a distinct difference in the lag starting out and only a little difference in engine sound, the reverse was true here. Maybe because the Roadster is already so quick, but I didn't notice a difference in quickness. The engine however is now a bit noisy but not to the extent where it sounds fake or drives you crazy.
I did all the cosmetic changes first from blacking out the chrome and changing all the chrome trim out for piano black, painting the side scuttles black and installing a new light with a darker cover to cleaning and conditioning the soft top. I also put in the newer tail lights and installed a custom windscreen. The car had only 13 thousand miles on it when I purchased it last year and was in fabulous condition, but I took the precaution of having a professional put a ceramic coat on to protect the paint.
So I am done in terms of things that I can do on my own and feeling a bit sad about that. For the first time in my life my Dad's habit of buying a junker and fixing it up, makes sense to me. Once there is nothing left to fix, you go looking for a new project. I kept all the OEM parts carefully packed so that it can be converted back should the next owner prefer it as it came out of the factory. I was offered $26,675. for it by a dealer which is one of the things which made me think about selling it if I could recoup my costs.
It is just so much fun to drive. As a novice working under the hood it has been a real learning experience. I so appreciate all the help from members here, YouTubers and Aaron at OutMotoring who answered all my questions without making me feel like an idiot. I have loved and driven motorized things since I was 5 years old but before the Minis my experience in the garage was sticking my hands out to grab the keys so I could drive!
Hello All,
First of all my apologies for not taking pictures,made a note in my maintenance log to document with pictures next time!
This morning I did a thorough cleaning and wash with all kinds of Chemical Guys, Meguiar’s and Turtle Wax products!
After that it was time to take care of an item that was planned for a while. I removed the FTP inlet pipes, cleaned them and wrapped them in gold heat reflective tape, there is still a lot of heat in the engine bay even after recently installing a ceramic coated 200 cell RD downpipe, after that I rotated my Eventuri air filter with a clean one, replaced all the spark plugs with BMW i8 plugs, did a NAV update and cleaned the engine bay!
Took Speedy out for a spin and all is tip top👍🏼
At the end of the month Speedy will receive an oil change.
Saludos 🤙🏼😎
This past Saturday I swapped my water pump and pulley, and filled coolant again, had air trapped in system and I think I got it out last night, will find out today. Also bled my abs system using a scwaben scan tool and power bleeder. Nice stiff brake pedal, exactly what I was looking for.
Took the GP1 for it's first AutoX at the local CCA chapter event. I had a lot of fun, and learnt how the car handled at the limits. If the AutoX continues to be something I do, I think throwing on a stiffer rear sway bar will really help the car rotate on the lower speed corners!
1 - ordered a new rear hatch carpet panel. Mine is delaminating and has been repaired twice. It's got battle scars, but its time in nigh. And, surprisingly, the carpet panel costs less now than its original replacement cost on realoem. About 68 bucks shipped. Now I just need that rear right lateral trim panel... yeah that one is like chasing a rainbow unicorn through candyland while carrying a hundred cowbells in a box.
2 - my black stone covers for my Hellas came in today. Once the hood is repainted, I will be doing two wide matte black stripes edged with gloss black pinstripes. The grilles will be either powder coated black or sprayed black. They look very stealthy compared with the white covers.
I may leave the lower grille stainless for a trial and see how it looks with the black upper grilles. Will paint afterward if I don't care for it.
Well, because of my recent move, I am now down to one Mini Cooper S. I have not yet found a house with a garage so I had to sell all my Mini Cooper parts and cars. My lone Mini is now a 2008 Mini Cooper S with a rebuilt N14 with the automatic. I bought and rebuilt the car for my daughter but she gave it back once she purchased an SUV.
It's not my favorite but it runs strong and will be able to handle higher boost and RPM's. I don't see myself getting another for the foreseeable future. So, I've decided to start upgrading this one. It needs a lot but I started with the exhaust. I decided to go with the Afe Power exhaust because I found a great price at emnotek.com. I was SUPER pleased to get the exhaust on my porch in about 3 days! Rather than wait for the weekend, I was able to contact a local muffler shop and they were able to install it that afternoon at a decent price. Later that evening, I'm tooling around Middle Tennessee with a really decent sounding Mini! I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the exhaust tone based on how little I paid for it.
The next day, I looked closely at the exhaust tips and notice that they looked crooked!
I thought that the shop installed them too quickly and didn't take time to align them properly so I took it back to the installer. He put the car back on the lift and informed me that the muffler tips were welded crookedly onto the muffler! He let me take a look and he was right! He said that it's not the first time that he's seen something like this and that, since COVID, he is seeing this kind of poor craftsmanship from other name brand exhaust companies as well.
So, now I am trying to contact both Emnotek and Afe Power. (I just checked and I have received a response from Emnotek. At this point, I'm still pretty impressed with this company. They are contacting their Afe rep and have requested pics)
Has anyone else experienced this kind of thing with Afe? If so, how was it resolved? What steps did you need to take?
I've owned quite a few Mini's and have installed custom exhausts on almost all of them. This is the first time that I've encountered a bad weld on a part that made it into a box! Depending on what you mean by crooked, the OEM's can be adjusted slightly with an allen wrench.
04-10-2022, 10:30 AM
Yeah, we had ALL the weather yesterday- sun, dry, cloudy, rain, sleet, snow… We got there at about 1pm, and as soon as we got to the staging parking lot, the sleet started. Turned to rain right before we went out, then stopped as we made our way to pit row. Some dude was there with a Maclaren 6 cars ahead of, and he spun out in the bus stop. He was fortunate he didn’t hit anything. Despite the weather, was still a good time.
