Thanks!
Unfortunately, I've been through this before. Sometimes I get lucky and lasts only 2wo months. In other cases it could take 9 months to almost a year. In either scenario it - sucks.

My Mini runs and drives great. I've done a tremendous amount of work and maintenance to the car in just the last few years. However I've still got a pretty good list of parts & maintenance I have planned on doing this year:

1. Replace a dreadful leaking oil pan gasket.
2. Timing chain refresh.
3. Change both pre & post cat 02 sensors.
4. 30k mi tune-up
5. Install a new belt tensioner with powerflex bushings
6. Inspect and/or replace rear trailing arm bushings w/powerflex.
7. Brake pads (at least the rears)
8. Re finish all 4 S-lites (again)
9. Re-skin the driver side seat
10. Replace a scratched interior rear hatch panel
11. Replace/upgrade front & rear speakers w/JBLs
12. R&R front wiper cowl to tap out a few small dents/divots

Like all Minis - there just never seems to be enough time as the list just seems to always keep growing.

Thanks again for your well wishes!

 

I toyed with ac delete, but last weekend was miserable. 100 is 100 no matter how you cut it, this wasn’t a dry heat, so feel like 105-110. With the upcoming move to Florida, ac is most likely going to be needed. As for the work, my Indy quoted 800-1000 to replace everything and charge system, that’s parts provided. I figured a 6 pack, a day’s worth of my time, and my ability to create 4 letter words is worth 600-800 of their labor. $200 at most for them to drain and fill once done sounds way better.

 

I agree
I for one, am not that adventurous when it comes to even thinking about tearing apart a car to do or even attempt to do a full AC component replacement. My head and back hurts just thinking about it.
Sounds like a fairly good deal just to have them do it and be done with.

I lived all over Florida most of my young adult and throughout my professional career. If you don't mind me asking; What part of FL will you be transplanting to?

 

I have had the compressor off to replace the oil pan gasket, so front end service mode is nothing new to me, and to be honest most everything is right there once you are in service mode.

As for Florida, we are looking Ft Myres to Naples. We are big fans of Marco Island, but not a fan of prices on the 1X3 mile island. Fishing isn’t horrible down that way and I can stand in 90 degree waste deep water and drink beer 😁

 

Since having lived in a compartment complex for the past 10yrs with no garage + "no working on cars in the parking lot rules" , I've never had the experience (or need) to go full monty on the front end. ' Should be a first when I do my oil pan gasket.

I lived with a friend in a rental house in FT Myers not far from Naples back in the mid 80s'. Long before they destroyed/gentrified the since fabled Tamiami trail aka Alligator Alley. Marco Island and Sanibel Island were seemingly unpopulated and pristine..Nothing short of paradise.
I haven't been back there in 30years. If you're lucky enough to be within a few miles of the coastline; AC shouldn't necessarily be too much of a concern as (I recall) there is usually a nice breeze flowing inland from the Gulf. That's not to say it won't be hot and sticky 9 month out of the year... but I hope you will enjoy living there as much as you had in your past visits.

Looking forward to hearing how the AC fix goes and subsequently your new life down near Margaritaville.

 

We live in an Apartment/Townhouse complex. Renting a car port and making sure i have plenty of cardboard laid down has helped. Maintenance guys will stop, see what im getting into, management just rolls on by like nothing is happening.

We have been going down to Marco Island and Naples for the past 10 years, honeymoon was spent on Marco Island with a trip down to Key West for a Night. Im a fan of the Gulf side, and you arent wrong about the breeze or the fact that you can actually enjoy being outside. It will be those trips to Tampa or down to the Keys that some AC wouldn't hurt. Scouting trip to find a place 8/10 -8/17, there will be some beach time, but finding a place will be the mission Monday thru Thursday, maybe Friday if needed. Tiguan making this trip since daughter is going with us, but eventually ill be making that drive in the R53 with one of the dogs in back.

 

Took her to the dealer to get a rim repaired after hitting a raised part of the road on a detour in the never ending Ft. Worth road repair/overpass building projects, and have an alignment done. I bought the insurance for that when I bought it and have used it once before already.

 

4 hours start to finish, replaced compressor, condenser, both high and low Schrader valves, and any o-rings found along the way, no new cuss words invented today. Honestly isn’t a hard job, lift would have made it faster for sure. Once you have her in front end service mode, everything is right there easily accessible. Took her around the block to make sure no belt squeaking, obviously let her idle while she was still in the air. Monday morning I’ll go down and get her filled back up and hopefully I’m back to having ac again.

 

 

I have AC again. Took it down, let them do their thing, and boom Compressor kicked on air started getting cold. Nice to have it back, Auto 72 on the way in to work was very pleasant, even though its like 67 and rainy here.

 

Who doesn't love that song...?

Today I finished up re-skinning (re-upholstering) my 20+ y/o cracked, torn and tattered front driver's seat in my '04 R53.



This afternoon I cleaned up and finally replaced the upholstery with a perfect salvage yard find I'd stripped from a 05 R52 about a year ago.

Salvage yard upholstery skinned from a '05 R52

After stripping the seat down to the frame I was disappointed to find surface rust throughout.




Surface rust most likely as a result from living most of it's life in Florida's high humidity climate.


The frame cleaned up beautifully after spraying it down with a coat of Ospho.
After letting it do it's magic for 20min, a quick wipe down, the frame was now rust free.
I also took the opportunity to flush out/clean and re-lube all the seat adjustment workings.




Even though they are both sport seats - The seat bottom pattern are not the same between the pre-facelift R53 and the R52.
So my passenger seat bottom pattern remains original to the car as opposed to the re-skinned driver's side from the R52.
The R52 bottom seat cover will have to do for now. Until I come across a good condition PF sport seat bottom to match the original.

Despite the fact that the seat bottoms aren't the same; I think it will be nice just to be able to open the car door and not have to look at that ratty looking patch job.
Not to mention dragging clothes across and snagging on that melting Gorilla tape residue...would be nice for a change.

 

New Zimmerman Rotors (360 x 30 front, 330 x 20 rear) and OEM brake pads. Just under 35000 miles....could have gone to 40,000. I'm excellent at anticipating stops, so my brakes always last a fairly long time. Reused the sensors since they hadn't been worn through, and did the manual release technique for the Electronic Parking Brake. Flushed the brake system with new BOSCH Extended Life DOT 3/4/5.1 product that is less hygroscopic than most fluids that have such a high boiling point. It took me nearly 5 hours, but it was done fastidiously and correctly...and I saved a good bit over having someone else do it. The OEM rotors could be "turned", but with ECS having a lifetime return policy on new Rotors, why bother turning the old ones? If anyone wants the old ones, let me know...you'd have to pick them up, shipping would be killer. The fronts weigh 28 lbs each! They are well within minimal spec according to my micrometer.

 

I had a post all typed up about this last week, but apparently I never posted it.

My wife is a huge fan of Nightmare Before Christmas, so I made her something special for Ziggy to help tie-in the new wheels. I need to redo the right side as I over heated the base scuttle, but I'm super happy the concept worked out. I started with some rough used union jack side scuttles and broke them down to their base components and used vinyl to to update the inserts. Sally went on the driver's (left) side, of course!

 

I can appreciate little unique subtle details...
An interesting and yet a nice personal touch.

 

Agreed H2G...

 

The only other thing I enjoy more besides driving my Mini is it's lowered stance and hitting the salvage yards.
The unfortunate caveat to having a lowered car and salvage yards are entrances that have a peaked apron and scraping your underside.
This was the case for me last year after pulling into a salvage yard parking lot. Snagging a raised section of asphalt, scraping and deforming the underside of my passenger side side skirt.

Everytime since then, walking up to my Mini from the passenger side, was a reminder of that day as the damage to the underside side skirt drooping down was so visibly apparent.
I'd thought I had taken a picture of it from a distance but it seems to have vanished into the DCIM parallel universe...

Anyway - Today I felt well enough to undertake the task of straightening things out and reforming the damaged areas the best I could.


While the damage may not appear that bad in these photos -
in hindsight, I should have taken a better photo from a different perspective showing how much the plastic was actually distorted and pulled away which hung below the bottom edge of the side skirt.


With the use of a heat gun, some 2x4 and a floor jack...


After softening up the underside of the deformed plastic with the heat gun, I raised a 16" length section of 2x4 on a floor jack and press formed/flattened out the offending damaged areas.


I targeted smaller sections using the same method.


A couple of hours into the process, I washed things down to see if my time was well spent trying to resurrect a 20+ y/o part rather than replacing with new.




Not a great feat but...a very desirable result in reformation.

Without proof of a before picture (taken from a distance) it may be hard to appreciate how gratifying and successful reforming this side skirt turned out.

 

Took it in for its annual maintenance. Found a broken motor mount. It doesn't need to replaced today but they said I should start budgeting for it ($1700). Will probably target doing it after the holidays.

 

Wait what! $1700 for a motor mount?

 

Yeah, seemed high to me. But this is one of the better rated independent BMW/Mini shops in the Denver area. So far they've been solid to work with. I've got time though and a second highly-rated independent shop near me so maybe I'll get a second estimate.

 

Is this a newer Mini with the B-series engine? Right side mount? We see a lot of those fail in the BMW cousins of the newer Minis. They are a bugger to get to.

 

Nothing is cheap to have done on these cars. I have turned to having my local dealer to do most of the work I want/need done. May be costly, but I have struggled to find a trustworthy shop otherwise.

 

2018 F56. And the mechanic said the exact same thing to me yesterday. Its a typical failure they see in that chassis and its extra work to get to them to replace it.

 

Here (link) is a thread you might want to look at.

 

^ +1 thats the diy you want. That old TIS link in the thread is dead as you have to pay for TIS access now. :(

 

I'm not able to do a DIY repair unfortunately, but I appreciate the tips!