Hello again!

I'm a frequently visit NAM and have had many questions answered by the mighty search function, but have only contributed one other post. I'm hoping to change that and start here.

I pick it up on 02/03/2013 and have left it stock since then. I was waiting for winter to stop doing its thing up here in the NJ/NY area.



This is the day I picked it up from JMK Fiat.

It was in great running order, only about 43,000 miles on it. Very clean interior and the exterior only had a few minor rock chips and small scratches.

Here are a few shots from the first few days I got it....lets just say it was less than idea weather, but still a good time and I was so excited to have gotten it.





The first day I took it to work it snowed about an inch by the time I left for home. Was an interesting drive home haha! I used to have a Miata and now I know without a doubt FWD is better in the snow!

It definitely handles itself well; I was surprised!
Anyway, It didn't snow for a whiel, it just stayed cold so I didn't do much to the car.

It's a used car so as I used it everyday, almost, I little by little started to discover things that were not perfect, but I'm one to believe your daily driver will never be perfect. They're just Small cosmetic and interior things; a vanity mirror bulb is burnt out here, one dome switch button is missing the button cap there, found a chip and small scratch in the driver door, etc. Things I could live with for now. Whats important is that the motor and drivetrain seem very well running and taken care of. When I first for it the passenger side fog light was not properly aligned with the hole in the bumper. The next relatively warm and sunny day I took the chance to take out the wheel and fender liner to take my first look under the skin of my new MINI.



Then it REALLY snowed. 12 inches.







Winter Storm Nemo dropped snow all over the place!

At some point when almost all of that melted I took it to the carwash! haha, should have taken some before pictures! It was baaaadddd....







I still had done nothing to the car, nor had I taken it to be inspected at all. I was busy for a while, and the car ran beautifully, nothing seemed out of order.

One day after a pass through an automatic car wash on a chilly spring morning and now one of my striped is chipped!





The stripes were both fairly worn, starting to discolor and seemed dry and brittle....so, becuase of the crack I decided to just remove them! New ones are fairly inexpensive and having seen photos of mini coopers sans bonnet striped I thought it might look good. I like it better....for now!











I finally ended up taking it to Prestige Mini and having her first oil change and a thorough inspection. It yielded a few surprises, but after some research not so uncommon ones, that were found by the tech.

a few minor oil leaks from crank position sensor and oil pan and making a bit of a mess on the underside of the motor, but they're not leaking onto the road yet. This is will be the first thing to address as well as the radiator fan, who's stage 1 fan relay has burnt out leaving me with only the high speed radiator fan. It' hasn't been a problem with temp being well below 70 degrees, but summer is fast approaching and that will change. I order a TYC radiator fan from amazon and with the help of searches here and other forum sites, had the old fan out and new one in and working in about 4 hours on a day off. works like a charm and I've realized that working on your own Mini is not as difficult as I've heard. I've worked on my own previous VW, Miata, and Jeep so it's nothing new to me.

I'm going to next want to address the suspension which seems like the factory set of shocks with now 50k miles on them. The dealer tech noticed a slight bit of doming on one side as well. Trying to decide for more expensive coilovers or new Koni or similar shocks and lowering springs....any thoughts?

Thanks for all the info already!
I look forward to contributing, and being a part of this community!

Justin.

 

Welcome aboard Justin! You have a great MINI - one of my all-time favorite colors. It sounds like you found a solid car w/out significant issues. Many of us who bought pre-owned MINIs had to fix a few things here or there post-purchase, but especially since you have some wrench skills, you'll be able to do quite a few things yourself & save some money on shop fees.

I just de-striped my R53 too and really like the naked bonnet - you can appreciate the contours better and really see the shape. Props on the *clean* look

Aside from coilovers or springs, got plans for other mods? Even if you don't now, you will soon MUAHAHAHA

Drive 'er in good health!

 

Black Eyed Purple... awesome in both color and name. One of those old colors I wish MINI would bring back.

I personally prefer MINIs overwhelmingly with stripes than without but it's all about you and your MINI.

Hope you have many Happy Motoring miles in it !

 

In the States, it was actually called Purple Haze, but Black Eyed Purple is definitely a cool name for it too. It's a very cool and pretty rare color for a MINI, and I agree that it would be neat if they would reintroduce some of the older and cool colors (like Solid Gold, Silk Green, and Velvet Red).

 

Right... a lot of us refer to it by either or both names. Both cool.

Really odd they did away with some of those colors after just a year or two. And can't believe it was due to poor sales. Perhaps they were trying to make them rare.

 

love it! being in new england I feel ya with the snow!

 

Justin, Welcome aboard, Congrats on the NEW BEP.....I love my BEP/White S also...Love the rare color...I get looks wherever I go.

MOTOR ON

 

Welcome to the MINIac family. Beautiful MINI. Good luck.

 

Didn't you worry about differences in color from the area under the stripes?

 

Thanks!!
I totally agree about the bonnet contours ha!
of course I have other mods I'm already interested in doing. Header, catback, sparks and plugs, pulley, intake...and a few others

 

It is odd they only had it for a year or two only...maybe they were attempting to make them rare haha