Going to use this as a place to document my progress on my car, things that I've done, redone, repairs, upgrades, etc.

Some background.

Bought this car new in 2003 when supply was low and demand was high. I had built my Mini on the configurator - Indie Blue MCS with black top, black stripes, cold weather package, leatherette (vinyl) seats, the cool silver brushed looking interior. I had been in contact with someone at the Albany Mini dealer, and I called them to help process my order. A day later I got a call saying that there was one *exactly* how I had configured mine on an inbound ship that someone had backed out on. So, I bought it then and there over the phone, sent them a deposit and then waited for a few weeks until I got the call that it was ready to pick up. Have some photos that I will have to dig out somewhere, but when I picked it up, it had like 3 miles on it or something like that. I had never been that excited about picking up any other car before or since. And off I went.

Didn't start modding right away. I think it was maybe three or four years in (was worried about warranty voiding - there were lots of horror stories in the early years) before starting. Did a cold air intake first, and liked how that made the SC whine louder, so I ripped the hood blanket out, and that made a nice improvement as well in the sound volume. Then I did the Borla Sport exhaust - and WOW! The butt dyno maybe registered something, but the sound was now what the car should have always sounded like. And that was about it for a long time.

Moved from MA to southern CA for grad school. Typical stuff happened. Probably went through 3 power steering pumps and at least that many fans. They tried to tell me that I needed new rotors like every time I went in for pads - ludicrous. No major issues otherwise, ran like a top. Never been hit, a few dings here and there from idiots parking too close to (or touching) the mini. Then off to NoDak. The traffic was such an improvement, but the Mini didn't care for the snow all that much. They don't really plow up here - it just kind of packs down and turns to ice that sticks around until the end of March. Ran great for the first few years, and then it went into limp mode on the way home from work one day - was almost home, and then it would not start after that. Engine sounded funny, not broken funny, but different. No compression in one cylinder - head gasket. So I bought a jeep and the Mini lived in the driveway for the next few years.



Have recently found the time to start diagnosing/working on/restoring the Mini, and so the first thing I did was to tear off the head, have it resurfaced (was .006" out), take the head apart, check the seats, springs, guides and valves. The exhaust valves were pitted somewhat, so I cleaned them up, and lapped them to their individual seats. New seals, and the head went back together. New head gasket, plugs, wires, o rings wherever I found them, valve cover gasket. New thermostat. New fuel filter. Oil and filter change. All back together, plugged in the fuel line. Fired right up. Then I hit the accelerator and there was a major bog. Idle would come back though.



So I have been slowly diagnosing my way through the bog for the last couple of weeks. Take top end back off of the engine. Check that all bolts were torqued, that all sensors were plugged back in. Checked the vacuum lines by hand and with carb cleaner - nothing that I could see. Checked the PCV valve - fine. Checked the manifolds - fine as far as I could tell. But the exhaust manifold was disconnected from the rear exhaust. Could that do it? Got under the car and the rear O2 sensor wires were sheared off, so I will take that apart and fix it.

Finally got out the code reader to check codes. Has four.

P0138 is the rear O2 sensor (broken wires and disconnected exhaust).

P0500 - vehicle speed sensor. Not really too worried about that one right now.

P1692 - Electronic throttle control monitor level 2/3 - motorised throttle control and fuel injection switch off A. Need to look into this one a bit more.

P0456 - Evaporative emission controls system very small leak

Going to take these one at a time starting with the O2 sensor. The precat on my exhaust manifold is busted at the weld, so I did what anyone would - used this as an excuse to do another mod. Ordered an OBX header. Will have the cat welded onto the flange once I measure the overall distance of the stock manifold so I know where to mark the cat for cutting and welding. Figure the header and exhaust together should give hp a bit of a bump. Then, when I have the exhaust back together and the O2 sensor repaired and reinstalled, I can check that off of the list, reset the codes and see if any of the codes come back. If that is not the issue, I will then go to the injectors, fuel pressure regulator, and coil. If none of those do the job, it looks like it might be time to consider timing.

 

Once it's running, it'll go into the garage for the winter so I can start on some other projects. New rotors, restore and paint the calipers, a good thorough clean out of all the mouse nests behind the plastic bits. I need to do the drivers' window card (snapped cable), and then will start on cosmetics. The hood was perfect until some idiot in a pickup backed into the hood with their ball hitch and then (of course) took off. It's a nice uncreased dent though, so I might try the ice water/boiling water trick to pop it out. I'm going to have two louver panels welded into the hood, have the hood painted and then do a double, wide strip in semi translucent silver with silver pinstripes along the edge. All grilles will be custom DIY'ed with aluminum grill material from customcargrills.com. Then it will be a bit at a time until it's better than new.

I love this car.

 

Nice color, sir (I have the same)

keep the updates coming!

 

Finally found at least one picture of it shortly after I got it home. Can't get any of my old computers going...

It was so clean and tidy. The seats were uncracked. Ah well. It will be better than new at some point.

 

And the quality seems really great. Welds look nice, nicely polished, etc. But looks like no matter how I measure, with the cat cut at the weld (like in this photo here from another member...



...I'll still be approximately 2" too long at the downstream flange side. I guess the best thing to do will be to bolt the header in and see from under the car the exact length and measure the distance from the front of the rear part of the exhaust to the header flange and go from there. Then I'll cut the cat off and mark where the weld needs to be on the extension piece.

Really nice looking piece though. Comparison below. Hopefully will have it installed and the O2 sensor wires repaired by the weekend.

 

Good story, not too many people have their car since new, no matter what type of cars. I'm a VW guy from a young age and got into the Mini just a few month back and i love it. I have a similar story with my 2001 VW Passat 1.8T that i purchased new, lots of love and upgrades and past on to my Son this year for his 21st birthday, he was 2 when i bought it! He has zero plans on getting rid of it, just more updates!

Good luck with your rebuilt and findings, looking forward to updates and learning more in the process.

 

Managed to shoehorn the header in today, It is definitely not an easy fit. Had to remove the power steering reservoir from its bracket and then the coolant overflow, and then the bracket itself. Had to bend remove the two fasteners holding on the heatshield, and then bend it into a pretzel as I massaged the header down into the couple inches of space between the valve cover and the firewall. I'm pretty miffed that I scratched the Mini badge on the valve cover. I will definitely have to source a new one of those now - yep - I'm *that* OCD. But I did manage to fish it in after about 30 minutes of trying from below (a definite no go thanks to the sway bar), and then from above. removing the coil in addition to the heatshield finally did the job and with one last push, it slid down into the empty cavity. I put the upper O2 sensor back in and tightened it down, and then finagled the header into place and put one bolt through the header and the gasket and got it started. All of the holes matched up pretty well, but the upper bolt hole on cylinder 1 had to be slightly elongated to allow the bolt to go into the hole because of the collector angle. Finally installed. See that scratch? It drives me crazy.



Once the header was on and snugged down, I measured the distance from the borla front flange to the header rear flange - 13". Considering the 1/4" or so that the graphite doughnut will take up, I will be cutting the overall length of the cat and front pipe piece down to 12 3/4" (also leaves room for the cat gasket). So I took out the sawzall and cut off the front piece of the header just after the front weld in the picture below (note header and cat are in back to front order below). For those of you who have installed the OBX, did you cut the cat close enough to allow the OBX extension piece to 'telescope' into the cat a bit, or was it just a butt weld? I am thinking a butt weld might not stand up to the rotational stresses, but would like to hear what you did. Anyhow - just prior to the cut. Didn't take any after the cut. Maybe tomorrow. So I have the header in, but have to get the cat and extension piece welded. I also need one new O2 sensor. The sheared wires that I thought I could repair- well the adhesive used is pretty resistant to removing the metal collar piece. So have to order one. UGH.

 

I am so glad you decided to save your MINI instead of parting it out like so many have.

We may have crossed paths when you bought your MINI. My Wife bought hers in late August, 2003, so it is a 2004 model and picked it up in October from that deal near Albany NY. Hers is a R50, Indi Blue, white top, mirror covers and bonnet strips. Over the years, we have since bought 3 more MINIs from that dealer.

The secret to driving MINIs in the winter is a set of studless ice and snow winter tires. I have a Wrangler with BFG KOs on it and the MINI, with those tires, is almost as good in snow up to it underside and better on the hard pack and ice.

I am going to suggest this thread I follow as a source of info into the R53s:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...n-project.html

I look forward to following your thread.

 

^This.

As far as snow goes, I had a decent time back in 2010 with a MCS on Nokian Hakkapeliittas - just be sure to turn TCS off as it's just going to cut power and be more nuisance than anything else when trying to accelerate.

 

Thanks guys for the comments.

Yes, I have been following the Pepper White thread - some good info in there for sure. Just ordered a noew O2 sensor - if anyone needs one, Rock Auto has the best prices I have found - cheaper than amazon even with the prime shipping. Paid 95 bucks for the NTK sensor with expedited shipping after the typical rock 5% coupon code. Will get the cat welded this week and post an update with the results later this coming week.

 

So I got my cat welded up to the trimmed piece from the OBX header, got my new rear O2 sensor, new exhaust-to-cat gasket, and new hardware. But the rain just has not seemed to stop up here in ND this fall. It's a muddy, mucky mess, and it's even too wet (and cold) to work under the barn overhang. So - the rain is supposed to tail off this evening and warm up again tomorrow through the weekend, so hopefully I'll have some positive news to report soon. Before I try to start it up, I'll have to remember to clear the codes.

BORLA WOES...

In the meantime, I thought I would document my efforts to get some warranty service from Borla. I have the Borla sport exhaust - the louder of the R53 systems with the center resonator chamber in front and two round mufflers. I LOVE the way this exhaust sounds - it just seems to be the way that the car should sound. Loud, yes, but good and loud. I was very impressed with the fit and finish when I installed it. Everything went together really well, everything lined up, the holes were in the right places, the welds were very nice - it just worked. At the time, I had narrowed down my choices to the UUC (don't even know if that one is still available) or Magnaflow. But - even back then, I was planning on keeping this car forever. So, knowing about Borla's million mile warranty was *the* prime consideration in the exhaust I ended up with.

This car spent the first 5 years of it's life in MA. So, salt, rain, and humidity. But the exhaust was supposed to be constructed of high quality SS tubing, so there should be some defense against rust you would think. The center resonator still looks good (and surprisingly the cat body looks great also - has to be stainless). And the muffler bodies don't look bad, but the tubes are not looking so hot. LOTS of rust under there. Additionally, both mufflers have the inner supports broken off. These cars vibrate, the attachment points flex (they're rubber after all), and things move around. Okay - but the hangers are welded to the outer lip that extends off of the lip of the sides of the back part of the muffler body, not the more solid part of the muffler itself. And so stress cracks must have formed and the whole inner hanger on both sides are there - hanging from the rubber mounting blocks completely broken away from each muffler. Also, the welds around the back muffler outlets both don't look so hot.


Borla righ muffler

Borla left muffler

This seems to be a design flaw and don't know if Borla has addressed this issue or not, but if you look at the length of bracket that is on the muffler inside edge compare to the one on the outer edge, that can definitely explain why they failed where they did - the outside bracket is MUCH longer.

Anyhow - I have the receipt, but thought I would send an email to Borla first seeing what they would do about it. Sent an email to them with photos ten days ago now on 9-22, and I have not heard a peep back. Ideally, I'd like two new mufflers as those welds on the rear exits look like failure will happen sooner, rather than later, and the pipes don't look that great for 'stainless'. The original header that I took out looked better - even at the bottom where it was exposed to the same environmental variables as the rear part of the exhaust (salt, dirt, water). Anyhow, I know this is a popular exhaust system among Mini owners, and with good reason - it sounds 'right'. But there is little info among Mini owners on how Borla treats their customers with potential warranty issues, so we'll see where this goes and I'll make sure to document the whole process here.

 

... the Mini is now running nicely! Finished installing the header this morning. Tightened the 10mm bolts down to 18lbft, then got under the car for some very tight quarters install work. I ended up having the exhaust guy make the cat and flange assembly 12 3/4" - I could have gone 12 7/8", but it worked fine. The guy that welded it up for me from the local shop said he had a hell of a time with it. I ground the front down and cleaned it up so that the extension supplied with the header would slip fit tightly into the hole. He cut the extension to length and did a pretty good job with the stainless to steel weld. Doubled it up in a couple places. Not the prettiest job, but should hold.


Then it was fun under the car. Those spring bolts for the rounded graphite gasket-flange thing were not very fun to get going. I ended up compressing them down with a vise grip and getting the one side started and then with the other side, getting the spring-bolt assembly in the hole and then compressing it in with a big channel-lock so I could get the bolt started. After about 45 minutes of expletives, the cat was mounted to the header and the new O2 sensor was in place. Not sure how tight to make these bolts on the header-to-cat flange. Have seen people suggest doubling them up to lock them in place, but you want that joint to be able to move and I think that would essentially lock the whole assembly together. Anyone else install an OBX? How tight did you make these bolts?


Then I but the new cat to exhaust gasket in place and tightened that up. Was starting to get excited now - but double checked that all of the bolts were tightened up, routed the wire from the O2 sensor to the plug, crawled out from under the car. Re-attached the battery, cleared the codes, and then started it up while it was still jacked up, just in case. Started right up, and purred - just the way it is supposed to sound. After allowing it to warm up a bit, I hit the throttle - and a beautiful sound - normal climb to around 3k rpm. Oh - the sound was lovely! So the big bog was gone!

Jacked it up and took out the jack stands, started it back up and backed it off the ramps. Then out from under the lean to and drove it around in the grass a bit. Sounds great and the bog seems to have gone away. I would have driven it down the road but for the massive mud puddle that is in the driveway that I would have gotten stuck in for sure.



Drove it back to the barn and opened the hood to listen. There is a slight whine that is not supposed to be there. I think the serpentine belt perhaps is making some noise. There is also a slight lag and a small hesitation when hitting the throttle - I wonder if this might be my bypass valve starting to have troubles? I never had the yo-yo under acceleration that a lot of folks experienced, so I considered myself lucky, but this seems to fit the symptoms a few people have mentioned with their older cars where a new bpv solved the problem. So that might be one of my next steps.



Unfortunately, while I was driving around in the grass another of the Borla hangers let go. So the driver side muffler has no support at all ATM. I'm going to remove the rear heat shield and the rear section of the Borla exhaust - maybe tomorrow. I need to replace all of the band clamps anyway - they are all cracked and corroded. I suppose if I do not hear back from Borla soon, I will ask Summit what they think I should do. I would like a new rear section. Those pipes are clearly not the same stainless steel as the rest of the system. Borla clearly states on their website that the entire system is made from 304 stainless, but look at the difference between the muffler body and that rear tubing. Also, the tips look like new. These are definitely different materials. I bought this exhaust system for the 1,000,000 mile warranty and plan on keeping Borla honest on this. Problem right now is that the receipt is in a computer I can't get started. Might have to take the HD out and attach it to a USB adapter. I have the original box UPS with the born on date and my registration stub, but apparently never printed the receipt out. Ugh...

Anyhow - progress for sure! After letting it warm up to normal temp for awhile, check the heat - nice and hot! Was worried about bubbles in the cooling system after the drain and refill, but seems fine. Turned it off and put it back on the reader to see if there were any new codes. Yep, 1 - but a relatively minor one... P0455 - fuel door gasket. Upened up the fuel door, and the gasket is definitely shot. Anyone know how to replace that gasket?

Also, anyone know a source for SS exhaust band clamps that look like this?

 

Might be fun to keep track of the parts replaced so far also.

1 x set valve seals $34.00
1 x cylinder head gasket - Fel-pro 26382PT $40.82
1 x valve cover gasket - Fel-pro VS50731R $13.78
1 x cam position o-ring $7.00
1 x Bosch 72223WS oil filter $4.71 (not impressed with the quality of this one)
1 x 5qt Mobile 1 5w30 oil $18.00
1 x Vaico fuel filter kit $24.25
1 x PMD cam locking tool $35.00
1 x Motorad 718-195 thermostat and gasket $28.90
1 x set of head bolts Fel-pro ES72272 $31.41
1 x Bilstein timing chain tensioner 37587 $30.07
4 x NGK BKR6EQUP platinum spark plugs $7.57 each
1 x M7 blue silicone intercooler boots $29.92
1 x NGK 54058 plug wires $30.60
1 x set 2 Rear Door Hatch Liftgate Lift Supports $19.96
1 x OBX header, 1.6l Mini $296.00
1 x NGK O2 sensor $85.00
And a lot of misc supplies - bolts that the engine ate, assembly lube, valve spring tool, head re-decking, welding, etc...

+ a lot of time!

On the list:

1. repair / get Borla to warranty exhaust
2. driver's power window
3. supercharger service, 15% pulley, belt, water pump
4. front r56 brake retrofit after full restoration on calipers, new pads, calipers
5. strut tower bearings - both are cracked - might do new shocks/springs at the same time

That's the higher priority stuff... then it's:

1. tune and colder plugs (not too long after pulley) - probably will do one of the remote or canned tunes
2. body work - think I will do the hood first (maybe this winter) going to have louver welded in and the whole thing resprayed
3. seat reupholstery (in leather)
4. redo headliner
5. replace rear plastics (they're all thrashed)

That's the current plan anyhow...

 

A suggestion for the strut tower bearings is to replace them with a set of IE fixed camber plates.
https://www.waymotorworks.com/irelan...e-r50-r53.html

The MINI is very camber-challenged and these greatly improve the turn-in feel and overall handling, even at low speeds. IMHO it is better than the rear sway bar. Toe-in will need to be reset.

 

Did you use these with the stock struts and springs, or did you change those out for something else?

 

They are a direct replacement for the stock bearing assembly and they work with the stock springs and shocks. I’ve had them on 2 of my MINIs and find they are a great option for the street. They are made with a BMW part that is mounted to a plate that gives the offset for the camber. As they have the noise isolation material of the original BMW part, you won’t notice them noise-wise or for vibration.

If you are going into the suspension that far, I would also suggest replacing the shocks. I read a lot of post as to how crappy the MINI shocks are and thinking that these people are being overly critical. Nope, they are right. I replaced my shocks on my 2012 S when it had about 50k miles on it. Wow what a difference. Because I take the 2012 S to the track, I put Bilstein B8 shocks on it. Even being a performance shock, which are stiff, the valuing is so great the run flat tires are tolerable on the car... I would suggest the Bilstein B4s or B6s for the street. I find the Koni FSDs to have a really nice ride (they are on my wife’s base Cooper), but they are a little soft for my tastes.

 

Second everything Eddie is saying here.

I installed IE fixed camber plates and replaced my worn out dampers with Bilstein B4s right after I bought the car in January. Camber really helps this car, plus these plates will eliminate mushrooming effect.

I really wanted to go with FSDs, but my budget was limited, so I shopped around and found a really good price on B4s that was about $300 less than FSDs. I'm happy with them thus far. If I was doing any kind of competitive driving events I might want something a little firmer, but for aggressive street driving/daily duty, they seem to be a good compromise.

 

I've had to do Borla Warranty before and it is a huge pain as I have one right now that needs warranty, but no one is willing to do anything.

I would contact the company you bought the Borla from as they may have a copy of the order to prove your purchase.

 

I did. Bought it from Summit. I have the box UPC with the mfg date, and I have the delivery tag from UPS with both my and Summit's addresses. Summit doesn't keep receipts for more than 8 years. Got one of my old machines fired up today and the old Oultook in that one only went back to 2007. I may have been on a desktop before that, and if so, there will be no receipt. Sounds like they wouldn't really step up anyhow.

Well, the cat back is toast. The mufflers are probably okay for a while longer, but they are brittle and rusted internally - that is why the welds for the mounting brackets have all cracked right off the mufflers except for one. I'd call them junk if they hadn't been on the car for 14 years (only about 75,000 miles though - significantly less than 1,000,000. Anyhow - not going to buy a second Borla system considering their million mile warranty appears to be useless - two weeks and no reply from anyone at Borla. Looked at the exhaust system closely today. The resonator body and the muffler outer bodies look good, but the mufflers are rusting from the inside. The tips look great, but the pipe they are welded to is rusted paper thin at the connection to each muffler and is falling to pieces. When I took the clamps off (well, when I started to and they disintegrated), pieces of thin rusted metal as thin as paper rained down on my face from where the clamps had been. The welds on the mufflers are beginning to fail, and the front y-pipe looks awful. The stainless on the mufflers could be coated, but wow - that is a lot of rust considering the whole system was supposed to be made of the same material.

Will let you know if they ever contact me back, but I'm not counting on it. I may end up going with a Milltek sans resonator - seems to have a similar sound to what I am used to and the tips look pretty nice. The header didn't add anything soundwise as far as I can tell. I like the look of the Milltek - and there is another lifetime warranty, so we'll see. Am also thinking about the Invidia - but I am definitely not a fan of the tips on that one. Looks like it might weigh less though.

 

I was going to suggest the Miltek. A friend has on on his R53 JCW and I like the way it sounds, but I think it is a complete system as it has a pretty mellow sound. I had a Invidia on my first R56. It seemed to be really nicely built and I don’t recall any corrosion from the NE winters. My issues with it was that it would drone at speeds above 60 mph and there was a small issue with the fit and I struggled to get it to not bang against the car. Not sure how the R53 will sound with the Invidia system as the turbo on the R56 changes the exhaust sound vs not having a turbo.

 

Well hopefully Borla will do something if you can find the invoice. But yes I would suggest a Milltek as they fit great and also made more torque. And if you didn't see they are on sale till the 15th with a chance to win a trip to Germany.
https://www.waymotorworks.com/millte...w-exhaust.html

 

Will ask summit if I have enough evidence for a warranty claim and see what they say. If not, will probably go with Milltek.

Added a a quarter can of seafoam and let the car run for about a half hour. Will do 30 mins a day until this old gas is used up and see how it responds to new fuel. Still has a little bit of a bog when cold, but goes almost completely away when it's warm. I say almost completely, because when I step on the accelerator I get about a seconds worth of almost like a sucking sound before there is a response and the revs climb smoothly after that. Q: For those of you who have had a bad BPV, what were the symptoms? I'm still thinking there could be a vacuum leak somewhere as well...

 

I wouldn't call mine "bad" but your symptoms sound similar to what I was experiencing. I just swapped in a Detroit Tuned BPV and saw all my throttle lag disappear.

 

You can solve the problem if you write the last update sw for your ECU.Try to contact your local Mini dealer,they must be able to solve that.

 

Unfortunately, the car is not currently road worthy (Borla exhaust hanging on by a thread because it's corroded away), a couple of cracked tires (still holding air), and brakes need attention. I also don't have a local Mini dealer, unfortunately, or a BMW one. Nearest Mini dealer is over 500 miles. There may be a BMW place in ND, but that would also be over 100 miles :-(