Quarterly maintenance session on the kid's R53. We suspected some lingering issues after the incident with the broken wheels from last November.

The suspension was grumbling and clunking a little more. We just finished shocks, springs, rear control arms and new tires and wheels so it was time to delve into the undercarriage.

All pretty standard gen 1 stuff. Drop subframe and R&R the inner and outer ball joints and the control arm bushings. No more clunking though I suspect the car will need front wheel bearings soon. We shall see...Perhaps next quarter?!?

Sorry in advance if the pictures are too big to view on your mobile device.


Patient up and ready to go. Blue boxes of ball joints. Not pictured are Meyle HD bushings.


...and the subframe is down. Pretty straightforward. Just remember to disconnect everything.


Let the cleaning and refurbishing begin.


All cleaned up and ready to be lifted back into place.

 

Much better I did this and all the bushings, it was like giving new life to the front end.

 

You are way ahead of me in wrenching the Mini. I have yet to drop the front subframe and I am dreading it. Nice father and son bonding activity. One thing your kid shouldn't do is to be wearing ear bugs while working on heavy machinery. I know, it is a generation thing but safety first.

Do post high resolution photos. I now post 1600 pixel wide as standard. We are long past Netscape era. Amazes me how tiny **** photos a lot of internet commerce still uses.

 

We're two years into this adventure and putting the car up on stands and front end service mode goes pretty quick now.

@pnwR53S, your projects are way more interesting! Looking forward to your review of the shifter!

Luckily my son doesn't plug both ear holes, but you're right, no ear buds is better. I let him use one bud since he was doing the cleaning at that point.

Pretty cool the browser and forum software now scales the photos without any extra steps. The photos were straight out of the iPhone so full resolution from now on.

 

I know you are an excellent parent. You are not making it your car and your project. They need to earn it instead of being given. Good progress for his memorable journey!