Hey guys,

I took it upon myself (as a broke college student, great idea, right?) to bring an '03 LY/B MCS back to life this summer. I've never done any repairs before, only mods (STi suspension swap into a MY02 Forester, intakes, exhaust, etc), but when my Focus died in March, I decided to buy my boss' messed up MCS and fix it up.

The heat exchanger, cv boots, control arm bushings, ball joints, motor mounts, front crankshaft position sensor, oil pan gasket, BPV, and radiator fan resistor were all blown. Threw in some Redline tranny fluid for good measure, too.

After 6 weekends of working on the car, almost $2000, and no sleep and minimal food for me, I buttoned the last nut up this afternoon. All the repairs were successful. I even put all polyurethane mounts, did operation VGS on a used '06 BPV, and plastidipped the exterior trim back to a sexy-brand-new-black! "Sweet, finally done," I thought, as I decided to try starting the car (while still on jackstands, just in case). Reset the ECU, primed the fuel pump, and crossed my fingers.

...and then I tried cranking her over.

Dashboard lights up. Service Engine Soon, Engine Management, the whole shebang. Car cranks, and splutters to life for a split second, and immediately stalls.

Turn the key again.

Car starts, splutters into a sorry excuse for an idle at ~650 rpm, and then bounces its way to a not-very-consistent 900 rpm. Warms up, seems pretty stable.

Then I tried giving it some throttle.

That's when my poor little MINI started resisting. If I give it any amount of throttle, it sort of zig-zags it's way up to ~1900 rpm, and then bounces there, unable to continue. Even at full throttle, 1900 rpm. WTFFFFF

I thought it was the pre-cat o2 sensor (I cut the rubber loom on accident dropping the subframe), so I went ahead and removed it, cleaned it, and cut the damaged portion out and resoldered it back together with some nice wire.

Same thing.

I took tomorrow off of work to get this fixed. My parents get back from their summer residence on Wednesday, and they're gonna be so pissed if the garage is still a mess and my car is still taking up their garage.

Is it safe to drive like this to my nearest auto parts store to have them read the code?

Please help. I have no idea what the issue could be. Throttle body? The new BPV? Did I do VGS incorrectly?

 

PM'd

 

Did you check all plugs to the sensors? Sounds like throttle body, or map sensor not plugged in. Been there. For me I forgot to plug in the throttle body once. Another time I swapped the 2 map and t map. Car was not happy.

 

Where is the MAP sensor? Lol I'm gonna definitely check that first thing tomorrow.

 

Whoops, throttle body was unplugged.

 

woohoo!

Glad you are up and running again!

Well done on all the pieces you replaced/repaired!

 

Ha, I knew it. Glad you figured it out

 

So how does it run?

 

Beautifully! The full-poly mounts make it really loud in the cabin, but I don't mind because the shifts are insanely direct now.

VGS is super noticeable too, I get supercharger whine at pretty much every point now.

 

Okay, two days of commuting down and I'm running into problems again. AHHHHHHHHHH WHY ME

Problem 1: When the A/C is on, the compressor makes a whining noise and I lose TONS of power. At freeway speeds, this translates to the car slowing down even at 3/4 throttle. A/C is not blowing too cold.

Problem 2: With ASC on, I randomly get a flashing ASC light and the car bogs down. My understanding is that ASC can cut throttle upon loss of traction, so is a sensor going bad? Which sensors affect ASC? No shaking in the steering wheels, pulling to a side, etc. Car drives great.

Problem 3: I'm getting a blueish deposit on the inside of my windshield from the top vents...assuming this is related to A/C? No weird smells, though.

Problem 4: There's a groaning from the right side of the steering/suspension when you go from one side to another. Almost like something's not aligning or something, not sure. What should I check?

When it rains in the MINI world, it just pours, doesn't it? This is miserable.

 

Problem 4 might be the steering column. Part of it is some kind of plastic and makes a creaking sound when turning the wheel. You might be able to be lube it if the rest of the column isn't worn out.

 

Problem 4 is coming from the front right side of the car, near the strut, though. I torqued all the ball joints down correctly...could it be the tie rod end?

 

#1 - sounds like your A/C compressor is binding up - dying in other words. You're probably looking at replacing it. (Especially if it's blowing refrigerant and oil into the vent system.)

#4 - I know you said you've just finished a lot of the repairs that I'm now doing, but did you do the strut mounts? My steering got to groaning badly, but after replacing the mounts, it's as quiet as new. It also turns so much more smoothly. If you didn't replace them yet, take a look at them from the top strut hole in the engine compartment. Is either torn? Cracking? I'll bet that's your groaning problem.

 

If something gets blown on your windshield from the inside and the a/c isn't cold, it sure as hell sounds like the evap core is leaking. The compressor dying wouldn't throw anything inside the car. If it leaks inside from the evap core, the only way out is thru the vents. R134a doesn't really smell anything, it's a bit mold'ish if I had to describe it. We had a '15 Corolla at work with a weird problem of a dusty windshield inside the car and found out that something was causing corrosion on the evap core, which was then getting blown on the windshield.

If it doesn't leak refrigerant inside, there's definitely something up with the evap core. A/C compressor isn't supposed to be noisy, so there's that too. You don't need to be that low on R134a before you start losing efficiency with the A/C.

 

Filmy, I didn't do the strut mounts, good diagnosis on those. I'll tighten the tophat down tonight just to try to alleviate it a little, but I'll just do the mounts when I throw new struts in.

Is it possible that the compressor is noisy BECAUSE the evap is leaking? Would that explain the bogging? Even when it is moaning, I still have cold air (although I definitely think it's less cold than it was before).

If the car turns in immediately to the left, but requires ~10 degrees of steering input to turn right, would that be a tie rod end? I stripped the hex in my right tie rod end and mangled the flange nut, so I replaced it with a locknut+washer and impacted it down like hell.

 

Where are the ASC/ABS sensors?

 

Problem #4 - Your steering rack is probably lose in its mounts from where you dropped to subframe.

Problem #1/3 - replace AC compressor and EVAP core.

Problem #2 - probably related to problem 4. ASC works off the wheel speed sensors on each wheel and the steering angle sensor in the steering rack

 

Problem 1/3: Should I replace the gaskets/lines as well?

Which mounts? The only time you touch anything related to steering (besides disconnecting tie rod ends) is at the knuckle on the u-joint on the column itself.

Would a loose steering rack cause this:

 

Are the wheel speed sensors the ones that are blue plastic and ziptied near the wheel?

Or are they the ones that go inside the upright with the torx bolt that hold it in?

 

Yes, you'll need an alignment after doing the outer tie rods - even if you measured the new ones against the existing ones, adding the wear of the rubber parts and ball joints means that when you button it all back up the alignment is likely to be off at any one of those locations you just replaced.

I think SneedSpeed is referring to the bracket and bushing that mounts the rack to the subframe. In my case, just changing out the strut mounts stopped the groaning, but I have a new (poly) rack mount bushing to install as well.

I know you're strapped for cash, but you can probably do an alignment yourself and get pretty accurate, since you can only adjust the toe-in anyway. I did this on my BMW E36 and it worked well. Do a web search for it and see if you're up to it.

 

I didn't replace the tie rods, I would not have driven the car far without aligning it.

I replaced the LCA bushings and ball joints, but reused the worn tie rod ends.

 

Without seeing how worn any of these parts are, I wouldn't be able to suggest what might be your main alignment issue. But with bad LCAs, the suspension settles into the dilapidated geometry, as all of the parts wear with age and miles. When you change/renew just one component, that puts more bearing on the other, worn components. So just changing your LCAs would force the struts, strut mounts, ball joints (tie rod ends are ball joints), etc. to shoulder the harshness that the new component is now fighting.

This is the main reason I've chosen to replace virtually all steering and suspension parts at the same time. I'm not saying you have to do the same, but getting an alignment with known-worn tie rod ends (or any other worn parts) is a waste of money. Outer tie rods are pretty cheap, and pretty easy to replace.

 

Yeah, I just couldn't afford to do everything. This MINI really was abused before I got it, and I just don't make enough at my internship to afford to do everything at once (still just dealing with having broken window regulator cables, MacPherson struts, tailgate struts, no turn lights or side scuttles, a cracking crank pulley, no front speakers and a broken headlight) and to be perfectly honest, I didn't know how the front end of any car, much less my MINI was set up prior to tearing into everything this summer, so I didn't know everything that I theoretically should've ordered.

I'll definitely pick me up some nice outer tie rods from rockauto when I can next order.

Any other ideas on my problems, guys? Updated list below:

 

Any codes being thrown? If not, run by a FLAPS and get connected to see if they picked up any codes.

#2 - Can you turn the ASC on and then off to see if there is a performance difference? The car did not do this prior to the work so it has to be something related to the work that was completed. Have you checked the front wheel wells to make sure everything is plugged in, connected, nothing out of place? I do not believe the Bentley manual addresses much on troubleshooting the ASC light.

If memory serves, the R53 chassis uses the same sensor to determine wheel speed, tire pressure and loss of traction. Trick is finding out which sensor has gone south IF it is a sensor. Check the connections and clean each of the sensors up and re-install. Clear the codes and go for a drive again. Since all of your work was in the front, I wonder if you can eliminate the two back sensors and focus your efforts on the front two sensors.

#3 – I wonder if this is related to #2 due to a single sensor gone bad?

#4 – Your strut tower mounts looked ok to me after a light check, but that is not definitive with just a quick look… Does it make a sound when turning the wheel at a stop? Does it make a sound when you turn the wheel while moving?

You dropped the sub frame during all of your work, right? I thought I recalled you working on a tie rod too? With the nut that was giving you trouble.

Can you do a quick alignment measurement? Placing boards on the outside of each wheel and measure the distance to each board in front of the wheel and in back of the wheel? Looking to rule out an alignment issue and why there is a difference with how the car turns in left and how it turns in right.

 

When I turn ASC and the A/C off, the car runs great (albeit with the occasional ABS rattle). No CEL, but ASC and ABS lights are on.

I don't know where the ABS sensors are, and where they plug in. Are they the blue plastic cylinder that are ziptied to the subframe? Do they have to be ziptied a certain way? I remember clipping off the ziptie on the passenger side when I dropped the subframe for what I thought was a clearance issue. Ended up being unnecessary but I didn't re-ziptie it on.

Can't hear a sound when turning while driving at speed, only while stopped (suspension geometry needs to change a lot for there to be noticeable noise). Are there parts that might need grease? Very obviously contained to passenger-side suspension, nothing pump-related.