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I was able to revive my window motor twice by holding the switch down and banging on the door card just above the lower speaker. This trick no longer works on my car.
I plan on having both the motor and regulator replaced because I don't want to pay for the labor twice.
I grabbed some 3M "extreme" adhesive (the 20lb variant) from Home Depot and it's doing okay, though it still pokes back up slowly. I'm not ready to shell out $60 for another door sill so me having to press it back down every once in awhile will just have to do for now.
So I think we might be talking about different parts. Referencing this picture from our '03 MCS, the portion that has clips is under the black section (right finger point to). The portion that I think you might be talking about (the left finger) wouldn't have clips as I believe it's attached to the whole side skirt piece. The real OEM diagram was a little confusing now that I physically am looking at the part verses the diagram. If the 3m tape might be too thick, maybe try looking for a thinner adhesive tape or maybe a really strong glue, like gorilla glue, which you can get at a local parts store as well.
Yeah, you're correct. I can see the tops of the clips from the door sill but like you said I guess they clip under the black part. The 3M tape is indeed thick, I think we have some other stuff in the garage I can try for now.
Figured out the part I need with the spark wires connecting to it is the ignition coil. You can tell I'm not very good with cars yet
Part number 12137510738 and $125 later will hopefully keep me misfire free for the next 100k! So hopefully $422 (the total for the ignition coil, window regulator and motor) will put the car in near perfect mechanical condition!
Alright, did some cosmetic work today. Like I said earlier, if I had known my window was going to fail and my cylinder 3 coil was rusted I wouldn't have done this, but it's nice to give the exterior a little refresh
Both taillights replaced, though it was mostly the left one that was really foggy and ugly. The back is still really dirty, I'll be doing a full clay/wax routine on Saturday.
Front emblem replaced.
Cracked and taped passenger side A pillar cover replaced. I guess it'll look a little lopsided, but the other side is in pretty decent condition and you can't see both covers at the same time so I didn't bother matching them.
New rubber floor mats! I am glad they didn't turn out as gray as I thought they would be. Look really nice.
Up next is the window regulator and motor, plus the ignition coil pack. I will actually be broke after buying those three things so hopefully I won't have any more issues for awhile!
More problems to report. Hopped in the car this morning and my flat tire indicator came on. I checked around the tires when I got out but they all looked fine to me. Could it be just a false alarm? I've still got the factory run-flats on here but I really don't even have the money for tires right now.
Also, I've noticed only half my stereo works. I noticed this a few days ago but I thought it fixed itself. I was driving with the radio on when all of the sudden the left side of the speaker system turned on. I hadn't even noticed it wasn't working at this point. Now it's back to being only half. What's going on?
" I almost never check eBay for stuff since ECS has everything for a better price than most places. "
Thanks
Looks great, its the little changes that make a big difference.
Check the tire pressure and make sure you did not bump the TPMS reset switch in the center console. Also when the tires are low on RF , you can really tell till they are flat.
On the stereo looks like you have the NON Harman Kardon system, so no amp to worry about, I would check the connections at the door speaker ( they can corrode ) and then check the back of the stereo head unit.
Thanks, ECS. The light actually went off when I came back to the car a few hours later and it hasn't come back on since. I guess it just bugged out on me for a bit? It was slightly colder than usual outside this morning, but that's still like 64 degrees so that shouldn't affect it.
I will check the wiring in the door as you suggested when I get the window regulator/motor in. I also did some more testing in the car today and I think I've determined it's only the mid speaker on the door that gets faulty. I hope it's just a poor connection as depending on how I close the door, the speaker may or may not play. It also seems like heavy bass knocks it out.
I've just ordered both the window regulator and ignition coil from Flow Mini in Raleigh on eBay. Thanks for the tip miniac! I also grabbed the window motor and bunch of trim pieces to put it over the $200 free shipping minimum on ECS. Hopefully that will do it for awhile with respect to mechanics. Also, ECS, it's not possible to ship some things first is it? I just noticed after I placed my order that a couple of the trim pieces aren't expected to ship until Sept. 28 while everything else can ship in the next few days. I really need that window motor. Can anything be done about this? I should have paid more attention to that ETA...
Here's a closer look at the ugly job the dealer did on the poor front left wheel trim piece. Literally just glued it down onto the paint since all the clips are missing from it:
Tire: when you an temp drops , its enough to lower the pressure in the tire a couple pounds which then sets off the TPMS limit / threshold. Its happens all the time when the weather changes a bunch. Just top it off with air.
Its ok , you can always contact me / PM me.
You can contact our customer service and see if they can split the order for you.
They should have just replaced the clips : 07132757821 sorry to see that :(
So I'm doing a detail on the car today and I'm running into a really ugly problem.
I've got tons of these black spots all over the rear and the roof and they won't come off with the clay bar. I don't know what to do but I know I'm not about to seal that stuff in with wax. It's really rough where these things crop up. Anybody dealt with this stuff before?
Yea, good clay bar should take them off, unless its a bad repaint job ? Did you use new clay bar and the liquid clay spray.
Yeah, I did. I think it was a bad paint job. I'm kind of upset with the documentation of the history of this car as it's pretty clear it was in an accident, but the CarFax doesn't show it.
So the ignition coil and window regulator assembly came in from eBay today. I'll replace the regulator with the motor whenever that comes in, but I wanted to go ahead and replace the ignition coil today since my cylinder 3 coil is pretty corroded. I checked my Bentley repair manual and I got to the step where you remove the electrical harness from the coil and it says to slide the locking tab to the left to unlock the harness. I don't have a locking tab. It's gone. I checked the PelicanParts guide and it says the same thing. I have no locking tab at all so the harness won't slide off no matter what I do.
Sorry the pics are a little out of focus, had trouble holding the camera steady.
Alright it turns out it wasn't locked, just required a lot more force to pull off than I thought it would so the ignition coil pack is now replaced. I think I noticed a slight difference in giddyup but maybe I'm just dreaming
Alright it turns out it wasn't locked, just required a lot more force to pull off than I thought it would so the ignition coil pack is now replaced. I think I noticed a slight difference in giddyup but maybe I'm just dreaming
Great, yea , they stick and you have to press that tab in with your fingernail on your thumb and pull back, most likely its never been removed.
I worked on MINIs for some time now and they have there own little features and how-to .
No pics yet, but I received the window motor and wheel trim today from ECS. Went ahead and installed the trim piece as it took no time and looks great now! The motor and regulator will have to wait until tomorrow or the weekend. I also received anthracite versions of the shifter trim ring and driver side down tube. The front cupholder trim and passenger side down tube are apparently not going to be shipped until the 24th.
I went ahead and installed the trim I did receive just to familiarize myself with the process. Took quite some time as I had to remove the glove box, pop the center dash trim out and figure out how to pry the mirror adjustment trim piece up off the center console. But it was worth it! Now I know how to remove the entire center console + down tubes and the glove box. The anthracite looks really good as well, much more in tune with my alloy patina trim than the gray.
One thing that irked me is that the down tube I got had a beveled bottom lip, which is not supposed to be like that on the pre-facelift R53's. It matched the part number on ECS though and I didn't see it in the pics. Now my center console is a little raised in the front by the down tubes, but I'm alright with that.
Also replaced the fillister screws inside the front cupholders as I was missing one and the other was rusted.
No pics yet, but I received the window motor and wheel trim today from ECS. Went ahead and installed the trim piece as it took no time and looks great now! The motor and regulator will have to wait until tomorrow or the weekend. I also received anthracite versions of the shifter trim ring and driver side down tube. The front cupholder trim and passenger side down tube are apparently not going to be shipped until the 24th.
I went ahead and installed the trim I did receive just to familiarize myself with the process. Took quite some time as I had to remove the glove box, pop the center dash trim out and figure out how to pry the mirror adjustment trim piece up off the center console. But it was worth it! Now I know how to remove the entire center console + down tubes and the glove box. The anthracite looks really good as well, much more in tune with my alloy patina trim than the gray.
One thing that irked me is that the down tube I got had a beveled bottom lip, which is not supposed to be like that on the pre-facelift R53's. It matched the part number on ECS though and I didn't see it in the pics. Now my center console is a little raised in the front by the down tubes, but I'm alright with that.
Also replaced the fillister screws inside the front cupholders as I was missing one and the other was rusted.
Thanks for the update. Yea those screw rust due to water from pop cans and drinks and collect. it the top with a little wd 40 after install to keep the head on the screw from rusting. They are coated but over time water sits on the head and corrodes them. Take a pic of the interior like the anthracite swap, very nice.
On the down tube those are the ones, I believe they changed the design at some point, then just SS the part. The old design are NLA.
Gotcha, thanks. I figured out a way to remove and install them by lifting up the console as far as I could and sliding them out through the bottom into the footwells so it's alright. The gap that's created between the upper and lower center console pieces is annoying though, but maybe that's just the inserts getting caught on the top piece?
