Use a small amount on the end of the spark plug boot.

 

Very true. Only been pulled once so far

Will do. Thanks!

 

Back in the early 2000's, I had 2 Monte Carlos .. one a yellow base model, the other red and supercharged. Guess which one got the speeding tickets.

 

Depending on what kind of red, I'd say both

 

'Competition Red'.

The yellow one received all the tickets. 0 in the red one.

 

yes, thin coat, on the neck of the inside boot.

 

I recorded my engine bay a few weeks ago as I had been noticing a ticking-type sound from the engine. Usually I'd guess that had to do with excessive valve lash or worn cam lobes, but I'm not sure if it's a normal sound in R53's or not so I'd like you guys to have a listen.

The first clip is from directly above the engine and the second is from directly above the S/C pulley.

cooper_s_engine.WAV
cooper_s_englineleft.WAV

 

Welcome back .. and nice cars. I'm not sure if this well help anywhere other than knowledge .. but an active duty military person only needs to register their car one time - as long as they maintain being in the military, then they can maintain their home state license and vehicle registrations. This is why you see so many various license plates around bases. Civilian gov't employees do not have this entitlement. Could he have registered the vehicle 4 times? Sure, he could have, though not likely as this is time consuming and can get expensive. Was he taking the car off the road for periods of time (no registration / insurance)? Reregistering in multiple locations can also be a sign of someone trying to clear a frame damage or salvage title too.

 

Thanks for the info, I didn't realize that. The dealer was the one who gave us that information, I guess he was misinformed. So maybe it is a 4-owner car.

Got some pics of the Ziza DRL LEDs I installed yesterday. Sorry for the crappy quality, my iPhone 4 is the best I can do right now.






Comparison shots with the old bulbs on the right and the new Ziza's on the left:






Overall it's a much cleaner look, especially with my car's trim and color. I'll definitely be looking into LED fog lights and license plate lights next time I make an order on ECS. However, I think I'll leave all the interior lights as amber since they're a bit easier on the eyes and compliment the darker color scheme I'm using in there a bit better.

 

Very nice.

 

+1 Very Nice with the Ziza LED's

 

Installed some PIAA super silicone wipers to replace my old front blades yesterday. Had a chance to test them last night when it lightly rained. They are completely silent and work great as expected. We'll see how long they last.

 

Installed chrome trim rings for the speedo and vents today, courtesy of WMW. They look good, but they definitely add some mass to the trims. A bit difficult to seat properly without feeling like I'm damaging something. The vent trims also do not extend very far back to the vents, so you can still see about 1" of the white silver it covers. Not a big deal though.












I will take some more pics when I receive the chrome parking brake handle covers and tach trim from ECS, which are on the way.

 

Looks good!!

 

Thanks! It's slowly coming together in there.

 

Awesome, , post up some pics

 

Will do, I should be receiving your stuff today. Just need to grab some zip ties for when I remove the parking brake boot and I should be ready to go.

 

Thought about doing the chrome on trim our Roadster interior, but want so see if that will create more windscreen reflection when sun is out. 2nd gen interiors don't seem to have the bit of hood material over center dial like 1st and 3rd gens, plus Roadsters have more windscreen rake, too. Will have to experiment with something chrome.

 

I like how yours looks without chrome, I don't think you're missing a whole lot. R56+ Minis are much busier in the cabin, chrome is too much in most cases.

So I installed the chrome tach ring and parking brake handle from ECS Monday night. I did it by flashlight when I got home from my night class as I was very excited to see how it looked. The chrome I put on this past Saturday looks amazing at night/sunset with the lights on, so I'm eager to see how the addition of the chrome tach and parking brake handle will help. In terms of cosmetic alterations, all the interior will need at this point is some anthracite speaker/tweeter grills and possibly an anthracite dash conversion; but I'll keep that low on my priorities for now. Oh, and my auxiliary gauges, but I'm still too scared to install those...

As for installation, the tach trim went without a hitch and took less than five minutes as I had practiced uninstalling/reinstalling it already a few days ago in a moment of anticipation. The parking brake handle was a bit more problematic. Once I pried the plastic boot bracket away from the parking brake console, I noticed several clips were broken and all loops were missing from the boot, not to mention a huge buildup of grease. The actual handle and zip tie removal went smoothly, but putting the boot back down took some time, especially while trying to position my flashlight. I think I got lucky and I did eventually manage to get the bracket back down with the boot wrapped mostly around the edges, but I have noted that I should probably get a new bracket at least.

Does anyone know the part number for the boot bracket I'm referring to? I can't find it on realoem.

Updated pics (limited bandwidth user beware):


















With lights:

 

Looks great, thanks for the order,


https://www.ecstuning.com/Mini-2003-...Parking_Brake/


That boot bracket or ring at the bottom of the bottom is part of the boot.

 

Is there no way to order it separately? I have some leather boots and door pull wraps coming in from another member here on NAM tomorrow and the parking brake boot is not coming with the bracket as far as I know.

 

Those chrome trim rings and parking brake handle look really good. Nice job, well done!

 

Nope.

 

Finally put the leather shift/parking brake boots I bought from duvinclunk here on NAM in the car. No more dull grey leatherette boots for me! I also installed some leather door pull surrounds that came with the boots. I might take those off though, they look a little odd. All this stuff was manufactured by Moss Mini before they shut down. The shifter boot was the toughest to get on as the new one was about a 1/4" too long all the way around, so I had to cut it down to size with some wire cutter pliers to make it fit under the shift trim. Other than that, everything went smoothly and they fit well.













Updated my stickers as well

 

Gonna be posting all further maintenance and mods to this car in its new thread in the R5x forum, here.