I acquired a 2011 R56 Hatch last October. It is an S. It is black with some weird vinyl stripes the previous owner applied on the bonnet and rear quarter panels. I hope to eventually have them removed and buffed. I'm a college student looking forward to some rad years with this little car.

 

Congratulations! Mine had vinyl on it when I bought it also, I removed it myself and after waxing it you could hardly tell that they were ever there. My car is dark gray I don't know how different the black will be, on mine you can still see the stripes a little bit under fluorescent lights but when it's outside you can't tell. I don't know if you're DIY guy, but there are a ton of things you can do to these on your own and save a lot of money. I believe you have an n18 motor in your car but I'm pretty sure you have the same issue as the n14 that's in mine where the blow by that goes into the intake through the PCV will bake on to your intake valves due to the direct injection. If you don't do anything else I would recommend doing an oil catch can and then cleaning your intake valves. Of course I don't know what kind of miles you have on it, if it's low you probably don't have to worry about it but still do the oil catch can. Another piece of advice would be to stay on top of oil changes, use good oil and frequently check between changes. A lot of these motors are destroyed due to lack of oil. Take good care of it and it'll keep you happy! I keep my car at my shop and a lot of customers ask questions about it, I always tell them that they are great cars but they are not like a Honda Civic you can't just gas and go you need to take care of them.

 

Welcome. You might have to use a little compound and work the paint,i took my stripes off a while back and they had the ghost effect. You might be able to get it all out but if they are only there for a very long time, you might be able to see them in strong sunlight.

 

Wow, thanks for the quick replies and tips, I can tell I'm going to love this forum. I went to a body shop today and a guy showed me some sort of rubber buffing wheel. Took the decals right off, not a scratch. Then used some 3M adhesive remover to get rid of the remaining residue. He told me where to pick the items up and sent me on my way, awesome guy. On an unrelated not, Does anyone have any oil recommendations? I'm currently running Penzoil Platinum simply because it was what my local shop had. Also while I know that one is to change synthetic oil every 15,000 when should I actually change it? Oh, and I'm currently sitting at 52,000 miles.

 

I change mine at 5,000-7,500 and used the MINI 5w30. Have 273K on my 2005 MINI now. As long as it meets the LL-01 spec you will be fine. Been talked about before many times.

Gen 2 Oil service kits.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...p-st-idle.html

 

As far as the oil goes everyone has their own preference. I use the European formula Castrol edge 5w-30 and I change it every 5000 miles. I'm sure if you use a quality synthetic that meets the grade requirements you will be fine. Checking the oil between changes is equally as important as changing it. Like I said before if you don't do anything else I think an oil catch can is a good investment. I don't know about the n18 as much so maybe somebody else could chime in on that, but I just took the intake off of my n14 with 100,000 on it and the valves were full of carbon due to oil blow by in the PCV.

 

OP - your n18 shouldn't have that problem of the carbon build up

 

What did they change on the n18 to remedy that issue?