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My wife and I had to purchase a new car as she .... um... "modified" the front end of her Kia with an "unlicense mechanic" (work truck tow hitch) who ruined the bumper, hood and ripped the radiator off its supports cracking it... she was luckily, unharmed. The Kia however was doa.
But with its death comes new and better things. We got a 2011 mini cooper s Lucky for me she has no issue with doing some fun mods to our car. Looking forward to scraping my kuckles on this little beast. And making it unique, and truly ours. Dealer photo
Very nice!
I think you will like the MINI just a little bit more than the Kia...
Love the BRG! And the N18 will do well for you. Just change the oil at 5k and make sure that it stays full.
As Mario said, plenty of mods to be had for this fun little car and you have come to the right place to find out all about them. Just let us know what you are thinking of for mods and, surely, someone will chime in.
Very nice!
I think you will like the MINI just a little bit more than the Kia...
Love the BRG! And the N18 will do well for you. Just change the oil at 5k and make sure that it stays full.
As Mario said, plenty of mods to be had for this fun little car and you have come to the right place to find out all about them. Just let us know what you are thinking of for mods and, surely, someone will chime in.
Most of all, have fun!
can't go too crazy as it's a daily driver. But as things break or wear down I'll mod and replace. I came from an Saturn ion redline where things broke every other week ( any one want to buy a redline ) so plenty of chances to fix and upgrade as I went along, got use to replacing 3-5 things when one thing broke.
Out side of that money and Time permitting want to do a
projection hid kit ( looking at spyder )
Ram bar (protect against rouge Unlicensed mechanics)
and android tablet head unit. Not sure if there is one that works well
Roof rack
Koni special active shocks struts (not planning on lowering)
rear sway bar ( not sure which one)
Lighter rims ( keeping current ones for winter tires )
Lastly pondering the value of noise maker delete
turbo muffler delete
and a intake
maybe a tune for power and mpg
Maybe more... but not much more.
The MINI roof rack is excellent. I have one for my S. The load rating is crazy high. It attaches into slots in the roof that are hidden by the drip rail. They show up for sale on the NAM Marketplace periodically.
The Koni FSDs (their active shocks now) will transform the car. We just put them on our ‘04 base Cooper and I had them on my ‘07 S.
A suggestion would be to hold off doing the RSB, and, instead, put in IE fixed camber plates when you do the shocks. The MINI is in a much greater need of additional front camber than it is a new rear swaybar. The IE plates are very street and tire friendly, and will improve the car’s turn-in. You may find that a RSB isn’t necessary. Sorry, I’m not a fan of the RSB without the balance of a larger front swaybar, although I have seen success with the 19mm RSB, alone, and that would be a good match to the IE fixed camber plates.
Lighter wheels are always great. I like Enkei Racing, But there are others that will also knock 10# off each corner.
Not sure that I have ever heard that a tune on a MIMI improved gas mileage, but I have heard that they definitely improve the driver’s smile.
Soulds like you are hooked... Have fun and let us know how you make out.
The MINI roof rack is excellent. I have one for my S. The load rating is crazy high. It attaches into slots in the roof that are hidden by the drip rail. They show up for sale on the NAM Marketplace periodically.
The Koni FSDs (their active shocks now) will transform the car. We just put them on our ‘04 base Cooper and I had them on my ‘07 S.
A suggestion would be to hold off doing the RSB, and, instead, put in IE fixed camber plates when you do the shocks. The MINI is in a much greater need of additional front camber than it is a new rear swaybar. The IE plates are very street and tire friendly, and will improve the car’s turn-in. You may find that a RSB isn’t necessary. Sorry, I’m not a fan of the RSB without the balance of a larger front swaybar, although I have seen success with the 19mm RSB, alone, and that would be a good match to the IE fixed camber plates.
Lighter wheels are always great. I like Enkei Racing, But there are others that will also knock 10# off each corner.
Not sure that I have ever heard that a tune on a MIMI improved gas mileage, but I have heard that they definitely improve the driver’s smile.
Soulds like you are hooked... Have fun and let us know how you make out.
maybe it's more common with the Saturn ion redline, idk about mini but you could tune them at home with a laptop and a program and cable called hptuners provided you knew how. From what I saw it was common to gain hp and mpg with the right tune, or a fair bit or either or.
maybe it's more common with the Saturn ion redline, idk about mini but you could tune them at home with a laptop and a program and cable called hptuners provided you knew how. From what I saw it was common to gain hp and mpg with the right tune, or a fair bit or either or.
Or it may be that MINI owners tend to have their “foot in it” once they get a tune because it is so much fun and the gas milage reflects that.
With the 2011 MINI and the upgrade to the N18 engine, MINI/BMW locked down the ECU. There is no programming via the port. You can send it out to be reprogrammed (Manic, RPM, and others). They can customize it and will work with you based on what you have done to the car. But with BMW products, the days of laptop alterations are pretty much over. At least that is what I understand from following various threads on the subject.
Hi and welcome to NAM and the Mini experience, 7thmoosefromtheleft!
Congrats on your Mini buy.
A Mini is about one of the most fun cars I have ever owned and hopefully yours will be for you guy!
There is always a place in my heart for BRG color, as it was the color of my first Mini and I have always loved that color.
As others have said: Keep the oil changed every 5K miles (along with new filter).
Look into installing an oil catch can too!
You will both find yourselves going out for things you really did not need a special trip for, but these cars are so fun to drive, that you will be doing this a lot!
Hi and welcome to NAM and the Mini experience, 7thmoosefromtheleft!
Congrats on your Mini buy.
A Mini is about one of the most fun cars I have ever owned and hopefully yours will be for you guy!
There is always a place in my heart for BRG color, as it was the color of my first Mini and I have always loved that color.
As others have said: Keep the oil changed every 5K miles (along with new filter).
Look into installing an oil catch can too!
You will both find yourselves going out for things you really did not need a special trip for, but these cars are so fun to drive, that you will be doing this a lot!
my understanding on catch can was it was unnecessary for n18 engines. Is that wrong ?
The N18 is much better than the N14 in the way the crankcase ventilation is done. There are threads about the differences. In general there hasn’t been much if anything written about the N18 having the problems the N14 has.
12-22-2018, 12:38 PM
